Monday, August 19, 2013

Blog Q 5: South Africa


Choose one issue facing South Africa and discuss how integrated development planning might help resolve such an issue.

13 comments:

  1. IDP is concerned with 3 main principles; consultation, strategic planning (future orientated) and implementation, with the aim to accelerate the delivery of services. In 2011 the population of SA was over 51 million, with an unemployment rate of 29.8%.

    Cape Town’s IDP plan of 2001 aimed to solve their unemployment issue through the growth of the tourism industry. After consultation, the strategic plan was decided upon to make the city more attractive, with the aim to attract 1 million international tourists. The growth of this industry, through the implementation of IDP aimed to create more jobs for local people and in turn decrease unemployment in the area.

    Resources:
    Binns, T. & Nel, E. 2002. Devolving Development: Integrated Development Planning and Developmental Local Government in Post-apartheid South Africa. Regional Studies, 36(8), 921-945.
    Statistics South Africa. 2011. Statistics [Online]. Available: http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/ [Accessed 21/08/2013]

    Victoria Bell
    1798704

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  2. The integrated development planning approach might help to reduce the high crime in South Africa by coordinating the efforts of both local and central government. For example the straight forward solution would be to just increase law enforcement resources but this would do nothing to solve the cause of the problem. Whereas an integrated solution would redirect some of this funding to improve education and service delivery that would have a more indirect and long term impact. This approach may require the breaking down of "institutional silos" as integrated development projects would need to be funded by a range of government organisations.

    Chris Groom (2988294)

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  3. Choosing unemployment as an issue facing South Africa, IDP can assist to solve these issues through social enterprise projects. Because IDPs rely on high amounts of public participation, social enterprise is appropriate as the solutions it provides are created by the citizens, for the citizens. IDPs are an attractive and recommended way to plan in South Africa, and therefore attract funding from private investors and the government, creating services and long-term employment opportunities. An example of the job opportunities and services social enterprise can provide is bus services. The jobs are in maintaining and driving the buses, whilst connecting isolated areas, overcoming both physical and social disconnectedness.

    Hannah Miln
    5533332

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  4. The 'Integrated' part of an IDP can be extremely useful in solving issues by addressing the root cause, rather than surface issue. For example, an IDP aimed at solving health issues, rather than simply hiring more doctors, would require cooperation with community members (to increase education and awareness of health issues), local councils (to implement specific healthcare initiatives, such as awareness campaigns) and central government (who would need to make healthcare readily affordable and accessible to all). Funding and resource allocation would also require cooperation between parties, breaking down social and political barriers and encouraging unity and a sense of community.

    George Winship
    ID: 5578661

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  5. South Africa is presently dealing with expansive urban sprawl, which requires plenty of servicing infrastructure which is expensive to both develop and maintain. This is a significant burden on a state that has both limited public resources and undermining corruption. Integrated development planning is coordinated planning between multiple administrative and political bodies and seeks to organise a region’s resources to greatest effect. This process can be used to organise and guide development in an area, such as in producing green belts, planning regional transportation systems, and providing for intensification, all with the goal of constraining and reducing urban sprawl.

    References:
    Education Training Unit. (2013). Integrated Development Planning for Local Government. Retrieved from http://www.etu.org.za/toolbox/docs/localgov/webidp.html.

    Ollis, I. (2011). No quick fix to save our cities, so we’d better start now. Retrieved from http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2011-03-12-no-quick-fix-to-save-our-cities-so-wed-better-start-now#.UhbQBxtmh8E.

    Tom Chi
    1813142

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  6. Integrated development planning is a strategic process that the South African Government has adopted to plan for the future through addressing the source of an issue, rather than being reactive to consequences of an issue. One of the many projects in the Johannesburg IDP aims to eradicate urban decay, which is an issue that includes illegal housing, businesses and dumping . Instead of legally prohibiting these activities, the municipality had created initiatives to change the situation. For example, a trading program was started in order to educate and financially support the illegal traders in becoming actual business people. This will in turn create more economic efficiency for the area. Additionally, instead of removing the illegal dumping activities, the municipality had begun to monitor and manage the dumping so it does not harm the environment.

    Reference
    Joburg. (2009-2010). Integrated Development Plan: Area Based Initiatives and Projects. from Joburg, My City, Our Future retrieved http://www.joburg-archive.co.za/2009/pdfs/idp/areabased_idp_21may09.pdf [27/08/2013]

    Angela Yang
    1570662

    ReplyDelete
  7. The development of Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) in South Africa has allowed local government agencies to respond to service delivery issues more effectively.

    IDPs are cross disciplinary to ensure integration and co-ordination between service providers and local government agencies to achieve social, economic and ecological sustainability.

    This improved integration allows authorities to organise and deliver sanitation and water utilities through Water Services Development Plans. Combined with in-depth community consultation and problem identification, IDPs allow for better responses to service delivery issues. Furthermore, prioritising and identifying issues has allowed municipalities to co-ordinate with central government agencies to seek grants and financial support for water and sanitation programmes.

    Sources:
    http://www.etu.org.za/toolbox/docs/localgov/webidp.html

    Stephen Knight-Lenihan (2013) South Africa - Lecture slides. Auckland University.

    Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. 2002. The development of sanitation policy and practice in South Africa. Page 8.

    Andrew Miller
    5850354

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  8. South Africa is currently facing several issues, however the main issue is unemployment. where the unemployment rate is approximately quarter of the population. With the solution to unemployment, many residual issues can be solved such as inequality, and housing. The effective solution implemented in South Africa is IDP for local government.
    Integrated Development Planning is an approach taken to involve the municipality and citizens find the best solution to long term development. This approach takes into account spatial planning, urban management, and human settlement. Considering these factors, IDP acts to address the core of the problems rather than the treatment of the symptoms.
    Resources:
    Stephen Knight-Lenihan (2013) Lecture South Africa. Auckland University
    Education and Training Unit (ETU) For Democracy & Development. Integrated Development Planning for Local Government. Retrieved from http://www.etu.org.za/toolbox/docs/localgov/webidp.html

    Alvin Jung
    2976592

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  9. The apartheid has left South Africa with a number of issues that need IDP to be resolved. IDP involves citizens from an entire municipality working towards achieving good long term development and the best solutions. The issue to be discussed is unemployment. IDP is cyclical and more than just a band aid approach. It aligns budget and project implementation with goals, plans and priorities. This does not simply mean providing more jobs but rather boosting industries that lead to job creation, such as tourism and encouraging social enterprise - this is citizen led job creation; it is the people helping themselves alongside private partnerships and participatory governance. This also allows for integration of the economic and social sector and decreases unemployment in the long term.

    Education and Training Unit, South Africa. Integrated Development Planning for Local Government. n.d. http://www.etu.org.za/toolbox/docs/localgov/webidp.html (accessed September 1 , 2013).

    Kirsten Wood
    1834103

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  10. Apartheid planning has resulted in South African towns and cities which do not meet the needs of the poor. Poor people do not have sufficient access to transport, work and other businesses. There is a big difference between the level of service provided to rich and poor areas. Integrated development plans, implemented by local government, attempt to distribute resources evenly and efficiently. “The IDP identifies the least serviced and most impoverished areas and points to where municipal funds should be spent.” IDP attempts to be inclusive, encouraging public participation through community and stakeholder meetings, therefore attempting to meet the needs of both the poor and the rich.

    Reference: http://www.etu.org.za/toolbox/docs/localgov/webidp.html

    Kahlia Jemmett (2313174)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Courtney Bennett (1807922)September 25, 2013 at 11:38 AM

    Integrated planning has a lot of potential in South Africa when it comes to providing infrastructure. South Africa has many informal settlements or shanty town that, because of their unplanned nature, are not connected to power, water, waste management and other infrastructural necessities. In contrast, planned towns have high levels of access to infrastructure because they are planned and, in some cases, reasonably wealthy. By integrating the construction of one settlements infrastructure with the possible needs of surrounding settlments the overall quality of life could be improved. An example mentioned within the lecture is of a reasonably wealthy tourist town who planned to construct a pipe connecting themselves to a new water supply. this pipe was planned to run past settlements without a water supply so it was only sensible to create offshoots from this pipe the ran to these settlements, thus increasing the water supply for the main town and connecting the smaller settlements to clean, fresh water.

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  12. The key to IDP’s is integration, meaning that all processes are considered in relation to one another. IDP’s are generally long term plans that aim to provide solutions through, co-operation, policies and strategies.

    South Africa suffers from one of the highest rates of unemployment in the world. In 2011 Johannesburg City’s unemployment rate was approximately “25%”. The City of Johannesburg’s 2013-16 IDP aims to solve this issue through an emphasis on job creation, and building inclusive, job intensive, resilient and competitive economies. Furthermore these opportunities will be strengthened through the City’s skills development programmes assisting with “opportunities to gain experience and skills and so better their chances of finding employment”.

    http://www.joburg.org.za/images/stories/2013/March/March2/2013-16%20IDP.pdf

    Kayla Versey
    1824263

    ReplyDelete
  13. Integrated development planning (IDP) has been critical addressing systematic, collaborative effort over the long term, one of the issues facing of society is poverty inequality. In South Africa, large numbers of people were below poverty line and huge levels of inequality. IDPsare seen to providing socio-economic framework for different level responses in order to reduce the growth of poverty inequality level. This fundamental approach is typically incorporate urban labour market and policy participation strategies. This focusing on being a societal activity rather than the domain of a profession, for example, providing flexibility and competitiveness job opportunities not only for manufacture industries also for the social, culture areas.

    Harrison, P. (2008) ‘Conclusion: The power of planning, and the limits to its power: Learning from the South African Experience’ in ‘Planning and Transformation learning from the Post-Apartheid Experience’ ,Routledge, Abingdom, U.K. , pp.235-254

    FeiHua
    5774072

    ReplyDelete