Overview of presentation

1. The State of City Strategic Planning in South AfricaPresentation by Andrew Boraine to DPLG/ SACN City Strategic Planning workshop, Protea Hotel Umhlanga Rocks, eThekwini, 08-10 June 2003

2. Overview of presentation • Why city strategy? • Characteristics of successful city development strategies • Evaluating city strategy in South Africa: • Instruments of governance for city management • Methodology • Content

3. Complexity of modern city management • Scale of demographic changes and management of urban growth • Changing nature of productive activity, and global economic and political organisation • Tendency towards spatial concentration of production in major urban areas • Cities and regions are new units of competitiveness and productivity in global economy: `territorial platforms from which groups of firms contest global markets’ • Successful firms need access to wide variety of different skills, innovation and knowledge, and wide range of specialised suppliers

4. Complexity of modern city management (cont) • Rise of knowledge-based economy: cities as centres of innovation and learning • Debordered national economies: redefinition of roles of government within more complex environment - integrated governance more, not less important • Explaining local success: why do some apparently similar cities do better than others? • Avoiding zero sum `race to the bottom’ competition: Cities need to be competitive but not always in competition

5. Complexity of modern city management (cont) • Globalisation can accelerate growth and exacerbate socio-economic disparities between and within cities: • tendency towards widening of gap between wealthy (in high wage occupations) and poor (in low skill jobs); many people now unemployable and not just unemployed • Increasing social and spatial segmentation, and a growing mismatch between jobs, housing and public transportation • Increasing cross-border migration into city-regions: need to manage culturally diverse urban areas and xenophobic responses • Increasing levels of urban violence, growth of `privatopias’ and reduction of public space • Need for reconciliation of economic growth and social cohesion/ poverty reduction policies: avoid dichotomy between market-led business development vs. market-critical community development

6. Complexity of modern city management (cont) • Shift from traditional city centre to multi-nodal urban systems, leading to a blurring of traditional distinctions between `urban’, `suburban’ and `rural’, with cities as nodes in the rural-urban continuum • Impact of metropolitan expansion into rural areas: ecological `footprint’, increasing `food miles’, pollutants, consumption of natural resources

7. “All cities need to be planning ahead to ensure their future, in this rapidly changing global urban environment… Cities need to revisit and revitalise their processes for strategic planning, within a 15-20 year time frame, addressing their economic, social and environmental future… Cities that don’t do this will not be competitive in the new urban world” – Neilson (2000) City development strategies as appropriate planning responses to the new challenges, high levels of complexity and rapidly changing circumstances facing cities Why city strategy?

8. A note on terminology and values • Global cities • Command points in the organisation of the world economy • Key locations for finance and specialised service firms • Sites of innovation and production in leading industries • Markets for products and innovations • Global city-regions • Metropolitanisation of the hinterland: Emergence of region-based forms of economic and political organisation, often cutting across formal jurisdictions • World city-ness • Measuring levels of connectivity to the world economy • Competitive cities • Cities that organise to provide firms with comparative competitive advantages in global markets • World class cities • Standards of services and levels of liveability designed to attract specific categories • Benchmark for successful integrated city development in South Africa?

9. Characteristics of successful city development strategies • Long term vision resulting in short term action • Collective city vision: shared understanding of a city’s socioeconomic structure, constraints and prospects, within the context of global, regional and national trends • Focus on change drivers, points of leverage and `transformation triggers’ where impact is maximised • Tool to mobilise resources citywide: governance arrangements in place between civil society, business and govt to address issues of collective interest through identification of champions and stakeholder responsibilities with incentives for performance

10. City development strategy:Mobilising Tool • Average investment and employment in cities: • 20% of from government • 80% private sector • Critical mass depends on mobilising business and civil society to support vision and implementation Society Economy Spheres of Government

11. Characteristics of successful city development strategies (cont) • Easy to communicate, manageable, empowering, accessible • Targeted involvement of poor communities to counter tendency towards growing socio-economic inequalities under globalisation; importance of building social capital • Planning across boundaries • Strong guidance for coordinated public sector spending: bulk of resources from above (including parastatals and agencies); bulk of effort from below

12. City development strategy:Coordinated public sector spending Bulk of leverage and resources required from above National Provincial Municipal Bulk of effort and drive from below

13. An example of the need for intergovernmental integration and alignment through partnerships Marketing of cities

14. City StrategicFrameworkBuilding blocks for integrated development Inclusive City Productive City City Strategy (CDS) Well- governed City Sustainable City

15. City Strategic FrameworkGuide to decision-making and trade offs: nothing is of equal value Inclusive City Productive City City Strategy (CDS) Well- governed City Sustainable City

16. City Strategic FrameworkScorecard for performance: monitoring and measuring outcomes City product Employment Poverty index Trip time Service coverage Inclusive City Productive City Education Crime City services City Strategy Infant mortality Knowledge economy Effectiveness Finance ratios Well- governed City Equity Sustainable City Environment Participation Accountability HIV impact Security

17. Summary: Characteristics of successful city development strategies • Long term vision for short term action • Collective city vision • Focus on points of leverage for maximum impact • Mobilize resources across the city • Manageable and empowering • Targeted involvement of poor communities • Planning across boundaries • Coordinated public sector spending • Integrated city strategic framework • Comparative competitive advantage: provides unique identity for locality to establish niche within global networks • Tool for cross-sectoral integration and alignment • Guide to decision-making and trade offs (nothing is of equal importance; needs to reflect tough choices) • Scorecard for performance (monitoring and measuring of outcomes)

18. Policy Legislation and regulation Fiscal (taxes, fees, charges) Financial (government spending) Institutional Asset management Knowledge management Advocacy Combined classes of instruments available to all spheres of government together with parastatals, agencies and entities Challenge of coordination and alignment of instruments IDP as a specific instrument of city planning, but not the only available instrument SA tendency to rely on legislation/ regulation, capital expenditure and institutional restructuring Instruments of governance for city development* *Neilson (2002)

19. Assessing instruments of governance for city development in South Africa Policy • Strong policy focus and capability. Lack of national urban policy framework and spatial development framework. Sectoral policies sometimes unaligned and contradictory Legislation and regulations • Remains predominant tool for city development and urban management. Tendency towards over-legislation/ regulation with limited scope for innovation. `One size fits all’ tradition until recently Fiscal • Strong system in metro areas (98% own revenue) although RSC levies under review. Extensive use of fiscal instruments at local level (stepped tariffs, free basic services) Financial • Strong govt investments in education, social welfare, health and basic infrastructure; less in research and development. Historic over-investment in infrastructure at local level

20. Assessing instruments of governance for city development in South Africa (cont) Institutional • Relatively clear allocation of powers and functions between spheres of govt; less clear on role of markets in allocating resources; consolidated metro-wide jurisdictions, but poor alignment of spheres and agencies; traditional approaches to structuring administrations, with some innovations and modernization Asset management • Limited asset management strategies to leverage development. Sale of public land at market prices undermines integrated cities. Knowledge management • Moderate investment in research and dissemination of information and knowledge; poor data management Advocacy • Strong leadership on key issues; good advocacy instruments (White Papers; policy documents); emphasis on communications

21. Assessing city strategic planning in South Africa • Focus of integrated development planning since 1994: • Developmental local government • Integrated development • Participation and consultation • Implementation: meeting basic needs • City experiences: • Sites of innovation and creativity • Added capacity to develop and utilize broader range of policy and planning instruments

22. Linking long term vision to short term action plans • Tendency to focus on five-year municipal operational plans rather than a long term city strategic plan – both are needed • Many city visions limited to `motherhood and apple pie’ statements, with some notable exceptions • Persistence of prioritized `shopping lists’: Very few `change-drivers’ and `points of leverage’ identified; even fewer successfully operationalised • Tendency to jump from strategic priorities to capital projects • `Missing link’: need for elaboration of higher-order principles in the form of area and sector-focused strategic plans

23. City-wide resource mobilisation • Need to differentiate between municipal plans and plans for themunicipality • Need for a collective city vision • Need for a comprehensible rather than comprehensive city plan • Strong historic focus on community consultation and participation needs to be broadened to include partnering • Allocation of stakeholder roles and identification of diverse champions • Address lack of involvement of local private sector and insufficient mobilisation of private investment • Private sector not well organised, with little strategic vision • Need for better understanding of policy and planning instruments within a market-based society, and the role of markets in allocating resources • Protocols for consensus-building and conflict resolution

24. City strategy process Lack of coordinated action between government, business and the community sector Strategic levers introduced to facilitate coordinated action Further coordination and individual growth and even more actors Increased coordination, individual growth, more actors and further strategic levers

25. Strong guidance for coordinated public sector spending and asset management • Need to focus on full range of government actions within city area rather than municipal powers and functions • Need for statutory obligations and/ or incentives for intergovernmental alignment of policies, plans and budgets • Recognise different forms of integration and alignment, i.e. policies, planning cycles, expenditure, projects • Improve coordination of government initiatives within city areas, e.g. IDZs, SDIs, Urban Renewal Nodes, Provincial growth and development strategies • Particular focus needed with regard to parastatals, agencies and entities

26. Integration and alignment of sectoral policies and plans • Insufficient mechanisms to `mainstream’ cross-cutting issues (e.g. economic growth, poverty reduction, HIV/AIDS, spatial planning) • Need to lay basis for trade-offs between plans • Need to focus more on the results we are trying to achieve (outcomes), rather than the outputs we must produce or the tasks we need to complete • Need to shift to outcome-based mechanisms for integration of sector plans, e.g. outcomes groups

27. Planning beyond boundaries • Need for mechanisms to plan beyond area of municipal jurisdiction • Need to maximize rural/ urban linkages in policy and planning • Rural component of urban development • Urban component of rural development • Address national urban and spatial development policy gaps

28. Strategic planning to support clustering and innovation • Management of data • City-wide information and knowledge-management strategies • City E-Governance policies and strategies • Training, research, incentives, networking • Partnerships with tertiary institutions

29. Measuring performance • Integrate municipal performance management system with city strategy performance measures • City development indicators: • Between cities (comparative global performance) • Within cities (levels of inequality)

30. Content of city strategic agendas: Productive cities • Better understanding of local economies and links to sub-regional, national and global economies • Greater focus on efficiency of urban labour markets • National approach to comparative competitive advantage of each city, with coordinated marketing and branding • Higher impact economic growth strategies: • Shift from old style LED thinking • Better alignment with national and provincial economic policies • Address urban inefficiencies: • Need for urgent focus on ports as gateways (sea, air, container, inland) • Land markets, land use patterns and the metropolitan transport system

31. Content of city strategic agendas: Inclusive cities • Insufficient understanding of causes of previous decade of jobless growth • Ongoing reinforcement of historical urban form: address growing mismatch between jobs, housing and transport • Need for emphasis on integrated poverty reduction and social cohesion strategies, with focus on skills, mobility and access in addition to free basic services and community infrastructure • Need for more specific targeting of poor and marginalised communities in planning processes

32. Content of city strategic agendas: Well-governed cities • Good governance as a component of city development strategy • Need for greater focus on efficient and effective decision-making within and between spheres of government (systems, structures, delegations)

33. Content of city strategic agendas: Sustainable cities • Focus on inter-generational planning • Better integration of `green’ and `brown’ agendas • City energy strategies • Fiscal and financial sustainability: impact of capital expenditure on operating budgets