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SOUTH AFRICA
PROGRAMMES:  
Capacitation Programme to Support the people's housing Process 
in South Africa

Total cost
$3,089,000 

Partners
Ministry of Housing and Department of Housing 
Provincial Governments 
NGOs and Communities
Local Governments and Urban Local Authorities 
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat)

Background and objectives
South Africa's housing problems are mainly a legacy of the apartheid system.  Housing was provided and used as an instrument of social segregation.  There was no housing market for all South Africans and no coherent national housing policy.  Housing, therefore, became a political rallying point during the struggle for liberation and majority rule and a top priority of the new Government.  The Department of Housing has initiated several interventions at different levels with the objective of housing the nation without discrimination and in particular to correct the historical imbalance.  The People's Housing Process has been initiated to assist people who are poor and homeless or inadequately housed.  The objective of the project is to develop support mechanisms for building capacity at all levels to enable people to address their own housing needs. 

Activities
The activities include a preparatory phase during which linkages between national policies and sub-national and community-level structures were established through a series of consultations.  Specific activities for the implementation phase include the establishment of facilities and recruitment of personnel, a contribution to the national policy on housing in general and to the People's Housing Process in particular, carrying out an advocacy campaign to inform officials of public and private institutions and communities about the People's Housing Process and to commit them to supporting the process, developing supportive skills at all levels for the process by engaging with officials and communities in housing activities such as mobilization of savings, organization skills and actual planning, design and construction of houses, development of community networks of NGOs, locally and internationally and community-based organizations for the exchange of experience and ideas on mobilizing communities to produce their own housing. 

Results
Results include establishment of a People's Housing Partnership Trust at the Department of Housing charged with implementing the training programme and the People's Housing Process.  This includes legal documents and a comprehensive business plan, an increased awareness among the people of their ability to contribute towards finding solutions to their housing needs as well as several documents, videos and other displays, a national housing policy for supporting the People's Housing Process guidelines for supporting the People's Housing Process within the national housing policy and in the application of the housing subsidies procedures for establishing housing support centres and personnel in three provincial housing departments trained in facilitation skills. 
 
 
 

Capacity-Building for Local Governance
Total cost
$972,000 

Partners
Department for Provincial Affairs and Local Government 
Northern Province Government 
North West Province Government
South Africa Local Governments Association
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat)

Background and objectives
The overall objective of the programme is to assist the Government to implement the national Local Government Transformation Programme launched in early 1999 by the Department of Constitutional Development.  This programme addresses issues of capacity-building in pilot local authorities from the North West and the Northern Province, supporting the transformation process through the following three components: improvement in service delivery, institutional capacity-building and integrating the rights approach to development.  On the whole, this programme seeks to contribute towards achieving sound developmental local governance by enhancing the capacity for integrated development planning, local economic development, performance management systems, financial viability and management, project management and a culture of collective civic responsibility.

Activities
Within this framework, the cooperating agency is expected to provide assistance in the implementation of the following specific activities: implementation of the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process manual to assist local authorities formulate integrated development plans by prioritizing and strategically focusing their efforts and resources, assist local governments and community leaders to formulate a strategic framework on the relation between traditional leaders and elected officials.  In this context, the Municipal Service Partnership is preparing a Municipal Service Partnership strategy, which will include case studies on the pilot local authorities strengthen existing partnerships and facilitate the creation of new municipal service partnerships through four seminars targeting councilors, local government associations, CBOs and representatives from the private sector, organize a national workshop on service partnerships to discuss problematic issues and innovative solutions and contribute to the debate at local, provincial and national level.  Develop and publish monitoring and evaluation guidelines related to the IDP implementation process.

Results
Expected results include: IDP process clearly understood and applied in the selected local authorities.  Procedures for establishing municipal services partnerships elaborated and demonstrated and contribution to the debate on the relationships between elected representatives and traditional leaders.
 
 

Johannesburg City Assistance Support Programme (CASP)
Total cost
$$195,000

Partners
Johannesburg Metropolitan Council
Wits University  (P&DM/UMP Partnership)
World Bank
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat)

Background and objectives
Igoli 2002, initiated in March 1999, is a city-wide, participatory planning process, which aims to address critical financial and institutional problems facing the metropolitan council and to lay a more stable foundation for the effective and efficient delivery of services to all Johannesburg's residents.  The plan will provide for the establishment of new institutional arrangements, including utilities, agencies and corporatized units to better manage the Council's core service responsibilities, a refinancing programme to decisively address a severe financial crisis and a series of special projects and programmes, which will enable the metropolitan council to take a longer term and more developmental perspective on key metropolitan challenges of slum upgrading, housing, local economic growth and investment.  The programmes to be supported and the sub-components to be targeted for CASP funding are a water and sanitation utility programme, modelling technical and financial systems and tariff structures to ensure an acceptable and sustainable level of water and sanitation services to low-income communities, metropolitan housing delivery strategy and programme, defining a new housing delivery approach and designing the housing finance systems and institutional arrangements necessary to support this and the greater Alexandra and N3 development project, first phase sub-regional plan to provide greater access to land and infrastructure to the people of Alexandra.

Activities
Support  the project team to prepare an initial strategic business plan for the utility, modelling of ideal service levels, tariff structures, external funding requirements, subsidy and lifeline measures and possible water loss reduction measures.  Contribute to the development of an appropriate, realistic and affordable housing delivery strategy and design an implementation programme and plan for the city of Johannesburg, consistent with the national and provincial policies, as well as the city's strategic metropolitan integrated development framework.  Contribute to the development of a first phase sub-regional plan, which consolidates all existing plans on Alexandra, identifies gaps and provides a framework for a comprehensive plan covering land-use, infrastructure requirements, property market and economic investment requirements, transportation and community commitment to the plan development and implementation

Results 
An initial strategic business plan for the utility, affordable housing delivery strategy for the city of Johannesburg and the first phase of  a sub-regional plan, which consolidates all existing plans on Alexandra and the N3 corridor.
 

Safer Cities Durban
Total cost $142,560 

Partners
Municipal Authority of Durban 
Government of the Netherlands
International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) 
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) 

Background and objectives
Violent crime and delinquency threaten the quality of life of urban populations in South Africa in general and particularly in Durban.  Since December 1997, several high-profile murders and attacks on foreign tourists in the centre of Durban have confirmed increasing crime levels in the city.  A victimization survey was conducted by the Institute of Security Studies.  Quite significantly, Durban has higher victimization rates for burglary, robbery and murder and an equal rate of victimization for car theft than Johannesburg.  This situation has led the national Government to take initiatives, focussing on crime prevention and addressing the causes of crime.  The city of Durban intends to develop a specific local strategy to address insecurity at the City level.  The Durban project responds to a request of the national crime prevention strategy.  The objective of this project is to strengthen the capacity of the city to implement prevention activities through a multisectoral and partnership approach coordinated by local authorities.  The immediate objectives are the setting-up of a city-wide crime assessment, the definition of a plan of action with the creation of a local coalition on crime prevention in the city of Durban and the implementation of this action plan.

Activities
The Safer Cities Durban project team has developed a comprehensive crime prevention strategy approved by the Durban Metro Council and supported by a crime victimization survey and by active consultation with.  A research group has been established to formulate and implement a strategy.  Activities have started in the area of support to youth at risk and in sensitive areas such as KwaMashu, one of the most violent townships in metropolitan Durban.  The project provides an opportunity to exchange experience with other safer cities projects. 

Results
Expected results include intensive collaboration between Johannesburg and Dar es Salaam on the reduction of urban violence, a community-wide and multisectoral crime prevention strategy and an action plan against urban violence. 

 

In country's contact:
UNDP
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