Background

Bombarded with news reports about municipal service delivery protests, revenue crises, infrastructure decay, and corruption, it is easy to be despondent about the state of South African cities. With local government elections on the horizon, this is an opportune time to review empirical evidence of urban development and urban management outputs and results in the cities.

The South African Cities Network’s flagship knowledge generation project is State of the Cities reporting. The first State of the Cities Report was published in 2004 as part of the national 10-year review. A second edition was published in 2006 with an extended series of indicators and more detailed analysis of city performance. Since then, the SACN has prepared ‘state of’ reports on strategically important sectors, including: Municipal finance, EPWP and Land use management.

The SACN intends to publish the 3rd edition of the State of the Cities Report (SoCR3) in October 2010, and preliminary research and analysis has been done. This Urban Development Conference will give participants the opportunity to review emerging data and analysis, and discuss the findings.

Purpose
The purpose of this conference is to:

• Further develop our common understanding of the state of urban settlements in South Africa
• Promote knowledge sharing on urban development and urban management strategies and practices between the SACN member cities
• Raise awareness of urban development priorities

For more information Download:

• Agenda
• Location KE View towards Entrance Portal
• RSVP
• Attendance list

Download Presentations [in pdf format]:

• The State of the Building Environment
• Building the City: Mr Ian Palmer
• Owning the City: Dr Mark Napier
• Moving in the City: Mr Philip van Ryneveld
• Working in the City: Dr Miriam Altman


• First Set of Breakaway Discussions
• State of Municipal Finance: Mr Philip van Ryneveld
• Municipal Revenue: Ms Yasmin Coovadia
• Municipal Borrowing: Mr Conrad Barberton
• Employment and Unemployment in the Cities: Ms Shirley Robinson
• State of EPWP in the Cities: Mr Ismail Akhalway
• State of Urban Food Security: Dr Bruce Frayne
• Conditions of Food Security: Dr Battersby Lennard and Mr Kroll
• Climate Change in the Cities


• Second Set of Breakaway Discussions
• Freight Flows: Mr Bongisizwe Mpondo
• Tourism and Economic Growth: Mr Nicholas Northcote
• Energy in the Cities: Ms Megan Euston-Brown
• Air Quality in the Cities: Mr Jongikhaya Witi
• Indicators Project Briefing: Mr Nishendra Moodley
• Inclusive City Measures: Ms Wendy Ovens
• Productive City Measures: Ms Shirley Robinson
• State of the Cities in Africa Project Reporting: Ms Ntombini Marrengane


• Closing Plenary
• SACN 3rd Urban Conference Closing Plenary: Mr Sithole Mbanga