May 28, 2003
By Jonews Reporter
MUNICIPALITIES write an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) every year to guide their strategic planning. In Johannesburg's 2003/04 IDP - which runs to nearly 300 pages - are plans and budgets for the City's departments, its utilities, agencies and corporate entities. City government makes sure all these plans dovetail and follow the City's development and planning philosophy, which is clearly set out in the IDP.
The Municipal Systems Act of 2000 requires all municipalities to draw up an IDP as a single, inclusive and strategic development plan, linking and integrating other plans. It is in the IDP that one finds the policy framework on which annual budgets are based. But the document contains much more than that.
The IDP contains investment and development initiatives; all the projects, plans and programmes for Johannesburg devised by any state organ; and key performance indicators - the scorecards by which one can determine whether City government as a whole, its departments and officials are doing their job. The IDP also describes the spatial development framework (SDF), which deals with the shape of the city, its roads, its settlement patterns, its need for commercial nodes, providing a blueprint for a city that is sustainable, accessible and efficient
The 2003/04 IDP has been in the works for a year. Planning begins early in the IDP cycle, which ends two years later, when the performance of the previous year is set out in the annual report.
The document describes the challenges the city faces - and there are many, from crime and a skills shortage to HIV/Aids and the need for more housing, green spaces and recreation facilities for the youth. It also reveals what the City is doing to address those challenges.
The City does not actually devise the IDP on its own. Consultation is mandated by the Act, and it is widespread. The right of communities to be heard, to be involved and to receive information is embedded in local government. So when the IDP was in the planning stages, there was consultation at all relevant levels: inside government, among councillors and council officials, and outside, at public meetings in Johannesburg's 11 wards as well as at gatherings of business leaders and representatives of non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, cultural and socio-economic development groups.
The IDP is based on Johannesburg's long-term, 30-year plan, Joburg 2030, and on its medium-term five-year plan, the six Mayoral Priorities.
Joburg 2030 envisions Johannesburg developing into a world-class city, with an economy and labour force specialised in the service sector and an outward-oriented economy operating on a global scale. The strategy focuses on economic growth as the crucial driver to building a better city. As the economy grows, tax revenues, private sector profit and individual income will also grow, and residents will see a sustainable increase in their standard of living.
It sets the year 2030 as a realistic date to achieve this vision of economic growth, increased prosperity and improved quality of life, because it will take a generation to overcome Johannesburg's current challenges.
With this long-term goal in mind, Mayor Amos Masondo devised six priorities to guide the city in the medium term. The six Mayoral Priorities are economic development and job creation; public safety; service delivery excellence, customer care, Batho Pele; good governance; inner city regeneration; and HIV/Aids. The IDP sets out what is being done in each category.
The City also uses the IDP process to determine how well it is performing. The City Scorecard identifies priorities, establishes indicators to measure performance and acts as a reporting framework to measure delivery. It includes results aligned to its planning and development philosophy; key objectives or "performance areas"; key measurements or "performance indicators"; and targets. This is done for each region, department, utility, agency and corporate entity as well as for the city as a whole.
Here are the 11 key performance areas, from the perspective of residents, who are the city government's customers:
- Enhancing customer service;
- Providing basic services to all residents within the metropolitan areas with below-basic levels of service;
- Ensuring the sustainability of service delivery;
- Improving crime management and prevention;
- Enhancing emergency and disaster management;
- Effectively addressing the challenge of HIV/Aids;
- Improving access to comprehensive primary health care services within the city;
- Ensuring sustainable urban development and management;
- Ensuring inner city regeneration;
- Promoting community empowerment and skills development;
- Enhancing transportation service delivery.
Finally, the IDP contains the budgets for all council departments and for all the utilities, agencies and corporate entities, allowing residents insight about how the City intends to spend its money over the next financial year. This gives financial clout for implementation and delivery on a wide range of plans, which would otherwise remain optimistic wish lists.
Click here for the full text of Johannesburg's 2003/04 IDP
