The Global Future Cities Programme under the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Prosperity Fund aims to promote prosperity, alleviate poverty and contribute to sustainable urbanization more broadly. UN-Habitat’s Urban Lab has since April 2018 been providing strategic advice and technical assistance in the delivery of the Programme, capturing urban development initiatives in 19 cities across 10 countries. As a strategic partner to the UK FCO, UN-Habitat identified and defined 30 projects among the 19 cities during the Strategic Development Phase of the programme. This phase was completed in March 2019 and then moved into the Implementation Phase running from September 2019 to March 2022. The three South African cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town and eThekwini are part of the Global Future Cities Programme for which UN-Habitat will continue to provide strategic advisory and capacity building support.
In parallel, the UK FCO requested UN-Habitat to undertake two additional activities in South Africa by March 2020, the City of Tshwane and the Western Cape. This report aims to capture the development, roll-out and findings from this support provided to the Western Cape.
The key implementation partner on the ground for duration of the support to the Western Cape was Wesgro. Wesgro1 is a public agency (entity) established in 1982 with a mandate to promote Tourism, Trade & Investments in the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape. Engaging in a wide range of sectors and aspects, Wesgro has recently set up an “Economic War Room” as a modality to accelerate economic development across the province and it’s cities. The War Room has identified and adopted the Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) methodology to facilitate problem solving within the provincial and municipal governments. The rationale for the governments to engage in a PDIA process is that the province and respective local governments are not fully leveraging their economic potential and stagnating somewhat in addressing and constructively resolving complex public problems. A joint effort in addressing this situation has been regarded as the best way forward.
In an effort to identify areas where the UK FCO could potentially extend its support to the Western Cape, UN-Habitat undertook a first scoping mission to the Western Cape in October 2019 to engage more closely with the Economic War Room and its different teams working on different thematic areas: 1) capital investment and property development, 2) informal light manufacturing, 3) the Atlantis Special Economic Zone, 4) tech and business process outsourcing, and finally 5) commuter mobility. UN-Habitat also participated in the closing session (“Wash-up Session”) of the Economic War Room in December 2019. The main outcome of these missions was the decision to extend further support to Wesgro on its activities related to PDIA and provide a training for authorizers (change agents) to continue the initial successes of the Economic War Room. This outcome came about in close deliberation with all stakeholders and the UK FCO.