GCRO hosts CSP & World Bank Urbanisation Review dialogue

  • GCRO
  • Date of publication: 21 November 2017

On 8-9 November GCRO hosted the National Treasury's Cities Support Programme (CSP) and World Bank for a policy dialogue on a World Bank Urbanisation Review that is currently being conducted for South Africa.

The Cities Support Programme is a national programme of support assisting major cities across South Africa to pursue institutional improvements and key spatial restructuring interventions. In March 2016, CSP partnered with the World Bank to conduct an Urbanisation Review for South Africa, the first time such a review has been done for a middle-income country. The process undertook to “draw on evidence-based analyses to identify the challenges in housing, transport and industrial development strategies alongside their institutional and fiscal dimensions that have influenced the spatial, economic, and social dimensions of the urban space economy”. Nine self-standing papers have been developed, dealing with a range of topics, from urbanisation and migration patterns and dynamics, to housing trends and choices, options for restructuring transport systems, and the fiscal implications of our national and local spatial strategies.

CSP approached GCRO to host a two day dialogue on the Urbanisation Review’s findings. The event complemented similar events held in Cape Town and Durban in the same week. Over the two days the Review team — made up of both international and local experts — presented their findings to an audience of some 60 academics and policymakers, and were met both by responses from formal discussants and vigorous engagement from the floor. Based on this consultation and others, the Urbanisation Review papers will be refined before their formal release. The engagements are also expected to help inform the work of the CSP in its envisaged second phase, the design of other initiatives such as the new Intermediate Cities Programme, and the efforts of other parts of government in developing and executing urban policy.

Previous Urbanisation Reviews for other countries can be found here.

The agenda for the workshop can be downloaded here.

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