Benchmarking the way cities and regions around the world are responding to the global recession

The Gauteng Provincial Government Department of Economic Department (GPGDED) approached the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) to provide them with a fast turnaround report that benchmarks sub-national responses to the economic crisis globally. Our brief was to provide a review of what cities and regions are doing in response to the crisis in other parts of the world, and to emphasise the action side of the story – what is being done, rather than analysing the differing nature and impact of the crisis in different places. The report is filled not so much with specific recommendations as a suite of possible interventions that the Gauteng Provincial Government may wish to choose from and implement. They are sourced from different parts of the world, and the GCRO can provide on-going comparative monitoring over time if required

This report is based on sourcing and analysing reports from across the world that are themselves recording the responses of sub-national units to the unfolding economic crisis. Some are very locale-specific, others provide country or multi-country reviews. The opening sections of this report – which analyse the impact of the economic crisis in Gauteng - are based on official datasets produced primarily by Statistics South Africa. Two brief points need to be made.

First, the crisis is unfolding around us, and the interventions described in this report are either still being designed or are in their pilot or early stages of implementation: as such, it is impossible to provide any evaluative guidance as to their longterm impact or efficacy. Some may look good on paper but fail in the field, others the reverse. Over time, as evaluative data become available, GPGDED should re-visit the issue, as suggested above.