ECIAfrica

Projects

Promoting intergovernmental cooperation to alleviate poverty and eliminate municipal service backlogs in the most densely populated areas of South Africa

In February 2001, President Thabo Mbeki launched the URP, to alleviate poverty in eight urban areas or "nodes," which represent high concentrations of poverty and are home to more than 10 million people. In these nodes, substantial portions of the population are still not receiving a basic level of service in water, sanitation, housing, and energy. In addition, areas targeted by URP are spatially and economically marginalized, and socially excluded.

The URP addresses gross imbalances in levels of development, wealth, income, and opportunity, which persist from the apartheid era. It also confronts more contemporary problems of deepening unemployment and poverty exacerbated by the opening of South Africa to global market forces and the decline of traditional employment sectors. URP is designed to help improve integration and coordination among South Africa's three tiers of government, and to enhance municipal capacity to deliver basic services.

ECIAfrica servers as a partner in a consortium, led by GFA in Germany, providing technical assistance to the National Urban Renewal Unit based in the Department of Provincial and Local Government (dplg) in Pretoria and in the Provincial Unit in Bisho, Eastern Cape province. Under this project, ECIAfrica and the GFA consortium are supporting intergovernmental relations and helping to capture lessons learnt.

South Africa

February 2007 - June 2009

Client:

Department of Provincial and Local Government

Contact:

Paul Jackson

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