INTRODUCTION

AGENDA 21 is a comprehensive document for global action on the environment and sustainable development, to take the world into a more sustainable 21st century. It is probably the most important document to be adopted by the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) at the Rio de Janeiro Summit in June 1992. The 40 chapters covered a wide range of issues including the atmosphere, oceans, land resources, poverty, etc.

It was important for each nation to develop its own local Agenda 21, in order to translate and interpret the principles of sustainale development to local areas. Local Agenda 21 focuses on developing partnerships involving the public, private and community sectors that together can resolve urban environmental management problems and strategically plan for long term sustainable environmental management. A Local Agenda 21 (LA 21) process and the Model Communities Programme (MCP) was developed for Greater Johannesburg in June 1997 (Whitehead et.al., 1997a) the summary of which follows:

GENERAL CONTEXT

Greater Johannesburg is one of six regions in Gauteng Province. It is the largest Metropolitan area in South Africa, especially from an economic point of view. It is estimated to have a population of between 3 and 3,5 million people in its area of jurisdiction of which approximately 400 000 live in informal settlements. The informal settlements comprise approximately 57 000 informal structures and 79000 backyard dwellings.

From an environmental point of view, the following background is given, especially in relation to environmental legislation. The decision making process regarding the environment, especially in relation to the way in which the legislation determines tasks is currently a top-down approach. Environmental legislation and policy are determined at the national level, whilst implementation and enforcement issues are delegated to provincial and local government level. Attempts are being made to alter this in the new Environmental White Paper in order to be in line with the new approach of the democratically elected government. Stakeholders are slowly being able to be involved in the environmental management legislative process. There is also a lack of inter-departmental co-ordination. In respect of environmental management within local government, the Joint Negotiation Committee has agreed that:

• The GJMC would ensure co-operative governance and intersectoral collaboration.
• Develop information and databases on the environment as well as education strategies.
• Establish policy, legislation, standards and guidelines for environmental management.
• Develop special environmental initiatives and programmes.
• Provide specialist environmental support and services.

Greater Johannesburg is a member of the ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) and is required to formulate Local Agenda 21 and Model Communities Programmes for sustainable development. In terms of the Local Government Transition Act, Second Amendment Act 97 of 1996, GJ is responsible for the co-ordination of environmental affairs, whilst the MLC’s are responsible for the management and control of these environmental management affairs.

OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS TO DATE

In 1993 an Environmental and Development Branch was created to facilitate a co-ordinated, innovative and integrated approach to environmental policy, development and assessment of environmental hazards and risks. The creation of this branch was a significant achievement in terms of ensuring dedicated human and financial resources were allocated to environmental management. However, its department focused primarily on environmental health, which was broadened to embrace aspects of sustainable development. Furthermore, with the tools of environmental management (eg. EIA), at that stage, not having the legislative backing which it possesses in many other countries, ensuring that environmental concerns were addressed in all development, was a difficult task. A task made more difficult by the separation of environmental management and planning.

The separation of environmental planning and management limited the integration of Agenda 21 and MCP with the overall functioning of the Council. These initiatives did not feed into the broader activities of the Council and were not part of strategic development planning. This lead to MCP being project based rather than a strategic analysis of the service system required for sustainable development and the implementation of these service systems, in order to facilitate sustainable outcomes. This leads to the unsustainable situation where strategies for sustainable development would be implemented in a community, using service systems, which are unsustainable and therefor cannot deliver sustainable products/outcomes. The "project" is then doomed to failure in the long term as the underlying causes of current unsustainable local government practices are not addressed.

In the early 1990’s the then Johannesburg City Council underwent a restructuring exercise to facilitate more integrated and efficient urban management. This resulted, inter alia, in the amalgamation of the Department of Housing, Community Health and Environmental Health, into the new Directorate of Health, Housing and Urbanisation. This was to facilitate a more integrated and co-ordinated approach to issues relating to housing, health, environment and urbanisation.

Further to the organisational restructuring described above, several initiatives have been developed in the early 1990’s. These include the compilation of a draft environmental policy and a resolution by the council that the Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) Procedure should be used by all directorates when dealing with environmental issues and should be adopted as a guideline for any Council Committees dealing with matters which have an impact on the environment. Although these are significant achievements their full implementation was halted by the institutional restructuring of the Council and the deployment of 30 000 employees to the Metropolitan and its Local Councils. These initiatives have not yet been drawn adequately enough into the activities of the new GJMC and the Local Councils. Many such as the development of an environmental policy, have begun again.

LOCAL AGENDA 21 IN GREATER JOHANNESBURG

The Johannesburg City Council, under the auspices of the Environmental Health Department originally initiated the LA 21 Process. With the restructuring of the Local Government, however, one of the major focuses was to ensure that the environmental management initiatives of the administration and decision-makers were given the recognition they deserved. Both the administration and the decision making structure was accordingly aligned to the development and planning functions. Environmental management now has a much higher priority in the municipality and there are senior officials who specifically deal with environmental initiatives in both the metropolitan and local councils. The GJMC has been given the responsibility, through the restructuring process, of managing and implementing the Local Agenda 21 Programme.

The Local Agenda 21, Healthy Cities Programme and MCP were initiated within the Health, Housing and Urbanisation Department of the Johannesburg City Council at a time when significant political change was occurring. Although workshops with all stakeholders were held in relation to issue identification for these programmes, the political transformation and institutional restructuring halted progress in the implementation of the programmes. Staff focused their attention on making sure that the correct institutional structures and functions were assigned to environmental management and ensuring that it was given the status that it deserves. This was successful in that, not only is environmental management one of the five strategic thrusts of the Metropolitan Council, but environmental management departments have been created in all Local Councils and in the Metropolitan Council. In most cases it is located within the Planning Subcluster.

New processes for development, otherwise known as Land Development Objectives (LDO’s), which align stakeholder defined priorities to local government planning, budgets and personnel, facilitate the practical implementation of environmental management beyond the planning stage. MCP has been aligned to the LDO process and therefor benefits from the resource allocation and legal status afforded to priorities identified in terms of the LDO.

The aim is to achieve the recognition for environmental management, which it requires in local government, and in developing the institutional structures and obtaining the commitment of resources, to effectuate this recognition. Some of the Environmental Management Objectives for GJ are:

• To promote the socio-economic, institutional and physical integration of the metropolitan area, for the benefit of all its stakeholders
• To facilitate the creation of an equitable and sustainable environmental management system in the metropolitan area, that encourages sustainable land development practices
• The promotion of environmental management, which includes conservation, preservation and sustainable utilisation of existing resources, recognising that South Africans have a fundamental right to healthy and safe living environments
• The provision of housing that meets the basic environmental, health and safety norms and to ensure that the provision of basic services facilitates a sustainable environment for the community in both the short and long term
• To assess the standards of service provision by local Government to determine if they are environmentally acceptable and can be economically, socially and physically sustained. This would include natural environments, water and sanitation that meet people’s health and functional requirements and alternative energy provision.

PARTICIPATORY STRUCTURES

The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) has outlined criteria and guidelines for the development of a sustainable institutional environment, which benefits both the individual stakeholder and the partnership itself. The following critical analysis of the JICDF (Johannesburg Inner City Development Forum) is therefor framed with an adaptation of ICLEI’s proposal in order to develop an institutional environment which facilitates an increase in the financial and human capacity of the stakeholders and the partnership itself, and the following has accordingly been undertaken:

• A clear definition of common objectives;
• A definition of the types of partnerships required to address each objective, at each stage of the planning process;
• The identification of appropriate partners for each stage in the planning process, in relation to each objective;
• A clear indication of the scope of the planning exercise for each objective, according to the current phase in the planning process and a definition of the respective goals and objectives;
• A definition of the terms of reference for each partnership; and
• The creation of an institutional framework for effectuating the partnerships.

The overall planning process is co-ordinated by a partnership, which typically comprises members from the public and private sectors, interest groups and different disciplines. Each stage of the planning process requires different skills and calls for different tasks to be undertaken. Consequently, the composition of the partnership required for each stage of the planning process varies. The skills required for the development of strategic plans, for example, are different to those required to facilitate the implementation of those plans, which are different again to those required to monitor and review the effectiveness of the action plans. Two participatory structures have been utilised in this process, firstly the Environmental Management development Forum, which operates at a metropolitan level for the LA 21 Programme and secondly the Johannesburg Inner City Development Forum (JICDF) for the Model Communities Programme, which is focussing on the Johannesburg Inner City of this pilot project.

The Environmental Management Development Forum

A stakeholder group was established to focus on sustainable environmental management in GJ and specifically the Local Agenda 21 Programme, under the auspices of the Environmental Management LDO. The Environmental Management LDO Development Forum was established at the end of 1996 as the stakeholder group to identify and prioritise needs across the metropolitan area. The membership is not exclusive to any given organisation but is open to those who would like to actively participate in environmental issues. The initial initiatives to stakeholders were published in three newspapers (Star, Beeld and Sowetan) as well as initiatives were sent to stakeholders under the following regional categories:

• Environmental Management NGO’s operating at a metropolitan level
• Organised community organisations in GJ
• Organised Business
• Organised Labour
• Political Parties
• Provincial and Local Government Bodies
• Environmental Institutions

The representation at the Environmental Management Development Forum was extensive and has grown over the past few months as more and more stakeholders became aware of the forum as well as became interested in what it has and is planning to do in the coming years. The Forum has been formally created as a participatory body through which all environmental management initiatives will be debated and evaluated at a metropolitan level. This Forum, which is one of seven sectoral forums, is also considered to be the most representative in that all stakeholders were represented and there was an even distribution of race and gender.

The Johannesburg Inner City Development Forum

This Forum forms the stakeholder group for the implementation of Johannesburg’s Model Communities Programme (MCP), which focuses on the Inner City of Johannesburg. The JICDF was established to promote the regeneration of the Inner City of Jhb. The terms of reference for the Forum and each of its task teams has recently been approved.

In this section the effectiveness of the JICDF as a partnership for the MCP, will be evaluated in terms of its ability to facilitate sustainability in service provision in GJ Inner City. This evaluation is based on the MCP guidelines for the creation of sustainable strategic partnerships. The JICDF has agreed that all activities should include representation from at least the following sectors:

• Gauteng Provincial Government
• Local Government (GJMC and MLC’s)
• Business (Inner City Business Coalition)
• Community and
• Labour.

The task teams are working groups drawn from the plenary on the basis of interests and possible contribution. They consist of representatives from each sector and experts as and when agreed. Presently, four task teams exist:

• Integrated Planning and Management Systems
• Public Environment
• Social and Economic Regeneration
• Communication and Information

Participation and participatory methods in service delivery, facilitate development which meets the specific needs of the community, leads to a sense of ownership and to greater community self-reliance. These are a few of the reasons why it is generally believed that public participation enhances the effectiveness of service delivery. Raising the level of participation to one of the partnerships, recognises the fact that no single institution has the resources, authority or skills with which to deliver services according to the principles of equity, efficiency and sustainability. When partnerships are institutionalised common objectives around which to mobilise resources, are defined.

In order for a participatory institution to be sustainable in addressing achieve common objectives, however, it needs to facilitate a sense of continual growth and improvement. Growth in the capacity of all member stakeholders is required, as is growth of the participatory institution in itself. All stakeholders should due to their participation increase their capacity to achieve common objectives, which they lack the capacity to achieve alone. The institution itself, due to the participation of its stakeholders, should increase its capacity to address current and future objectives. It should therefor increase the capacity to respond to changing circumstances within its geographical jurisdiction. In summary, if the partnership is to be sustainable, both the stakeholders and the institution itself should benefit from the continual growth and improvement due to its existence.

Each stakeholder group, which is a member of the partnership, should benefit from an increase in financial and human capacity. This occurs through the pooling of financial and human resources to achieve a common objective. Through participation in the operations and processes of the institution, each stakeholder should benefit from the experience gained and lessons learnt.

Due to the partnership of a range of stakeholders, the activities of the participatory institution should benefit from a variety of skills and financial resources. The participatory institution should address common goals, and this is achieved and sustained through an increase in resources and skills of the member stakeholders.

LESSONS LEARNT

The process followed for the formulation of the Local Agenda 21 Programme in GJ have brought to the fore a number of issues that are relevant to South African cities and other cities across the world, especially those in the developing context. These issues are therefore considered relevant to understanding the way forward for sustainable development, especially in major urban areas. The lessons learnt are accordingly detailed below:

1. The LA 21 Programme should be aligned to economic and development processes and institutions within the Local Authority.
2. It should be aligned to existing institutional and development initiatives in the selected geographical area.
3. Top management and political support is essential.
4. It should be aligned to budgets and other resource priorities of the Council.
5. The output of the LA 21 Programme must feed into other processes and initiatives within the Council, with the benefit to all stakeholders being clear.
6. The local government institutional and procedural context needs to be conducive to the implementation of LA 21 and MCP, before the Programme can be successful.
7. Limited local govenrment capacity can be addressed by the development of true partnerships, internally between line functions, and also with the private sectors, NGO’s, CBO’s and academic institutions, in which all partnerships contribute specific resources and perform specific roles.
8. It is essential that the process is co-ordinated and driven forward by local authority.

CONCLUSION

The creation of strategic partnerships in participatory institutions facilitates an institutional environment, which is flexible enough to meet changing demands, but focused enough to address specific objectives in a co-ordinated manner. While facilitating an interdisciplinary approach to addressing common objectives, it ensures that the members of a partnership have a specific contribution to make to the success of its activities. This leads to a sense of commitment, responsibility and ownership on the part of the member stakeholders, who benefit from the resources and skills of appropriate partners in achieving objectives they could not achieve alone.

It became increasingly evident that the nature and complexity of environmental management in major urban areas needs an innovative and integrative approach that draws on all sectors of society. By engaging with stakeholders through the newly created institutional structures of local government and specifically the Metropolitan Council, opportunities have been made available to explore these new approaches. Considerable achievements have included the creation of a stakeholder forum that engages with environmental management concerns at a metropolitan level, the integration of the environmental management philosophy with the development priorities, the setting of priorities against which action plans can be developed, and the alignment of these priorities to the budgetary allocations.

It is believed that these initiatives have paved the way for a sustainable approach to urban management, in consulting with the various stakeholders and communities in the metropolitan area. GJ has facilitated an approach to integrate environmental management into the institutional framework of local governments and in so doing broaden the scope for this much needed component of sustainable development (Whitehead et.al., 1997a).

THE WAY FORWARD FOR LA 21 AND MCP IN GREATER JOHANNESBURG

The two programmes that deal with sustainable development planning and environmental management in GJ are considered to be very important and having a considerable amount of merit. The alignment of these programmes to the LDO Process, in terms of the Development Facilitation Act (DFA) 67 of 1995 has enabled the process to be locally sustainable and acceptable. The two underlying principles that have been adopted are:

• That for the process to sustainable, it needs to be grounded in stakeholder participation. Both the LA 21 and MCP have been initiated through participatory forums, where needs and prioritied were identified.
• That there is a need for all development processes that are in operation in Jhb Inner City and GJM area as a whole, to be grounded in the principles of sustainable development and urban management. These principles are evident in both LA 21 and the DFA.

There is therefor a need in terms of the way forward that has been described in both the LA 21 Programme Report and the MCP Report, that Action Plans need to be developed. These action plans will take on different forms according to the objectives of the two processes. The LA 21 Programme Action Plans are accordingly detailed below:

• The Prospering World: Trade Systems and the Integration of the Environment and Development Decision Making.
• The Just World: Population, Poverty and Consumption.
• The Habitable World: Human Settlements, Urban Water Supplies, Solid Waste Management, Urban Pollution and Health.
• The Fertile World: Fresh Water Resources, Agriculture, Forests, Desertification and Drought.
• The Clean World: Managing Chemicals and Waste.
• The People’s World: People Participation and Responsibility.
• The Essential Means: Financial, Technological, Institutional and Legal Mechanisms.

The Model Communities Programme Action Plans focus on the research and analysis of the systems in operation under the six broad headings detailed below:

• Waste Management
• Pollution
• Poverty
• Health
• Public Open Spaces and Parks
• Conservation and Protection of the Built Environment

The aim is to formulate an Action Plan for each of the issues detailed above for both the LA 21 and MCP (Whitehead et.al., 1997b).

9. REFERENCES

Whitehead, M.; M. Audouin & N. Zikalala 1997a: Local Agenda 21 and Model Communities Programmes in Greater Johannesburg (Summary). GJMC: Jhb.