Our Projects
PDG prepared long-term financing plans and identify bankable infrastructure projects in five intermediate city municipalities. Following in-depth engagements with the municipalities, the plans were developed through bottom-up infrastructure modelling to project the expenditures, revenues and financing options over a 20-year period to ensure financial sustainability. Download project profile. |
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Long Term Financing Plans for Five Intermediate City Municipalities
PDG assessed the strength of the municipal revenue base in 24 municipalities and their ability to generate sufficient revenue from property rates and municipal services to communities. PDG developed a data-driven diagnostic model which simulates the impact of hypothetical interventions on the financial position of the municipality to identify and quantify the impact of the root cause(s) of non-viability for a given municipality. Download project profile. |
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Assessment of the Viability of Municipalities in Gauteng and North West Provinces
PDG analysed the financial sustainability of water services, electricity services and solid waste management. The work included assessing: long term financial trends; the cost of Free Basic Services provision; allocation of the Equitable Share; the impact of various tariff increase scenarios; asset condition as a key indicator of long term sustainability; affordability to consumers; and the potential for efficiency gains. Download project profile. |
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Assessment of the Sustainability of Utility Services in Cape Town
PDG led a team to develop national guidelines and tools to assist municipalities in calculating and implementing the proposed Municipal Development Charges legislation and regulations for National Treasury. In addition to producing an online toolkit, the team developed an implementation and support strategy for municipalities. Download project profile. |
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Municipal Development Charges Guidelines
PDG designed a grant for Intermediate City Municipalities (ICMs), previously known as Secondary Cities. The project included the development of a grant framework, and stakeholder engagement around the proposals. Key features of the new grant design were the consolidation of several existing infrastructure grants; the introduction of programmatic monitoring against a long-term capital expenditure framework; and the inclusion of a performance-based component. Download project profile. |
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Intermediate City Municipalities Grant Framework
A web-based process management system was developed for quality assessments of government evaluations (Quality Assessment Tool). PDG was re-appointed for four phases of work in total including to develop an integrated system for managing government evaluations. PDG developed two more components: an improvement plan tracking system, and an upgrade of the public evaluation repository to integrate directly within an encompassing EMIS web-based system. All web-based project components have now been successfully completed and delivered to DPME and more than four rounds of quality assessments of upwards of upwards of 200 government evaluations have been completed to date. Download project profile. |
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Assessment of Government Evaluations
PDG developed an Infrastructure Progression Model (IPM) for the Infrastructure Delivery Improvement Programme (IDIP). The system profiled the capability of provincial departments of education and health to provide infrastructure and plotted this capability against measures of performance. The model was piloted in three provinces and rolled out nationally. Download project profile. |
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Development and Institutionalisation of the Infrastructure Progression Model
PDG undertook a design and implementation evaluation (formative evaluation) of the Urban Settlements Development Grant, on behalf of Department of Human Settlements, supported by DPME. The evaluation included four metro case studies and concluded with recommendations around improvements to the grant design and systems for its implementation. Download project profile. |
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Evaluation of the Urban Settlements Development Grant
PDG led an interdisciplinary team through a series of consultative and iterative engagements with National Treasury, sector departments and metropolitan municipalities to develop a set of rationalised performance indicators for reporting by metropolitan municipalities. PDG also developed a Proof-of-Concept web-based reporting platform as a centralised means of coordinating and consolidating indicator data. Download project profile. |
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Rationalisation of Reporting Reforms in Metropolitan Municipalities
PDG undertook an impact evaluation of services rendered to children under the Foster Care Programme in Limpopo Province to assess whether the programme is leading towards achievement of sustained impacts for the targeted beneficiaries. The evaluation seeks to improve programme implementation, adherence to the Children’s Act, and ultimately the health, educational and psycho-social outcomes of children in foster care. Download project profile. |
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Impact Evaluation of the Foster Care Programme in Limpopo Province
Between 2015 and 2018, the Western Cape experienced its worst drought in decades, which threatened its water security and had a negative impact on the provincial economy. One of the key responses to the drought has been the accelerated investment in decentralised water supply and treatment systems. Download project profile. |
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Financial Mechanisms and Models toward Economic Water Resilience
Despite the intentions of the National Waste Management Strategy to implement the waste management hierarchy, the vast majority of waste volumes in South Africa continue to be landfilled because landfill charges are very low, and are frequently not representative of the actual, direct costs of landfill. In addition, the broader costs of landfill, including the social and environmental externalities, are not considered. Download project profile. |
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Feasibility Study for a Landfill Disposal Tax
PDG led a team to develop national guidelines and tools to assist municipalities in calculating and implementing the proposed Municipal Development Charges legislation and regulations for National Treasury. In addition to producing an online toolkit, the team developed an implementation and support strategy for municipalities. Download project profile. |
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Municipal Development Charges Guidelines
Latent development demand exists in South African cities but is often constrained by the lack of available bulk infrastructure. Municipalities face financing constraints to provide the large, lumpy investments for bulk infrastructure, particularly for large-scale development, and the lack of this infrastructure delays growth and development in the country. Download project profile. |
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Large-scale project and portfolio financial viability models
Gauteng is positioned in government policy as the ‘engine’ of growth and development in South Africa. Yet there are a number of constraints to this growth, including natural resources and bulk infrastructure. On the strength of the Infrastructure Framework successfully prepared for the Western Cape Government, the Gauteng Planning Commission commissioned a team led by Aurecon to map the infrastructure needs and implications of the province’s chosen development trajectory in the form of Phase 1 of the Gauteng Infrastructure Investment Master Plan. Download project profile. |
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Gauteng Infrastructure Investment Master Plan
PDG assisted in projecting national Greenhouse Gas emissions into the future to establish an updated emissions baseline in the absence of further mitigation initiatives. The team identified and analysed mitigation opportunities in key sectors of the economy and conducted a socio-economic and environmental assessment of the identified mitigation options using Multi-Criteria Analyses. The main emphasis of the project is the identification of energy measures to shift away from fossil fuels. Download project profile. |
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Neighbourhood-level Land Use Performance Metrics
PDG implemented Phase I of a project to develop, populate and maintain a complete, current and accurate catalogue of metadata on all the significant information and knowledge management systems relating to the Environmental Management System, Natural Resources and Natural Resource Quality, Pollution release and transfer, Land Use and Land Use Change. Download project profile. |
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Long-Term Area-based Demographic Projections
PDG analysed the financial sustainability of water services, electricity services and solid waste management. The work included assessing: long term financial trends; the cost of Free Basic Services provision; allocation of the Equitable Share; the impact of various tariff increase scenarios; asset condition as a key indicator of long term sustainability; affordability to consumers; and the potential for efficiency gains. Download project profile. |
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Neighbourhood-level Land Use Performance Metrics
PDG led a team to develop national guidelines and tools to assist municipalities in calculating and implementing the proposed Municipal Development Charges legislation and regulations for National Treasury. In addition to producing an online toolkit, the team developed an implementation and support strategy for municipalities. Download project profile. |
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Land-based Funding Options for Gautrain Extension
PDG designed a grant for Intermediate City Municipalities (ICMs), previously known as Secondary Cities. The project included the development of a grant framework, and stakeholder engagement around the proposals. Key features of the new grant design were the consolidation of several existing infrastructure grants; the introduction of programmatic monitoring against a long-term capital expenditure framework; and the inclusion of a performance-based component. Download project profile. |
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Economic Impact of Water Resilience Scenarios
PDG produced a synthesis report on the evidence-based policy process to date regarding reconfiguring district government. The work involved collating prior research undertaken on the topic and synthesising the recommendations for implementation by national government. Download project profile. |
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Synthesis Report on Reconfiguring District Government
The Gauteng Office of the Premier working with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), municipalities and other stakeholders developed the Gauteng Intergovernmental Relations Framework (GIGRF), adopted by the provincial Executive Council and the Premier’s Coordination Forum (PCF) in 2010. Outdated and non-reflective of the vision of the then provincial government’s Fifth Administration which introduced the Ten Pillar Programme to transform the province into a Global City Region (GCR), was in need of review. Download project profile. |
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Gauteng Inter-Governmental Relations Strategy and Implementation Plan
PDG assessed the functionality of the national and provincial intergovernmental relations structures constituted in terms of the Intergovernmental Framework Relations Act. The project assessed the functionality of all the nine Premier’s Coordinating Forums, the six sector Ministerial/MEC Forums and the President’s Coordinating Council. Lessons were documented on the challenges and obstacles faced by these structures in discharging their legislative mandates. Download project profile. |
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Assessment of National & Provincial Inter-Governmental Relations Structures
PDG assisted in developing a policy document on the institutionalisation of the Gauteng City Region. Consultative workshops were held with key stakeholders and the functions of existing apex institutions were analysed to develop proposals for more effective institutional arrangements in the province. Download project profile. |
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Institutionalisation of the Gauteng City-Region
PDG assessed the functionality of the current framework governing the division of powers and functions between the three spheres of government and drafted a new governance, policy and legislative framework for managing the allocation of these powers and functions. Download project profile. |
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Powers & Functions Framework
Climate change is a global concern, and measures are being taken within all spheres of the South African government to mitigate impacts. The Western Cape Government had undertaken previous research on energy and climate change to develop an energy and greenhouse gas emissions database, which provided important baseline data to |
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Western Cape Climate Change Mitigation Scenarios
Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, South Africa is committed to contributing its fair share to global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) mitigation efforts in order to keep the temperature increase below 2°C. In order to meet this obligation and in developing a comprehensive policy framework for responding to climate change, Government has developed the National Climate Change Response Policy, which required defining desired emission |
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Analysis of South Africa's Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential
The field of environmental governance is a vast and complicated area of South African law. While local government has an important role to play in environmental management, and there are numerous Acts, Frameworks and Guidelines available, this role is complex, and often difficult to understand. |
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Assessment of the Municipal Role in Environmental Management
Municipalities in South Africa have adopted different institutional models and mechanisms for delivering the municipal solid waste function for a range of reasons: strategic choices, historical reasons, or based on a need to supplement shortfalls in capacity or resources. However, there are a range of service delivery mechanisms for solid waste activities which may be available to municipalities in different circumstances. The available options depend on the scope of the change in municipal service which is being envisaged, and the extent to which this municipal service is a core service, as provided for by the Constitution. |
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The Assessment of various Institutional Models for providing Waste Management Services
PDG assessed the financial and non-financial impacts of sprawling versus. compact growth development scenarios in Mossel Bay over a 20-year horizon. The study was an extension to the earlier Municipal Financial Sustainability of current spatial growth patterns work undertaken for the Western Cape Provincial Spatial Development Framework. Download project profile. |
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