Integrated Development Planning (IDP) in South Africa

Roles and Responsibilities of District and Local Municipalities

1. Existing legal and polical framework

The present legislation requires District Councils and Local Municipal Councils to do integrated development planning. According to the Municipal Structures Act Amendment Act, a district municipality is responsible for integrated development planning for the district municipality as a whole, including a framework for integrated development plans of all municipalities in the area of the district municipality. The Municipal Structures Act further states that this framework binds both the district municipality and the local municipalities in the area of the district municipality. This district Integrated Development Planning (IDP) Framework must at least:

• identify the plans and planning requirements binding in terms of national and provincial legislation on the district municipality and the local municipalities;
• identify all matters that must be included in the district IDP and local IDPs and that require alignment;
• specify the principles to be applied and the approach to be adopted in respect of those matters; and
• to determine procedures for consultation between the district and local municipalities in the process of drafting their respective IDPs as well as procedures to effect changes to the framework.

These legal requirements have to be seen in the context of the results of demarcation which imply a fundamental change in the relationship between district councils and local councils. While in the past each of them was, by and large, in charge of different geographical areas (local municipalities for the towns, district councils for the rural areas), in future they will share responsibilities for the same areas, due to the establishment of wall-to-wall municipalities. Local planning and district planning will differ by geographical scale rather than by location. As a consequence, relations between District Councils and Local Municipal Councils will have to change fundamentally. The interrelations will have to intensify.

2. Experiences to date

While it is clear that district planning and planning of local municipalities have to inform each other, the legislation is far from clear on how they should be aligned with one another. Consequently, there is a need for clarification if confusion is to be avoided when the newly elected councils get involved in integrated development planning.
As the relationship between the capacities of local and district municipalities differs widely from place to place, the guidelines have to be somewhat flexible, but at the same time they have to ensure that a new type of relationship between district and local councils is established which is in line with the new distribution of roles after demarcation.

3. Principles for distribution of roles and responsibilities

There are four crucial criteria to be taken into account for an appropriate distribution of roles between the two tiers of local government. The tension between planning at the scale that is closest to the people and achieving optimal use of capacity and resources in an environment with severely limited capacity and resources is summarised in the four criteria listed below:

1. Closeness to people and places
   Appropriate planning has to take the realities and needs of the people and the conditions of different locations into account. The scale at which district-level planning in South Africa will have to take place (areas with close to a million people and more than 10 000 km2 on average) is too large for that type of local level planning.
2. Capacities and costs
   Many local municipalities face serious capacity constraints. Therefore, it may be useful to allocate certain challenging tasks, which require scarce resources, to a higher level rather than trying to provide such scarce and expensive resources in each small place.
3. Link to management of delivery and institutional transformation
   Planning decisions have to be transformed into budgets and business plans by those charged with implementation. The planning process is also meant to influence the management of implementation. Since this link is crucial for improved delivery, local municipalities have to be involved in planning their projects and programmes.
4. Co-ordination
   The district level will be the forum where inter-local co-ordination and co-ordination between local municipalities and provincial/national sector departments will have to take place.

4. Guidelines for the distribution of roles and responsibilites according to planning phases

The synchronisation of planning activities between district and local municipalities is essential to ensure that the planning activities occur and outputs are available more or less simultaneously so that the joint and complimentary responsibilities of the municipalities can be undertaken for all and by all responsible, at the same time. This approach will avoid duplication of the required joint processes and maximise the use of limited human resource capacities. It will also ensure consultation between the local and district municipalities and over decision that effect and are binding on both.

The distribution of key roles and responsibilities for the district and local municipalities in the planning phases are outlined in the table below.

Planning Phase	Local Level	District Level
Analysis	Determine local issues, problems, potentials and priorities.	Determine district scale issues, problems, potentials and priorities Consolidated the analysis results of the district and local municipalities and define common priority issues
Strategies	Define a local vision and set of objectives Participate in district level strategy workshop Determine local strategies per priority issue on the basis of the district level analysis.	Define a district vision and set of objectives Provide an event for a joint strategy workshop with local municipalities and provincial and national role-players thereby providing an organisational framework for aligning strategies Determine cross-boundary and district strategies per priority issue
Projects	Design local council projects per strategy.	Design district council projects per strategy
Integration	Compile a set of local Integrated Programmes for Managing implementation.	Compile a set of district Integrated Programmes for managing implementation Align and assess the Capital Investment and Implementation programmes of local and district municipalities.
Approval	Ensure that the IDP is adopted by the Local Council.	Ensure that the IDP is adopted by the District Council Align the IDPs of the municipalities in the district council area and with the other spheres of government.

More about the Planning Approach and Methodology, Public Participation, and Strategies (Part 1 and Part 2) in the IDP approach

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