Integrated Development Planning
What is Integrated Development Planning?
Integrated development planning is a participatory approach used by planners to integrate various strategies including sector, spatial, fiscal, institutional, social, economic and environmental in support of the best allocation of resources in development planning. The purpose is to attain sustainable growth, equity, and empowerment of marginalised and poor communities.
Integrated development planning (IDP) is therefore an important tool for sustainable development and forms the basis of modern municipal management as part of the system for planning and delivery. It provides direction for decisions and activities of municipalities according to the terms of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act of 2000. IDP allows for the identification of the most important development prospects and the formulation of clear vision, mission, goals and values, as well as strategies.
IDP includes an analysis that forms a key component in the process to assist municipalities understand their internal structure and operations, which gives them a solid basis from where they can manage change to attain the vision of the future development. The analysis thus includes an assessment of the staff make-up, deployment, structures, and the financial status, as well as culture, in addition to analysis of other factors.
Through the IDP approach, resources and needs are matched and communities are involved in the identification of priorities to ensure optimal matching of the said resources and needs. This makes provision for the development of alternative service delivery vehicles, which can include partnerships between private and public entities.
The IDP follows a holistic approach and all projects, forming part of the plan, are designed specifically to address the specific development goals. With this approach, measurable development targets can be set, and tasks and budgets are assigned accordingly to specific task teams, which allows for optimal monitoring of each action and to make the necessary changes in order to attain the objectives stated.
Through IDP key performance indicators and performance measurement, criteria are set for the overall integrated development plan and each of its objectives. One such a performance measure is customer satisfaction, though there are numerous performance measurement criteria used.
All local and district municipalities must prepare IDPs over life cycle of five years including Spatial Development Frameworks (SDF). The SDF will provide the spatial dimension of the IDP and will serve to inform and direct municipal decision making as far as land use and development is concerned. Two websites form the electronic publishing vehicles, including the Municipal Demarcation Board where the local and district municipalities boundaries are set and demographic information, according to the latest census, can be used. The IDP Nerve Centre (IDPNC) is the second important website and is a tool used in inter-governmental planning. It consists of an information system, which facilitates communication of key planning among the municipalities.
The role of the IDPNC is also to support integrated infrastructure, coordination between sectors, clusters and priority areas, facilities and processes for service functioning, and management of collaboration between the local, provincial and national resource distribution to attain development goals.
Our Role
The Practice Group provides strategic and integrated spatial planning services to local, metropolitan and provincial authorities. As part of our service delivery, in collaboration with these authorities, we determine the nature, concentration and arrangement of land uses with consideration for transport, socio-economic and development priorities in an environmentally, humane and sustainable way. View our full service offering as related to integrated development planning in South Africa.