MUF was established to address significant challenges being faced by cities globally. These challenges include the needs for advice and policy recommendations, for increasing capacities for urban governance and for change. The mission of the Centre is to create new capacities by promoting new types of knowledge production, through partnerships and coordination and through new tools for planning and implementation. MUF's focus areas are FAIR, GREEN and DENSE cities. Separately and even more when combined, these focus areas make a powerful contribution to sustainable urban development, both in practice and in research. In addition to these focus areas, two methodological priorities, MODES and TOOLS for collaborative knowledge production, communication and learning lays the foundation for knowledge exchange. Recognising that local expertise is required to address city challenges, five Local Interaction Plaforms (LIPs) were strategically chosen as partners in the programme: Cape Town (ACC and City of Cape Town), Gothenburg (The Consortium and associated partners), Kisumu (Maseno University, Bondo University College & Kisumu Action Team), Manchester (SURF, Salford University) and Shanghai (College of Architecture and Urban Planning & Tongji University). Each of the cities are conducting research on co-production of knowledge as a partnership between local government and universities using different pilot projects (for detailed information, see: www.mistraurbanfutures.se). A parallel activity is the International Pilot Project which aims to understand the challenges faced and the factors which shape the capacity and capability for concerted, integrated and trans-disciplinary responses within the different LIP contexts. The International Pilot Project (IPP) constitutes comparative review of governance and policy of urban sustainability across the LIPs and is a first step in building capacity across and within the LIPs.
- 2. Cape Town Knowledge Transfer Programme
The City of Cape Town is home to a highly unequal society, with an urban form that exacerbates access to centers of production. The City is also host to internationally significant natural resource base, the Cape Floral Kingdom, as well as diverse marine, montane and wetland environments. The imperative to reduce inequality and maximize the advantages of the natural environment in ways that promote productivity and give the City a competitive edge over other South African cities is a shared objective of the City of Cape Town and the African Centre for Cities. The City has introduced numerous policy processes to support the objectives of creating a GREEN, FAIR and DENSE city, whilst the ACC too has contributed towards debates in these focus areas through its tradition of urban research for the promotion of a democratic and sustainable urban environment. Officials of the City of Cape Town recognize the challenges they face, but severe lack of capacity and high levels of political contestation mean that officials are caught up in a reactive crisis-driven mode of work, with short time horizons. The need for substantiated frameworks to assist decision-making at the City level has been identified by both the City and the ACC as a key to unlocking the gap between policy and delivery responses. The Knowledge Transfer Programme combines academic and practitioner knowledges and experiences to co-produce strategies and policies to support urban sustainable development in areas of strategic importance at the City of Cape Town. The programme is therefore premised on the co-production of knowledge between practitioners and academics, articulating with the MODES objectives of the MUF. The policy areas within which this co-production will take place have been selected to cover the range of issue specific areas identified by MUF: Green, Dense and Fair. The programme will ultimately therefore make conclusions about the role of co-production in shaping responses to urban sustainability imperatives of green, dense and fair; and how co-production itself can result in a recasting of our understandings of these imperatives. The specific objective of the knowledge transfer project being the promotion of knowledge partnerships in identified areas related to urban sustainable development to simultaneously ensure more effective policy development and delivery.
- 3. Project design, methods and activities
Four ACC researchers have been embedded within the City of Cape Town supporting policy processes of strategic importance to achieving urban sustainability. These researchers will work closely with City counterparts, who will supervise their work at the City over a period of seven months per year between 2012 and 2015 (3 years). In turn, four City of Cape Town officials will undertake 2-month practitioner fellowships over this 3 year period, hosted by the ACC at which they will undertake research as part of the IPP, thus linking the IPP and LIP activities. In addition to the specific outputs that will be determined by detailed TORs for each of the 4 MUF Researchers, each of the Researchers are working towards a PhD which will directly benefit from their knowledge partnerships with the City of Cape Town. Four areas of intervention have been identified to give effect to the knowledge transfer process:
- Climate Change Policy – Anna Taylor – Green
Activities to include co-producing a Climate Adaptation Plan of Action; Assessing opportunities for fiscal and legislative reform in response to climate change; and building on the Energy and Climate Change Strategy and Plan of Action.
- Green Economy – Anton Cartwright - Green
Activities to include the development of a green economy concept for the City; enhanced understanding of green economy concepts amongst broad stakeholders.
- Space Economy Models – Robert McGaffin – Fair and Dense
Activities to include supporting the development/implementation of the Economic Development Strategy (EDS) and the Spatial Development Framework (SDF); advise and conceptually develop a knowledge platform of the City's space economy as currently articulated through its ECAMP project.
- Energy Governance– Saul Roux – Fair and Green
Activities will contribute to framing important energy related policy documents with the objective of embedding principles of fairness and equality of access within the City's energy policy whilst promoting a sustainable, secure and clean energy supply for the City.
- 4. Communication and Evaluation
The Knowledge Transfer Programme will generate two types of outputs; the first will include policy relevant decision making frameworks to guide decision making in the City of Cape Town. These policy support tools will be aimed at and developed with practitioners, and will include literature reviews of best practice from around the globe, with particular attention to local applicability. Academic outputs including publications and PhDs will form the second form of output, which will reflect on the role of knowledge co-production as a MODE in the various urban sustainability areas, including GREEN, DENSE and FAIR.
- 5. Staffing and Distribution of Work
The 4 MUF researchers will contribute equally towards publications/reports reflecting on the co-prodution process, quarterly reports, their respective policy processes. Although they are working in different policy domains, their contribution towards the MUF objectives and deliverables will be equal. Similarly, the contribution of the 4 City Officials will be equal, however, their work will focus on the questions defined in the IPP, thereby linking the LIP and IPP processes.
Project Steering Committee – strategic oversight
Convenors: LIP coordinator ACC - Zarina Patel & City – Amy Davidson
Co-Chairs – Gordon Pirie (ACC) & Cathy Stone
4 ACC members – Gordon Pirie, Ian Palmer, Zarina Patel, Warren Smit
4 City of Cape Town members – Osman Asmal, Catherine Stone, Thembinkosi Siganda, Susan Mosdell
Practitioner Advisory Group – operational oversight
Chair – LIP Coordinator - Zarina Patel
4 MUF Researchers – Anton Cartwright, Anna Taylor, Rob McGaffin and Saul Roux
City of Cape Town Counterparts – Thembinkosi Siganda (interim), Susan Mosdell, Gregg Oelofse, Osmal Asmal, Catherine Stone, Norah Walker, Sarah Ward
