Ad hoc support
On an ad hoc basis GCRO provides strategic support to various Gauteng Provincial Government departments or to municipalities. Some of the work GCRO has done over the last two years includes the following:
Gauteng 2009-2014 Mid-Term Review. GCRO was asked by the Gauteng Planning Commission (GPC) to assist with a Mid-Term Review of the 2009-2014 Gauteng Provincial Government term of office. Starting in September and ending February 2012, GCRO helped GPC find and contract a principal author for the Mid-Term Review; wrote an Overview of the GCR section to introduce the Review; and assisted with commissioning a number of external evaluators of key initiatives that GPG wanted to assess as part of the Review.
City of Johannesburg GDS. As an input into the City of Johannesburg’s Growth and Development Strategy (GDS) process, GCRO wrote a brief note in November 2011 on how the City should strategically think about and approach the building of a GCR.
September 2011 Gauteng Advisory Council. GCRO arranged for Prof Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies and Director of the LSE: Cities Programme, to do a presentation of his work – Living in the Endless City – to a meeting of the Advisory Council of the Gauteng Planning Commission, on 20 September 2011.
Sports facilities audit. In February 2011, GCRO met with the HoD and senior staff of the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation to discuss an audit (including a spatial geo-coding) of all sport and recreation facilities in Gauteng. A brief review of an audit conducted in 2002 of GPG sports facilities revealed that the existing data was outdated, duplicated, of varying quality and required a significant amount of work to update to a current map all the facilities. Gaps in coverage were also identified in the north eastern and south western areas of the province. The results of the review, together with a proposal for using a new source of GIS data to ascertain the location of sports facilities (which data was purchased by GCRO for the project), were presented to the provincial sports HoD and MEC in July and August 2011. GCRO recommended that the department issue a tender to obtain an updated comprehensive geocoded database of sports facilities. GCRO also proposed draft tender specifications for use by the department to commission in survey expertise.
FIFA World Cup Close-out Report. GCRO sourced a consultant to undertake a ‘Close-out report on the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup’ for the GPG Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation. GCRO commissioned the consultant on the Department’s behalf. The project ran from late 2010 to early March 2011 when a final draft report was delivered.
DED ICT development strategy. In 2011, GCRO agreed to act as a conduit for contracting the LINK centre at the Graduate School of Public & Development Management (P&DM) by the Department of Economic Development. LINK prepared an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Development Strategy for the Department.
Moringa Oleifera. In late 2010 and early 2011, GCRO assisted The Innovation Hub with maps to support the selection of potential sites for a food security project (Moringa Oleifera) in the northern areas of Tshwane.
'Researcher mobility'. In November 2010, GCRO provided information to the Department of Economic Development on various higher education questions for a project on ‘researcher mobility’.
Gauteng Growth Employment and Development Strategy (GEGDS). In April 2010, GCRO assisted the Department of Economic Development and the Advisor to the MEC to finalise the Gauteng Employment Growth and Development Strategy (GEGDS). This involved giving strategic advice on possible content and edits on drafts of the document.
