GCRO 2020/21 Annual Report
This Annual Report covers the April 2020-March 2021 financial year. This period covers three important events in the life of the organisation. First it marks the start of the COVID19 pandemic, which dramatically transformed not only the way GCRO does work
Date of publication:
December 2021
GCRO 2019/20 Annual Report
This Annual Report covers the 2019/20 financial year, the final full year in the GCRO's five year strategic plan - approved in late 2014 - for the period 2015/16 to 2019/20. This was a year of major strategic planning for the organisation, as we took stock of the last five years of work, and developed new plans for the 2020/21 to 2024/25 period. GCRO also saw major introspection on it's organisational structure, working practices and production processes, and identified a host of new innovations. In the last month of the financial year COVID-19 hit South Africa, bringing a key new point of focus to GCRO's work..
Date of publication:
January 2021
GCRO 2018/19 Annual Report
The fourth year of GCRO 2015/16 to 2019/20 five year strategic plan saw a range of significant achievements, including: the launch of results from the fifth Quality of Life Survey (2017/18) in November 2018; a major exhibition - We are here - at the Metropolis Annual General Meeting in Johannesburg; the completion of a pilot firm level survey; major support to a GPG end-of-term review process; and the finalisation of a number of GCRO publications. Sadly, the year also saw the retirement of GCRO's long-standing finance and admin manager, Adele Underhay, who had been with the organisation since its inception.
Date of publication:
December 2020
GCRO 2017/18 Annual Report
In late 2014 the GCRO Board approved a new five year strategy for the period 2015/16 to 2019/20. This Annual Report covers 2017/18 financial year, the third year of the five year plan.. After hiring a number of new researchers in late 2016 and moving into new office space in early 2017, the financial year April 2017 to March 2018 saw this increase in capacity begin to bear fruit, with the initiation of a range of newly defined research projects. Considerable progress was made on the fifth iteration of the Quality of Life Survey, although delays in fieldwork will see the survey only concluded in 2018/19. Highlights included the publication of four significant Research Reports, a major exhibition at the Seoul Biennale on Architecture and Urbanism (reproduced as part of the GPG stand at the World Urban Forum in early 2018), strong participation in the African Centre for Cities International Conference, and a Routledge book published on the space economy of the GCR.
Date of publication:
January 2020
GCRO 2016/2017 Annual Report
This Annual Report covers the 2016/17 financial year, the second full year in the GCRO's current five year strategic plan - approved in late 2014 - for the period 2015/16 to 2019/20. This was a year of much growth for the GCRO, as a host of new researchers hired at the end of 2015 began to find their feet, and as we occupied new and expanded office space on the 6th floor of Wits' University Corner in March 2017. Results from the fourth Quality of Life survey for 2015/16, now with 30 000 respondents, were launched in June 2016, and important new programmes of research, including a 'city-region economies' thrust, and within this a pilot firm survey, got underway.
Date of publication:
January 2019
GCRO 2015/2016 Annual Report
GCRO is a partnership between the Gauteng Provincial Government, the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), and organised local government in Gauteng. This report covers the 2015/16 financial year, the first in the GCRO's current five year strategic plan for 2015/16 to 2019/20. This was a turbulent year for the higher education sector in South Africa, and indeed for South Africa as a whole. It was also a year of much change for GCRO with a number of staff leaving - including GCRO's founding Executive Director Prof. David Everatt - and new talent joining. The year saw a number of important milestones, including the running of the fourth Quality of Life Survey, a complete organisational rebranding and launch of the new website, as well as a significant uptick in both academic output and support work to government.
Date of publication:
January 2016
GCRO 2014/2015 Annual Report
This report covers the April 2014 to March 2015 financial year, a period of intensive strategic planning for GCRO's next five year strategic plan. GCRO is a partnership between the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG), local government in Gauteng represented by the South African Local Government Association (Gauteng) (SALGA), the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits). GCRO is an innovative response to the socio-economic, cultural, governance, political, growth and other challenges related to the cluster of cities that makes up the Gauteng City-Region (GCR), the economic engine of South and southern Africa.
Date of publication:
October 2015
GCRO 2013/2014 Annual Report
This report covers the April 2013 to March 2014 financial year and marks the end of the first five year cycle in the life of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory’s (GCRO) – GCRO was publicly launched on 11 September 2008, but really only became functional in 2009. It is a partnership between the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG), local government in Gauteng, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), later joined by the Gauteng branch of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).
Date of publication:
September 2014
GCRO 2012/2013 Annual Report
This report covers the April 2012 to March 2013 financial year, the mid-point of the current three-year cycle of work of the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO). GCRO was publicly launched on 11 September 2008.
A partnership between the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG), local government in Gauteng, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), GCRO is an innovative response to the socio-economic, cultural, governance, political, growth and other challenges related to the cluster of cities that makes up the Gauteng City-Region (GCR), the economic engine of South and southern Africa.
Date of publication:
August 2013
GCRO 2011/2012 Annual Report
This report covers the third full operating year of the Gauteng CityRegion Observatory (GCRO) and the beginning of our second three-year cycle of support from the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG). (We were operational for only the final quarter of 2008/2009, our first year, which formed part of the first three-year cycle which ended in March 2011.) GCRO was publicly launched on 11 September 2008.
A partnership between the GPG, local government in Gauteng, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), GCRO is an innovative response to the socio-economic, cultural, governance, political, growth and other challenges related to the cluster of cities that makes up the Gauteng City-Region (GCR), the economic engine of South and southern Africa.
Date of publication:
August 2012
GCRO 2010/2011 Annual Report
This report covers the second full operating year of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), and also the end of the first three-year cycle of support from the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) (this began in 2008/09, but GCRO was functional for only a quarter of that year).
Date of publication:
September 2011
GCRO 2009/2010 Annual Report
This report covers the first full operating year of the GCRO, with the financial year April 2009 to March 2010 coinciding with GCRO staff joining the organisation and the GCRO notching up some notable achievements, even in these formative months.
Date of publication:
September 2010
GCRO 2008/2009 Annual Report
September 2008 saw the launch of an exciting new initiative – the Gauteng City-Region Observatory. The initiative is exciting for two reasons. First, the Observatory represents a grand experiment: a jointly established research centre that stands between the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand, governed by a Board and jointly supported, financially and in kind, by the Gauteng Provincial Government and the two academies.
We hope that this experiment will show a vista of other possibilities for collaboration across higher education institutions in our country, and other potential partnerships between government and the academy.
Date of publication:
August 2009
