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Khanya-aicdd

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Our Mission

Khanya-aicdd works with partners to transform development systems to support the livelihoods of poor people in Africa.

 

Linking Development Planning to the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach

The aim of the Khanya-aicdd approach to development planning is to influence policy instruments at all levels of government. Micro-macro links are critical because one of the key development problems is the disconnection between policies and services and people's lives, particularly those who are socially excluded. This results in projects, services and resources not actually impacting on the people for whom the resources are intended, notably the disadvantaged.

Our concept paper on the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach describes the 6 Governance Issues which underlie our work at community, local government and policy levels. These suggest that:

  • policies need to be based on a good understanding of the reality of the situation with people's livelihoods (micro), and how interventions can assist (meso and macro), and how services are operating in practice at meso and micro levels;
  • best practice at the micro level (typically by NGOs) must be properly linked into the operation of local organisations (typically at meso level), and seek to influence policy (macro level) if they are not to remain islands of excellence in a sea of poverty;
  • it is only by concerted action through partnerships of a range of stakeholders, that the development challenges facing Africa can be addressed successfully. Integrated planning provides one key tool for promoting this.

Some of the ways our planning work applies to 3 of the governance issues are illustrated in the table below:

Governance issue How we apply it
How we apply it  
Ensuring that people are active and involved in managing their own development, claiming their rights and exercising their responsibilities.
  • Communities plan the development of their area and are provided with resources (discretionary funds) and authority to implement their plan - as in Khanya-aicdd's community-based planning approach.
  • In South Africa local governments provide the Discretionary Funds to wards for communities to take forward their own plans, as well as funding larger projects, while in Uganda local revenue raising is used to fund taking forward the plans.
Strengthening local government  
At local government level (lower-meso) services should be facilitated, provided or promoted effectively and responsively, coordinated and held accountable
  • The community-based planning approach is based on linking the information from the community's plans, analysing it, and using it to inform the content and priorities in the local government's plan.
Upper-meso level, i.e. province/region is supportive, providing strategic direction, support and supervising the level below.
  • At upper-meso level, e.g. province supports local governments to undertake their planning.
  • The Provincial plan and local government plans need to be aligned.
  • The upper-meso level should provide strategic direction to the local governments, and in some strategic issues which are larger than a municipal area (eg tourism), strategic plans are developed at the regional level which inform both the integrated regional and local government plans.

Critical to this and a unique contribution from Khanya-aicdd has been developing the community-based planning (CBP) approach, which was developed and applied by partners in South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Uganda The objective of the community-based planning approach is to:

  • make plans more relevant to local needs and conditions;
  • improve the quality of services;
  • promote community action;
  • increase people's control over their own lives and livelihoods.

We have also developed approaches to planning at local government and regional level which build on South Africa's Integrated Development Planning (IDP) Approach, and are:

  • strategic, including a dynamic SWOT;
  • informed by the community plans, in terms of situation, priorities, and projects;
  • informed by other plans, both sectoral and integrated plans at higher levels;
  • developed in partnership with local actors in the private and public sectors;
  • integrated programmes across sectors and organisations;
  • inclusive of a spatial development framework for the situation and plans;
  • then disaggregated into service plans for each sector, including strategies, activities and projects;
  • inclusive of capital and operational budgets;
  • able to directly inform the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of departments and managers.
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