Smart City.Za Bulletin - Issue 1

South African cities are struggling to keep up with the demands on service delivery and cannot respond to their constituencies’ needs. Smart Cities are a mechanism to address these challenges, through the potential they bring in creating sustainable, resilient and technologically-driven solutions to municipal challenges. 

In alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), more especially the Climate Action Agenda and the Sustainable Cities and Communities Goals, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) supports the adoption and aspiration of the Smart City agenda in South Africa. Smart Cities can be seen as a mechanism which will enable effectiveness and sustainability of municipalities, from securing its revenue base, to enabling sustainable infrastructure, to ensuring evidence-based planning and municipal governance and accountability.

The Smart Cities South Africa (SCSA) Bulletins are envisaged as a series of short newsletters both to inform and be informed by the programme and its community of practitioners. They combine thematic research summaries with various forms and sources of information that can help to enable the SCSA agenda and practice. Importantly, the Bulletins' learning audience will extend beyond the programme’s direct actors to their city peers and stakeholders. To this extent, they are also a communication and advocacy tool to help disseminate key programme messages and updates. The target audience is therefore specific but also diverse, and the Bulletins are authored with this diversity in mind. 

This edition includes:

• Profiles of the four pilot cities (City of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, and Johannesburg) as an introduction to the SCSA programme
• A research synthesis article on defining “smart cities” in South Africa
• An international perspective defining “smart cities” from interview with World Bank global expert, Trevor Gibson, and
• Additional information highlights and resources relating to the theme of clarifying the concepts.

Abstract based on source. Back to the SmartCity.ZA collection.