Speech by Executive Mayor, Alderman Patricia de Lille,
at WDC 2014 Stakeholder Forum at the CTICC on 28
February 2012
The objectives for today are to start shaping a vision for World Design
Capital 2014 and provide clarity on the process and timelines involved.
You will also hear about the theme of the bid, what World Design Capital
is all about and see examples of how design can make a real difference in
people’s lives.
To start, I would like to share with you why I, as the Mayor of Cape Town,
am excited about Cape Town having been awarded the designation of
World Design Capital 2014. Second, I want to pledge the City’s full
support and outline our role. And third, I would like to give an overview of
where we are in the process and what comes next.
Getting into the spirit of design and creativity, I am going to try
something a little different today and will attempt to present this to you in
the Pecha Kucha format, which may well be a first for a politician – 20
slides in 20 seconds each.
Thank you to the Cape Town Design Network and Pecha Kucha Cape
Town for the help in putting this together.
I am excited because our bid was all about how design can be used to
transform our city and the lives of our citizens. So this is now an
opportunity for the City and its residents to engage with leading design
thinkers in finding solutions to Cape Town’s major challenges.
This includes an examination of how we can overcome the legacy of
Apartheid spatial planning to foster a more Inclusive City. This must be an
accessible initiative that provides a chance for everyone who is interested
to experience and learn from it.
I am also excited that as the first World Design Capital from Africa and
the developing world, we have the opportunity to develop solutions that
are relevant to 90% of the world. I would like to see us help create a
platform for African and other developing country cities to interact on
design-related solutions to challenges.
I see this as a milestone on the road towards positioning Cape Town as a
globally recognised leader in design that transforms society. Our creative
and design sectors can thus grow and provide opportunities in our
economy and for our youth.
I am also excited about the opportunity this represents for the City of
Cape Town. There are many examples where we are already using design
to improve the lives of our citizens such as the MyCiTi transport service.
The Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrade project is helping make
parts of Khayelitsha safer through smart urban design. We will be rolling
this out to other parts of the Metro in conjunction with our partners from
the German Development Bank and elsewhere.
But we can do more to make Cape Town’s government even better.
I would like City officials to relook our processes to ensure that design is
considered in decision-making and to engage with designers on the key
challenges of the day.
So to recap, I am excited not because World Design Capital is the answer
to all our problems, but rather because it offers opportunities to help us
achieve our objectives of making Cape Town a better run, safer, more
caring and inclusive city.
So where are we now? This initiative has four stages: The Bid, which
culminated in our designation in October 2011; contracting and setting up
institutional mechanisms; programme development; 2014 events.
We are now in phase two. This involves getting the Host City Agreement
in place with Icsid and setting up the appropriate mechanism to manage
the development and coordination of the 2014 programme.
This process will take the next couple of months, and only then will we be
considering project proposals. As the principal, the City has to sign the
host city agreement, and that is why we are taking the lead at this stage.
I have appointed a multi-sectoral task team to help advise and guide us in
this process. The bid committee that forms the core of this team for now,
will be broadened to include academia, civil society, professional design
bodies and other municipalities.
We are still unpacking the alternatives for the exact legal make-up and
location of the external organisation to run the programme,
communication and marketing, but it will report to an independent, expert
board that will ensure good governance.
The City will:
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develop and run our internal programme to use design to improve
service delivery;
create an enabling environment for success;
provide seed funding and facilitating access to space, services and
permits.
Government will provide the seed funding, but we are hoping that the
private sector will come on board. It presents many opportunities for
companies to associate their brands with the World Design Capital 2014.
We also hope that many other sectors will become non-funding partners
as well.
I truly believe that the City, in partnership with a range of external actors,
can make this bid a meaningful success for all Capetonians.
You have heard some of the reasons why I am excited for World Design
Capital 2014, and during the course of today you will hear from others.
My hope is that today generates excitement and ideas.
I hope that it stimulates conversations within your respective sectors and
communities, and that you will help us shape the vision for WDC2014.
You will have a chance to start that today, as will be explained later in the
programme, but this is just the start.
I call on our representative organisations to help facilitate these
conversations and feed input back into the process, so that we can make
WDC2014 something which leaves a lasting legacy of which all
Capetonians can be proud.
I encourage you all to register your interest using the email address on
the cards you all received; please join us on this journey. In partnership
we can achieve so much. Thank you.