RÉSUMÉ OF SACN URBAN INDICATORS REFERENCE GROUP
MEETING HELD IN EAST LONDON
2 December 2003
Attendance:
Keith Smith (City of Cape Town)
Craig Haskins (City of Cape Town)
Brian O’Leary (Ethekwini Municipality)
Tjaart van der Walt (City of Jo’burg)
Kirsten Harrison (City of Jo’burg)
Waldo Hattingh (Ekhurhuleni Municipality)
Quinton Williams (Buffalo City)
Annemarie Botha (Buffalo City)
Stan Henderson (Statistics SA)
Phil Fong (Statisticss SA)
Alexan Carilho (Statistics SA)
Anisha Maharaj (Statistics SA)
Sithole Mbanga (SACN)
Graeme Gotz (Consultant)
Richard Marwood (Development Bank of SA)
Apologies:
Jonathan Mercer (Mandela Metro)
1.
Statistics SA
(a)
Increasing usefulness of national survey data
Phil Fong and Alexan Carilho made presentations on the national survey
sampling procedures. Key issues from the presentation and discussion:
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Samples for the national surveys are being revised. Sampling at
metro/district level still has to be completed therefore it’s not possible to
provide sample sizes or precision levels for the 9 cities
Although samples for the national surveys are drawn at metro or district
level, Statistics SA have adjusted their sampling methodology to allows
for data to be extracted for all 9 cities of the SACN (i.e. including those
cities that form part of District Councils.)
It is possible for Statistics SA to increase sample sizes for individual cities
at the request of the SACN but the SACN would have to carry costs of
sampling and enumerating additional households. The sample sizes at
city level are however likely to be sufficiently large for analysis at city
level.
To increase sample sizes to allow for intracity analysis (e.g. at subcouncil
level) samples would need to be significantly bigger and this is likely to be
too costly.
With regard to the possibility of including additional questions in the
national survey questionnaires, the questionnaires are compiled at a
national level therefore it is not possible to have questions directed at
metropolitan areas only. Requests for additional/changed questions can
be channelled through the survey review panels.
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(b)
Statistics SA is using a new procedure for selection of PSUs. This
selection procedure groups Enumerator Areas (Ea’s) based on adjacency
and the type of EA (eg informal vs formal).
StatsSA is keen to work with the various local authorities to update the
sampling frameworks for the national surveys. The types of information
required from local authorities include updated addresses, updated
cartography, location of retail businesses. Phil Fong to liaise with local
authority reps in this regard.
Web-based initiatives
Census data has been published at ward level on StatsSA’s website. Phil
Fong demonstrated StatsSa’s GIS-based database, which allows for mapping
of census data at city, ward and suburb level.
(c)
Memorandum of Understanding
StatsSA had recommended that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) be
drawn up to structure the relationship between Stats SA and the SA Cities
Network.
Action: Stan Henderson to work with Keith, Tjaart and Brian to structure draft
MOU.
3.
State of SA Cities Report
Graeme Gotz reported on progress with regard to the State of South African
Cities report. The revised target date for release of the report is May 2004.
This provides an opportunity to include additional material on urban indicators.
Key issues from the discussion on draft set of indicator data:
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Indicator data collated thus far needs to checked.
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For some of the suggested indicators data has not yet been collated the possibility of filling these gaps need to be checked by working group
members.
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The local authority data collection project is nearly complete and the
indicators obtained could be included in the report.
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Deriving a Quality of Life indicator for publication in the report will be
difficult since the concept has a strong subjective component and is not
easily measured from available data. Alternative option would be to use
socio-economic status (SES) as a proxy measure – this is easier to
define and data for measuring SES is easily available from the Census
and OHS
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The distinction between asset and outcome indicators was valuable but
it might be difficult to create indexes around these.
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Actions:
Graeme to e-mail list of issues for working group members to check.
Keith to follow up with Dataworld on when the data from local
authorities will be available.
Brian to circulate Durban’s Quality of life measurement.
4.
Projects
(a) Data Collection Project
- Citizen Surveys has compiled information from the All Media Products
Survey (AMPS) and the national departments. A report on the status of
city-related data held by national departments is still being awaited.
- Two questionnaires are still outstanding from the local authority data
collection process.
(b)
Capacity Building
Keith presented report on Metropolis meeting and proposal regarding
capacity-building received from UN-Habitat.
Action: Cape Town to follow-up on UN-Habitat proposal.
(c)
Website
Brian o’Leary presented the latest proposal re the web-based database.
Action:
Brian to revise proposal based on additional input.
Sithole Mbanga to follow up on whether proposal could be implemented
by existing web-design team. Sithole to check source of additional
funding, if required.
(d)
UN-Habitat City Development Index (CDI)
Tjaart van der Walt presented project proposal for updating and
interpreting the UN-Habitat CDI for the nine cities. The proposal also
included provision for calculating the CDI at the intracity level.
Action:
Tjaart to separate the proposal for compiling city-level CDI from that for
compiling intra-city CDIs.
Sithole Mbanga to follow up with World Bank on funding for this project.
(e)
SA City Development Index
Craig Haskins presented the latest draft of the proposed core set of
indicators. Agreed that this be accepted as the proposed set from the
Urban Indicators Group and that it be subject to review based on any
comments received from other role-players.
Action:
Craig to follow-up on collation of data for the core set of indicators.
5.
General
Next meeting proposed for March 2004. Date and venue to be confirmed.