Sustainable Urban Management
As a prime contractor to USAID, TCGI was awarded a
global contract in the Spring of 1999 to provide quick-response, short-, medium-, and
long-term advisory services, technical assistance and training in four areas: 1) expanded
and equitable delivery of urban services and shelter; 2) more effective, responsive and
accountable local government; 3) reduced urban pollution; and 4) credit program
monitoring. The contract has a ceiling of US $90 million during the first three years.
Under the contract, TCGI provided training for local
government officials in South Africa in infrastructure project development. An assessment
of local government revenue generation and intergovernmental transfers in Zambia has also
been completed. The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of
responsibilities for provision of public facilities and services, sources of revenue, and,
within the current policy and legal framework, to explore possibilities for change and
improvement.
Our website, http://www.sumit.org,
includes more information on the SUM consortium and our projects.
Financial Institutions Reform
and Expansion Project
In the Spring of 1999, TCGI was awarded the second phase
of the Debt/Infrastructure component of the Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion
(FIRE) Project in India after having managed the program during the first phase
(1994-1998). In the interim period, TCGI was also awarded a short term contract to bridge
the two phases.
The FIRE project is designed to foster the development
of a commercially viable debt market and infrastructure finance system in India by
channeling USAID Housing Guaranty loan funds to finance urban infrastructure projects.
Indian financial institutions serve as intermediaries to match and direct loan funds to
those municipalities or private sector enterprises responsible for implementing eligible
projects such as water and sewerage systems, solid waste disposal, and comprehensive
shelter development schemes.
Since 1994, FIRE has supported the development of
demonstration projects as well as a sustainable infrastructure financing system. During
the first phase, TCGI developed a financial model to assist in determining the financial
feasibility of potential large scale urban environmental infrastructure projects in Indian
cities. The second phase of FIRE seeks to 1) expand involvement by the private sector and
non-governmental and community based organizations in the design, delivery, operation, and
maintenance of urban environmental infrastructure; 2) increase efficiency in the operation
and maintenance of existing water supply and sewerage systems; 3) strengthen financial
management systems at the local level; 4) develop legal and regulatory frameworks at the
state level; 5) promote implementation of supporting laws and regulations; and 6) build
local capacity through an urban management training network.
National Shelter Policy
Development, Kingdom of Lesotho
TCGI was contracted directly to assist the government in
developing a national policy for improving shelter and urban conditions throughout
Lesotho. The policy will guide planning and investment in the housing sector as well as
assisting the government to obtain additional financing both from internal and external
sources. This project is being implemented in three phases. During phase one, TGCI
prepared a rapid sector assessment which analyzed both the formal and informal aspects of
the housing sector by focusing on three main activities: shelter delivery, urban
management and resource mobilization. Based on this assessment, TCGI drafted a National
Shelter Policy and, in phase three, TGCI will work to develop consensus among stakeholders
and key Basotho policy-makers for adopting the policy.
Local
Government Partnership Program
The purpose of this program in Poland is to support the
efforts of local governments to be more effective, responsive and accountable. It covers
the (a) development of models of good practice for governance by working with 40-50
partner municipalities; (b) dissemination of those models throughout the country; (c)
building and strengthening Polish institutions that adopt, disseminate and carry the work
forward into the future; (d) promotion of strategic management principles integrating
sectors with municipal administration and incorporating input from and responsiveness to
its constituents; and (e) influencing national policy to support an enhanced role for
local governments. As a subcontractor, TCGI was responsible for the Housing and Management
Development Module.
Urban and
Environmental Services
As a subcontractor under USAID's Morocco Urban and
Environmental Services Project, which aimed to improve shelter conditions in Morocco for
lower income urban residents, TCGI helped to build government capacity to manage
information and communicate more effectively with the public. The purpose of the project
was to improve urban water resources management and expand housing opportunities for
below-median income families. TCGI provided assistance in the procurement and installation
of management information systems to build the capacity of the national shelter upgrading
agency and selected local governments. In particular, it participated in the establishment
and improvement of MIS and GIS systems.
South Africa:
Capacity-Building for Housing and Community Development
Housing is a fundamental concern of South Africa's
majority disadvantaged population. Estimates place the need at more than 2 million houses.
More than 40% of all households have monthly incomes below 800 Rand ($165). The situation
is exceptionally distressing for black women: About 35% of black households are female
headed with household incomes, on average, 18% less that male-headed black households.
In December 1997, TCGI and New Community Corporation of
Newark, New Jersey, the largest nonprofit development corporation in the U.S., coordinated
a USAID-funded study tour for Goldfields Metropolitan Community Development Corporation to
visit the United States and learn first-hand about sustainable, community-based housing,
economic development and social services. As a result of the study tour and with technical
assistance from TCGI, the Goldfields board developed the strategic and action plans needed
to begin the first phase of 2,000 houses.
With plans in hand, the community development
corporation held meetings with 2,500 potential beneficiaries and raised about 100,000 Rand
in good faith deposits. Goldfields executed an agreement with the City of Welkom to
transfer 100 acres of land to a development corporation jointly managed by Goldfields and
the municipality. Goldfields applied to the National Housing Finance Corporation for
start-up funding and received approval for a 75,000 Rand grant from a major South African
Bank.
Goldfields is a new South African community development
corporation established to increase the supply of housing in affordable and self-reliant
communities in partnership with municipalities in the Provinces of Orange Free State and
North-West. The CDC has set out to foster and serve as a model for the nonprofit
development approach to housing development.
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