In 2013 Isandla Institute started an initiative to conceptualise a civic academy, as mooted in the draft National Development Plan. The idea behind the civic academy is that through direct community involvement in neighbourhood planning and city planning, neighbourhoods and cities become more inclusive, liveable and sustainable. The civic academy seeks to develop structured learning opportunities to strengthen community activism and leadership in the interest of achieving better spatial outcomes in poor urban settlements; it also seeks to facilitate learning between representatives of municipalities and communities. Isandla Institute has engaged in iterative processes of research, consultation and proposition development to develop the concept and build broad-based support. This is an ongoing initiative.

Between 2016 and 2018, Isandla Institute partnered with Afesis-corplan, BESG, the Heinrich Böhl Foundation Southern Africa Office and Planact to implement the project ‘‘Accounting for basic services: Tackling the inadequate use of resources by municipalities and building a rights-based approach to service delivery’. The project focused on using budget analysis and budget expenditure monitoring as critical tools for community empowerment, advocacy and accountability, aimed at improving municipal service delivery. Isandla Institute provided overall research and learning support to the project and was responsible for distilling lessons for policy uptake, amongst others. The two-year project was funded by the European Union.

Isandla Institute designed and implemented the first phase of the InTAcT Project on behalf of the Cities Support Programme of National Treasury. The aim of the project is to advance accountability, integrity and transparency in decision making processes related to land and infrastructure development in the metropolitan municipalities of South Africa. The team led by Isandla Institute developed and implemented diagnostic assessments of integrity, social accountability and transparency practices in cities. The team also produced a knowledge repository with tools, case studies, guidelines and other knowledge products (www.intact.org.za). The project, which ran between June 2017 and July 2018, was executed as a partnership project with Strategies for Change.

Further details on the InTAcT Project can be found at www.intact.org.za

Since January 2009 Isandla Institute hosts the Secretariat of the Good Governance Learning Network (GGLN), a national network of NGOs with an active interest in local governance. The main purpose of the GGLN is to facilitate knowledge sharing, peer learning, knowledge production and advocacy aimed at strengthening meaningful participatory local governance. Amongst others, the GGLN produces the annual The State of Local Governance publication, focusing on pertinent themes such as leadership, social accountability, responsiveness, and so on.

Further details about the network, its membership and its work can be found on www.ggln.org.za.

Isandla Institute formulated a critique of the emerging housing policy framework in South Africa between 2000 and 2001. This work culminated in the production of the edited volume Housing Policy and Practice in Post-Apartheid South Africa, published by Heinemann in 2003. ISBN: 0796207860, 9780796207869.

Isandla Institute coordinated and conducted a groundbreaking study into the operation of the urban land market, focusing on how the poor access, hold and trade land. The study was conducted in partnership with Stephen Berrisford Consulting on behalf of Urban LandMark in 2007.

Visit this link to access the research: Voices of the Poor: community perspectives on accessing urban land.

In 2008 Isandla Institute conducted an assessment of how municipalities can recognise and support informal urban land markets for Urban LandMark (ULM).

Click here to view the download: Implementation Support Strategy for Municipal Projects to Recognise and Enhance the Operation of Socially-dominated Land Markets.

On behalf of the SACN, Isandla Institute and PDG reviewed the extent to which property rates policies benefit poor home owners in cities in South Africa. The project was done in 2009.

Isandla Institute developed a position paper on the social function of urban land, in contradistinction to a purely economic, ecological or infrastructural perspective on urban land, 2010. This paper, and subsequent work, informed a submission on the Draft Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Bill in June 2011.

In 2011 Isandla Institute developed a guide on urban land governance for municipal officials. The guide was commissioned by Urban LandMark, based on research commissioned in the preceding four years, and as such is based on its philosophy of making urban land markets work for the poor. In 2012 Isandla Institute was contracted by Urban LandMark to develop and implement a dissemination strategy, which included hosting city-level workshops to introduce municipal practitioners to the guide.

Managing urban land: a guide for municipal practitioners