The Urban Environmental Management Programme (UEMP) is a collaboration between at least eleven partners from different spheres of the South African government which will work together to improve service delivery to the citizens of South Africa.
The partners of the Programme are government institutions from the national, provincial and municipal spheres.
The programme aims to alleviate poverty as well as building the institutional capacity for local environmentally sustainable services. In this respect the Programme is a continuation of more than ten years of environmental collaboration between South Africa and Denmark.
The programme began in April 2006 with a five-year budget of DKK 220 million.
The design of the programme is in line with international best practice on aid effectiveness (Paris Convention, 2005). The premise is that any development co-operation support will have most chance of success if locally owned and driven. The South African partners are responsible for the implementation and progress of the programme. Each partner proposes activities in its normal business plan which is then funded through the UEM Programme. The Programme Steering Committee approves the respective years' projects and the activities of the different partner institutions.
The UEMP has its focus on the following themes:
- Air Quality
The programme will provide support for the implementation of the National Air Quality Management Act (2005), particularly on provincial and municipal level.
- Environmental Health
The programme will provide support to the functions that monitor and enforce environmental health at national, provincial and municipal level. - Sustainable Planning
The programme will support the integration of environmental planning into broader planning processes. - Sustainable Energy Management
The programme will promote sustainable energy management by supporting renewable energy sources and various strategies and pilot projects. - Waste Management
The programme will support the implementation of the Waste Management Bill at national and municipal level after it is promulgated into legislation.
National and Provincial administrations with coordination and oversight responsibilities utilise support in developing frameworks, guidelines and procedures, which will become the future guidelines and standard for all municipalities. The national and provincial partners are:
Five municipalities serve as pilots and take various leads in the development of national norms and standards. There is the possibility of other municipalities joining the programme in future. The five municipal partners are:
A Knowledge Management and Civil Society Support (KMCSS) component is managed by the Royal Danish embassy (www.ambpretoria.um.dk) The KMCSS component supports the South African Cities Network as a key Knowledge Management institution.
An NGO fund is also available, as is a Fund for Applied Research.
To view the UEM Programme Document, click here.
As indicated above the Programme has the following three components:
The Programme Steering Committee (PSC) has representatives from each of the respective South African partners institutions and representatives from DANIDA. Guided by this committee the PSC-Secretariat, based at the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), manages components 1 and 3 (the national and provincial UEM, and the municipal UEM respectively). To read more about the PSC, click here
See an overview of the current budget year.
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