World news story

Prosperity Fund’s Future Cities Programme launches in South Africa

The UK Prosperity Fund, in partnership with Future Cities South Africa is launching their Future Cities Programme in three of South Africa’s major city municipalities: Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.

South Africa cityscape

The Global Future Cities Programme is an £80 million programme, one of the several global programmes run through Prosperity Fund, sets out opportunities to promote inclusive urban economic growth and increase global prosperity by working around the three underpinning themes of Transport, Resilience, Urban Planning.

The programme in South Africa runs from 2019 – 2022. There are five individual projects within the three cities, providing technical assistance through our delivery partner, Future Cities South Africa, a PwC lead consortium comprising international and local firms.

Nigel Casey, the British High Commissioner said:

Our South African Future Cities programme launches in earnest this week, with projects in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. We’re delighted to be able to work with these three municipalities.

The programme has been designed to achieve maximum impact in the areas of transport, urban resilience and sustainable planning.

The projects are being delivered by a PwC lead consortium comprising local and international firms and experts. The Cape Town project focuses on technical assistance and capacity building around the City’s Data Strategy to support evidence based decision-making processes.

Each of the projects is designed to address the host city’s specific needs under the themes of the programme. In Cape Town, for example, the programme provides technical assistance in support of the City’s ambitious data strategy. This project aims to further enable the City’s evidence-based decision-making processes to inform robust planning and policy processes.

Launch events are being planned in each city, with the first taking place in Cape Town on the 21st February 2020 at the Civil Centre. This event celebrates the relationship between the UK Foreign Office, The City of Cape Town and the Future Cities South Africa consortium, and sits alongside the City’s public launch of their Data Strategy taking place on the same day.

Media

For media queries, please contact:

Isabel Potgieter
Spokesperson British High Commission
Mobile: +27 (0)833911606
Email: Isabel.potgieter@fco.gov.uk

Anelisa Sandi
Public Diplomacy and Communications Officer - Cape Town
Mobile: 081 040 2671
Email: anelisa.sandi@fco.gov.uk

Further information

  • The Prosperity Fund is a £1.3 billion, cross-government fund, which promotes growth and prosperity in developing and middle-income countries. The Fund launched in 2015 and will run up until 2023.
  • The fund focuses on the promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and aims to promote poverty reduction and sustainable and inclusive urban growth within the beneficiary countries.
Published 21 February 2020