Toolkit for Social Facility Provision in non-metropolitan SA Launched
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform recently launched the first web-based toolkit to support a differentiated application of social facility provision standards in non-metropolitan areas. The toolkit provides users with profile information on all non-metropolitan areas in South Africa and enables users to calculate the required social facility provision targets for each service region, based on a set of differentiated standards.The toolkit was developed for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform by the CSIR in collaboration with Retro Rabbit. According to Chéri Green (project leader from the CSIR): “The differentiated standards for access to rural services and the web-based toolkit were presented to the Honourable Minister Gugile Nkwinti on 4 October 2016 and are now being rolled out for application in all provinces. A series of workshops will be held to train key people who have been identified in each of the provinces.”
- Supports planning & budgeting of social facility provision
- Provides guidelines on standards & their application especially in rural areas
- Provides demographic & morphological profiles of service catchment areas across South Africa
- Calculates typical social facility service provision for catchments
- Freely available at www.socialfacilityprovisiontoolkit.co.za
- Easy to navigate & users are provided with application & user guides
- Users need to apply the standards & guidelines with due consideration of the development context & other area-specific aspects
During 2015/16, the CSIR was commissioned by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) to differentiate and adjust standards for social services provision particularly in relation to rural areas. The ultimate aim is to ensure an equitable distribution of government service points and social facilities in rural areas to improve geographical access.
As part of this larger project – Developing Differentiated Rural Norms and Standards for Access to Rural Services – the Social Facility Provision Toolkit was produced to provide a platform for the widest possible dissemination of the provision standards and guidelines, as well as to support all possible users in applying the set of consolidated and differentiated context-specific provision standards. In the provision of services in non-metropolitan areas, a key consideration should be the diversity of rural contexts that need to be addressed.
For requests or discussions on the Toolkit please contact:
Gerbrand Mans, CSIR, tel:(021) 841 2552 email:gmans@csir.co.za