Nature Positive Cities Efforts to Advance the Transition Durban 2024

2 Assessment of enabling environment2.2 Governance Overview eThekwini Municipality adopts a decentralized approach to managing nature and climate change: –Administration of the city is led by a city manager, who oversees six deputy city managers. –Each deputy manager is responsible for an administrative cluster. Each cluster is planned and budgeted independently in accordance with the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and the Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP). –Clusters are organized into units, which are further subdivided into departments. –The key departments for nature action are the Biodiversity Management Department (BMD) and Climate Change Department (CCD), both of which depend on the Development Planning, Environment and Management Unit. –Environmental stewardship also relies on several other units, both directly (such as Water and Sanitation) and indirectly (as with Community Participation) (see Figure 2). Some examples of interaction between the BMD and other departments include: –Performing biodiversity assessments for infrastructure projects –Managing funds from other departments for the acquisition and management of land in protected areas as “biodiversity offsets” –Supporting the Natural Resources Department in preparing management plans for natural reserves –Advising on the stream-cleaning project carried out by the roads team in the Engineering unit –Providing advice to assist other departments in clearing invasive species and repopulating with native species (e.g. in an electricity substation)Economic Development and Planning Cleansing & Solid WasteTransport Authority EngineeringHealth Metropolitan Police Emergency Services Parks, Recreation, Cemeteries & CultureCommunicationManagement Services & Organizational DevelopmentCity Hall Administration & Secretariat Community ParticipationRegional Centres Legal Services Occupational Health & SafetySkills DevelopmentHuman ResourcesFinance, Pensions & Mayor Projects Real Estate City Fleet Internal Control & Business Systems Income Expenditure ProcurementElectricity Water & Sanitation Cleansing & Solid WasteCity Enterprises Business Support Markets Development Planning, Environment & ManagementClusters UnitsTrading Services and Human SettlementsEngineering and Transport AuthorityCommunity and Emergency ServicesGovernance and International RelationsCorporate & Human ResourcesFinanceCity Manager Economic Development & Facilitation Climate Change Natural ResourcesCoastal Engineer, Stormwater & Catchment ManagementBiodiversity ManagementDepartments (non-exhaustive) Core dependencies Supporting dependencieseThekwini Municipality organizational chart, core and enabling dependencies Source: eThekwini MunicipalityFIGURE 2 FIGURE 2 (CONT) Nature Positive: Cities’ Efforts to Advance the Transition 22