What is an Integrated Development Plan (IDP)?
A municipality’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP) sets out the overall strategy for achieving its developmental objectives.
The IDP includes the municipality’s strategies for mobilising resources and capacity, and its internal transformation needs and to achieve service delivery for the municipality in an effective and sustainable way. The IDP should also include the municipality’s operational strategies which may also identify service that may be provided through an external mechanism. In short, the IDP is the municipality’s principal strategic planning instrument which guides and informs all planning and development and all decisions regarding planning management and development in the municipality (see section 35 of the Systems Act).
MSP projects
Candidate MSP projects should therefore be an integral part of a municipality’s IDP. Section 36 of the Systems Act provides that “a municipality must give effect to its integrated development plan and conduct its affairs in a manner which is consistent with its integrated development plan”.
Core components of IDPs are set out in section 26 of the Systems Act and include key performance indicators, which should also be set out in the service delivery agreement.
To demonstrate to stakeholders that the determination of the best option for service delivery is not an arbitrary process municipal councils should keep records of examination of alternative services so that stakeholders and other spheres of government can see that the decision to select an MSP was systematically determined.
The regulations published under the Municipal Systems Act, dealing with municipal planning set out the details of the integrated development plans, process for amending these plans and set out these plans must be used to prepare action plans for the implementation of strategies identified by the municipality. The sections in the Municipal Systems Act dealing with integrated development plans set out the core components of these plans and provide that these plans must be developmentally oriented.
Illustration 1 below sets out a flow chart for the entire planning process from the IDP through to the section 78 process and procurement.
IDP Planning Process
