Contextualising the National Development Plan for enhanced service delivery: considerations for planning in KwaZulu-Natal

English: Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) are the planning instruments directed at strategies for enhancing service delivery in local government. As a consequence, capacity initiatives are driven by these plans to address prioritised developmental needs. The key to establishing such initiatives is informed by the National Development Plan (NDP). This Plan changed the planning regime in South Africa, culminating in a comprehensive planning hierarchy for local, provincial and national spheres of government. In light thereof, the paper theoretically examines the alignment of planning work procedures in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) in ensuring that development planning is ‘on track’. To this end, the KZN Provincial Planning Commission (PPC) developed a Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) aligned with the National Plan. It follows then that District Municipalities formulated a District Growth and Development Plan (DGDP) with the same time horizon as the National Plan leading to 2030. Municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) then become instruments to implement the Provincial Strategy in five-year periods. Against the background of action-based Batho-Pele Principles as necessary determinants, key issues may be addressed, whilst contextualising long-term development planning and implementation as the NDP-PGDP-IDP praxis. Cumulatively, planners in KZN must respond to this new plan hierarchy innovatively by integrating and aligning with the NDP at other planning levels in an ethical, accountable and socially responsible manner addressing poverty, inequality and unemployment. The article concludes that the trajectory of development planning in KZN is strategically linked to national and long-term initiatives and work procedures for enhanced service delivery.