Enablers and constraints for data use in planning for mobility

Aim: This article seeks to understand the enablers and constraints to the effective use of data for planning in South African municipalities, by looking at an understudied empirical nexus between migration and the managerial systems of planning. Settings: Planning is an increasingly critical municipal function, with mobility and shifting settlement patterns reshaping South African municipalities. At the same time, local governance in South Africa is facing multiple crises. In 2019, only 18 out of 257 municipalities received a clean audit, and in 2018, there were more than 250 service delivery protests, a figure that has been increasing steadily for a decade. Methods: An iterative process of case study development through institutional ethnography took place in six South African municipalities, ranging from rural municipalities to mega-cities, but focusing on secondary cities and peri urban areas. Results: The need for stronger management systems at a municipal level in South Africa is well understood. The strengthening of public sector monitoring and evaluation systems is one tool for public sector reforms the government is implementing at all levels of government. However, its effectiveness is threatened by varied incentives to generate and use data to inform decision making. Conclusion: In doing so, it underscores the ways in which data systems are developed in socially embedded ways, and identifies some data-specific areas that could support municipal management systems to better respond to migration.