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This reference guide, produced by the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) as part of the COMPACT programme, provides a comprehensive framework for citizens and officials to improve accountability and collaboration within South African local government. It details the legal duties of municipal councillors and officials, the processes for planning and budgeting, and the mechanisms available for community participation and oversight to ensure the delivery of basic services.

This guide explains the role, structure, and functioning of ward committees within South African local government, detailing their purpose as bridges between communities and municipal councillors to facilitate public participation.

This guide, published by the Public Affairs Research Institute, aims to empower youth in South Africa to participate in local government and municipal planning. It outlines the legal frameworks supporting youth engagement, highlights the gap between the youth population and their representation in government, and provides practical ways for young people to influence local decision-making.

This guide, published by the Public Affairs Research Institute, aims to empower youth in South Africa to participate in local government and influence municipal planning. It outlines the legal frameworks supporting youth engagement, highlights the current gap between the youth population and their political representation, and provides practical ways for young people to engage with their municipalities.

This guide, published by the Public Affairs Research Institute, aims to empower youth in South Africa to participate in local government and influence municipal planning. It outlines the legal frameworks supporting youth engagement, highlights the current underrepresentation of young people in political decision-making, and provides practical ways for youth to engage with their municipalities.

This report by the Public Affairs Research Institute examines land governance within the Ekurhuleni Municipality, detailing the legislative frameworks, institutional roles, and the systemic challenges associated with land acquisition and the management of informal settlements. It highlights the tension between municipal mandates and the realities of land invasions, environmental constraints like dolomitic land, and the role of civil society in mediating between the state and marginalized residents.

This report by the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) examines the failure of South Africa to provide equitable and affordable access to sufficient water, despite constitutional guarantees. It argues that the state has substituted a comprehensive human-rights definition of access with a narrow focus on physical infrastructure, while ignoring affordability and water quality. The report highlights the inadequacy of the Free Basic Water (FBW) policy and the systemic contradiction between municipal financial sustainability and the human right to water.

This report, produced by a partnership between the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), and the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), proposes a framework for an 'integrated land administration' system in South Africa. It argues that current land governance is fragmented, dualistic, and hindered by a legacy of racial segregation, which undermines land reform and social cohesion. The document defines land administration as the operational component of land governance and outlines the Integrated Land Administration Project (ILAP) to address these systemic failures through stakeholder engagement and institutional reform.

This report examines land-use management in the Lephalale Local Municipality, focusing on the challenges of a municipality that owns almost no land within its urban edge. It details the municipality's strategies for land acquisition, the provision of integrated human settlements, and the incremental introduction of land-use schemes in rural areas under traditional authorities, specifically the Seleka Traditional Authority. The document highlights the influence of major mining and energy companies, the impact of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA), and the complexities of intergovernmental relations.

This briefing by Mduduzi Mbada of the Public Affairs Research Institute outlines the GGT2030 strategy for investing in ten high-growth sectors to drive economic growth, job creation, and infrastructure development in the Gauteng City Region.

This brochure describes the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), a Johannesburg-based African research institute founded in May 2010. PARI focuses on research into constraints to effective governance, institutional design, and state-society relations to promote equitable policies and reduce poverty and inequality in South Africa and the global South.

The Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) submitted a formal comment on the Public Procurement Bill 2023, arguing that while reforms are urgent, the current text contains significant constitutional hazards, excessive reliance on subordinate legislation, and gaps in transparency and integrity provisions.

This report by the Public Affairs Research Institute analyzes the financial and operational crisis facing South African municipal electricity distribution and proposes integrating existing rooftop solar PV and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) as a pathway to reduce bulk costs and improve reliability.

The Transnet Inquiry Reference Book, authored by the Public Affairs Research Institute, provides a fact-based account of governance failures and systemic corruption at Transnet, South Africa's state-owned freight transport and logistics company. The report details how the company's governance was repurposed to facilitate large-scale corruption and rent-seeking, primarily benefiting the Gupta family and their associates through manipulated procurement processes for locomotives, cranes, and IT services.

This executive summary examines the energy security challenges facing India and China, focusing on their increasing dependence on imported oil and the resulting geopolitical implications for their domestic and foreign policies.

This policy brief from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) argues that scientific evidence, specifically from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), supports the engagement of the UN Security Council (UNSC) with climate change. The authors aim to counter claims by some Council members that there is no clear scientific basis for linking climate change to security concerns, asserting that climate change constitutes a real risk to international peace and security.

This briefing from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) examines the relationship between climate and armed conflict. While civil conflict is statistically more frequent in dry and tropical climates, the authors find little evidence that climatic variability directly causes state-based violent conflict. Instead, they argue that climate change acts as a 'threat multiplier' that can increase conflict risk indirectly through migration, food insecurity, and economic shocks, particularly in societies already characterized by poor governance and poverty.

This research paper examines the relationship between local-level environmental degradation, demographic pressures, and internal armed conflict from 1990 to 2004. Using a geospatial grid analysis of 100km x 100km squares globally, the authors find that while population density is a strong predictor of conflict, the effects of land degradation and water scarcity are relatively weak and often secondary to political and economic factors such as GDP and regime stability.

This research paper examines how economic incentives, specifically related to oil, motivate third parties to intervene militarily in internal wars. The authors develop a formal three-party model and test it against a dyadic dataset of conflict states and potential interveners from 1945 to 1999, finding that both the oil wealth of the conflict state and the oil dependence of the potential intervener significantly increase the likelihood of intervention.

This report details a project led by WattTime.org and RMI to catalyze the market for Automated Emissions Reduction (AER), a software-based technology that modulates the electricity consumption of internet-connected devices based on real-time grid emissions data. The project included a pilot deployment in Chicago and a stakeholder workshop (charrette) to identify value propositions and scaling strategies for residential and institutional customers, utilities, and policymakers.