ABOUT US
Upgrade Communities is a group of professionals based in South Africa who would like to improve South African towns and cities using our tried and tested methods.
Our company has European roots, our European-South African connection being one of our greatest assets. Through our connection we have found a method of transformation originating from our experience. It is our mission to share this knowledge with South African municipalities, towns and cities, it is our mission to Upgrade your community.
All over the world, cities and towns that in the past often originated in places where natural resources were extracted sooner or later face the same problems: mining activities are simply “finite”!
Many city and municipal authorities are confronted with the challenge of drawing up and realizing a new future for their cities and municipalities: for some cities and municipalities this is still not a current issue, for others a current concern, other municipalities and cities are already fully involved in this process. “Reconversion”.
With roots in Europe, Upgrade Communities has found that important inspiring examples have already been realized in some regions in Europe, which can also be implemented in South Africa: in this way we want to share “good practices” with South African cities and municipalities: not to be pedantic, but to be mutually inspiring.
Our team has the experience and knowledge to help your city council further in this, up to the implementation of concrete projects.
OUR WORKING METHODS
1. QUICK SCAN: “measuring is knowing”
We visit your municipality, city or region and provide a baseline measurement of your town/city: what is the starting point at the moment? So that we can also measure and prove the evolutions later:
- On the basis of all currently useful data and figures available
- Based on additional parameters that we consider useful municipality-by-municipality and search together.
2. INSPIRATION: “A path leads over every mountain… although it is not always visible from the valley”
Together we look for inspiration and good practices:
We visit (in general) other “good practices” or (more concretely) possible projects in South Africa (based on the data from the quick scan).
3. CONSULTANCY: “Alone you go faster, together you can go further”
We will continue on the road together and work on a concrete plan for your municipalities, cities, regions; together we will take the following steps:
a. Prospect
Based on the Quick scan and the inspiration we have gained, we will build a concrete plan one-on-one:
- Choices must be made in which direction the city or municipality wishes to go based on a strength-weakness analysis
- We go concretely on the ground: together we look for the ideal location where and the people we work with.
b. Proposal : “we plant a forest”
We develop a Master Plan per municipality/city/region, based on a clear vision, substantiated with factual data that has been collected in the meantime and based on the strengths and weaknesses of the file;
c. Crystallisation:
For each “aspect” of the “proposal” we work out more detailed plans for each sub-project, both in the field of practical – legal – commercial – financial
d. Implementation:
On the basis of the municipality’s “master plan” and the defined “sub-projects”, we proceed – boots on the ground – to the tenders and realization of our projects.
SECTORS THAT WE FOCUS ON
Job Creation
Community-Building
Tourism
Mobility
Waste Management – Processing – Recycling
