The Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) is a partnership between the University of Johannesburg (UJ), the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG), and organised local government in Gauteng (SALGA). GCRO’s vision for South Africa’s economic heartland is a functionally integrated, spatially coherent, competitive, environmentally sustainable, and socially and economically inclusive region. GCRO helps to build the knowledge base that government, business, labour, civil society and residents all need to make this vision a reality through the collection of data, benchmarking the city-region, policy analysis and support, applied research and critically reflective academic work.

Development of structures, processes and interventions to connect government to academic expertise, or to help academic specialists reach decision makers; collection and storage of strategically useful data, surveys, development of new data sources, GIS mapping and analysis work, and assembly of information into innovative data products; form a locus of intellectual enquiry and exchange; partnership and knowledge-sharing network building within the universities, across parts of government, and between government, academia and a wide array of research bodies operating in the region and beyond.

Melinda Swift
melinda.swift@gcro.ac.za