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The OECD Green Growth Strategy, launched in May 2011, provides concrete recommendations and measurement tools to support countries' efforts to achieve economic growth and development, while at the same time ensure that natural assets continue to provide the ecosystems services on which our well-being relies. The strategy proposes a flexible policy framework that can be tailored to different country circumstances and stages of development. This paper has been authorised for publication by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE). OECD Green Growth Papers should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD, or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the authors. This document and any data and map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. OECD Green Growth Papers aim to describe preliminary results or research in progress by the authors and are published to stimulate discussion on specific topics and obtain feedback from interested audiences. They complement the OECD Green Growth Studies series, which aims to provide in-depth reviews of the green growth issues faced by different sectors.

Due to a lack of adequate water and sanitation infrastructure, growing, unplanned urban settlements in South Africa and elsewhere have been linked to pollution of critical river systems. The same dynamics undermine local resilience, understood as the capacity to adapt and develop in response to changes, persistent social and ecological risks, and disasters. Water and sanitation challenges undermine resilience by causing and compounding risks to individuals, and to household and community health and livelihoods, in a complex context in which communities and local governments have limited capacity and resources to respond appropriately. Household and community resilience in informal settlements is drawing increasing policy focus, given the persistence of these kinds of neighbourhoods in cities and towns in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa, in particular. This case considers whether bottom-up responses that combine public and private sector resources, including community participation, and use an interdisciplinary approach can support the production of novel resilience-fostering solutions. This article presents an analysis of the case of Genius of Space waste and wastewater management infrastructure in the Western Cape, South Africa. While the process has been imperfect and slow to show results, this analysis reflects on the gains, lessons and potential for replication that this work has produced. The Genius of Space approach adds to a growing area of practice-based experimentation focussed on incrementalism and adaptive development practices in urban environments, particularly in developing countries.

When South Africa's former Public Protector, 1 Thuli Madonsela, released the State of Capture report in November 2016, Eskom was the primary site of alleged wrongdoing. The State-Owned Company's (SOC) executives, procurement, and Board appeared to have facilitated public-private collaboration critical to the systematic looting of national resources. Events at South Africa's national public utility were said to proffer confirmation that the "relationship between the President and the Gupta family had evolved into 'state capture'" (Public Protector, 2016, p. 5).That Eskom is pivotal to the state capture project is not surprising, given the scale and complexity that have characterised the organisation through its successive legal-institutional modulations. It is one of the largest power utilities in the world, operating in one of most energy intensive economy globally (Oyewo, Aghahosseini, Ram, Breyer & Lohrmann, 2019). Its role in South Africa's economy has endowed its leaders with significant influence and power. Eskom and the associated private coal mining operations are inextricably linked to South Africa's industrial and political development, and connected to powerful business interests. The market-dominant utility generates more than 90% of South Africa's electricity. It controls the entire national high voltage transmission grid, and distributes more than half of electricity directly to consumers. With annual revenues nearly three times that of Transnet and six times that of SAA, Eskom is by far the largest of South Africa's SOCs. For the 2018/19 financial year, its assets were valued in excess of R758bn, and its capital expenditure stood at R33.9bn (Eskom, 2019).The concentration of capital, established resource flows, rich interdependencies, resilient public-private networks and an enduring lack of transparency have been 1The Public Protector is one of six independent state institutions set up to support and defend democracy, subject only to South Africa's Constitution and the law, and report annually to Parliament (Republic of South Africa, 1996). In 2019, these line ministries and departments were merged again.