Cities are not short of plans, strategies, or even funding — yet many infrastructure projects fail to materialise or deliver meaningful outcomes. Why?
This talk explores the gap between policy and project delivery, drawing on experience from infrastructure programmes in South Africa and the Middle East. It highlights systemic challenges such as weak project origination, misaligned institutional mandates, gaps in early-stage financing, and poor sequencing across interdependent systems.
The session will unpack why projects often stall between concept and implementation, and how current approaches to prioritisation, preparation, and financing can reinforce these challenges. It will also offer practical insights on how cities, funders, and practitioners can better conceive of, prioritise and design projects that are implementable, investable, and aligned to real urban needs.
Speaker
Jodi Allemeier
Jodi Allemeier is an urban development practitioner and programme manager with 20 years of experience working in Southern Africa and more recently the Middle East. Her work focuses on municipal governance, infrastructure delivery, and the systems required to translate strategy into implementable projects.
She works as an independent consultant supporting city and national governments on municipal strategies informed by foresight, data and urban economics. She manages teams who deliver project preparation, investment pipelines, and institutional coordination. She is currently the Lead for the FCDO’s South African Urban Resilience Programme. She also contributes to urban food systems governance through her work with ICLEI.
Jodi brings a cross-cutting perspective that integrates technical, social, financial, and governance dimensions, with a particular focus on the gap between planning and delivery in complex urban environments.
Moderator
Robert Laubscher, SIG SUR Managing Team Member
Robert is a professional civil engineer and Head of the City of Cape Town’s Engineering Innovation Unit under the Future Planning and Resilience Directorate. The specialised unit is responsible for various strategic interventions that drive the improvement of project planning and execution in the City including BIM implementation.
He is a registered Professional Engineer with over 20 years’ industry experience spanning over three continents. His project track record includes bridges, tunnels, buildings and city developments in the UAE, UK and South Africa.
Organizer: Smarter Urban Rural
Date and time: May 21, 2026, 2pm CET
Format: webinar
Duration: 1h
Number of CPDs: 1.5
Mode of delivery: online
Ticket price: Free
