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The purpose of this study is to uncover the most prominent challenges that urban planners face when tackling sustainable practices in developing countries. The time frame was set to after the 2012 Rio +20 global summit. Therefore, only articles that were produced from 1 January 2013 till 31 March 2019 were included, as they would have adhered to the contributions and protocols set forth at the largest UN Earth Summit conference. In this study, a review of the sustainable urban planning challenges was conducted. The challenges are then grouped into topics that align with the theme of the type of challenge. Finally, the challenges are analysed to identify the most well-known and disruptive challenges that restrict urban planners in developing countries.

A disconnect exists between innovations and the adoption of such innovations, specifically within healthcare facilities. This disconnect results in various healthcare challenges — ones that could be addressed by successfully adopting and integrating an innovation into organisational processes — not being addressed. To address the challenge of innovation adoption within healthcare, it is proposed that a tool be developed to identify areas that should be addressed to improve the chances of the successful adoption and integration of innovations into existing systems in a publichealthcare facility. By assessing a facility’s readiness for innovationadoption, it is possible to identify the barriers to the successful adoption of innovations. Knowing what such challenges or barriers to innovation adoption are will allow role players to address these challenges or barriers. The purpose of this paper is to develop the healthcare innovation adoption readiness assessment tool (HIARAT), which measures the maturity of a healthcare facility’s innovationadoption process. The HIARAT was validated through a face validation workshop, and through a case study at a South African public healthcare facility.

Since 2010, pharmaceutical organisations have begun to provide drug patents in sub-Saharan Africa through the UN Medicine Patent Pool. This initiative allows any pharmaceutical manufacturer to access these patents and manufacture the drugs, thereby aiming to decrease the associated lead times and costs. The participation of numerous manufacturers, some of whom may not have well-established quality control systems in the market, intensifies the need for effective drug quality monitoring. Research indicates that it is often the case that these ‘niche drug provision systems’ face many challenges with the quality of new-generation drugs and the implementation of effective pharmacovigilance (PV)1 systems for the reporting of adverse drug reactions. The lack of resource efficiency in adverse drug reaction reporting within the sub-Saharan context is also a growing concern.

The objective of the paper is to understand the integration costs of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in future energy generation scenarios for South Africa. The study used PLEXOS1 to conduct a bottom-up hourly simulation, incorporating the high renewable energy scenarios of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for 2030, in which RET penetrations are projected to be below 20 per cent. After verification and validation of the model by PLEXOS subject matter experts, the final model was run with two cases: a base case, and a constraint case. The results for these two cases for the year 2030 exhibited system costs of R0.39/kWh and R0.48/kWh respectively. A secondary output was the levelised cost of energy values for a number of energy generation technologies. A sensitivity analysis subsequently revealed that the largest contributor to a change in system costs is the demand forecast, followed by an increase in renewable energy outputs. Finally, recommendations are made to improve future energy modelling research by addressing the key assumptions of this research inquiry.

Pharmacovigilance (PV) is based on the medical assessment of adverse medical events or drug-related problems, collected within organised health programmes. The large number of different PV systems, the equally large number of stakeholders within such systems (pharmaceutical companies, government regulatory bodies, national and international clinical regulatory bodies, healthcare workers, etc.), and the significant number of dimensions along which the effectiveness and efficiency could be measured, adds to this complexity. Furthermore, the lack of a standardised reporting protocol across the various PV systems hinders efforts to manage PV coherently on a global scale. This paper proposes the value of a standardised global PV reporting system by evaluating the systemic effects of the lack of such a standardised system.

The Western Cape Province government in South Africa has established the transition to a green economy as a high priority. The sustainable use of water resources has been identified as a critical necessity for such a green economy transition. The research summarised in this paper conceptualised the factors that relate to water resources, and that influence the transition to a green economy in the Western Cape Province. Subsequently, a system dynamics model was developed to evaluate the impact of key strategic interventions of the green economy transition. The results from the model show that the Province could possibly experience extreme water shortages in the near future if a business-as-usual scenario continues. However, with sufficient investment and effective management, the water demand of the Province can be met.

The Western Cape Government in South Africa has identified the concept of a green economy as a way to transform the Province’s economy to one that is more sustainable from an economic, social, and environmental perspective. System dynamics modelling was used to develop a better understanding of the implications of different green economy policies and investments in the electricity sector of the Western Cape Province. The results suggest that continuing on the current policy path would increase the gap between demand and supply, increase the carbon footprint of the electricity sector, and not provide growth in employment in the sector. Strategic green economy investments are therefore expected to impact positively on a number of indicators across a number of sectors.

The editorial in "Frontiers in Sustainable Cities" discusses the importance of cleaner production and circular economy principles in building sustainable cities. It emphasizes the need to minimize environmental, social, and economic impacts while meeting the needs of present and future inhabitants. The editorial also highlights various models and approaches to sustainability, including the exchange of materials, energy, information, and know-how between urbanized and less urbanized areas. The text presents research papers on topics such as urban sustainability, circular economy, greenhouse gas emissions, waste-to-energy, and urban design for environmental services, offering insights into fostering more sustainable urban environments. [Extracted from the article]