The Ikapa Elihumayo GDS will try to achieve its aims by using 11 main strategies or plans:

This plan shows what infrastructure is needed where, and how it can be built over time as budgets allow. It includes buying public land for settlements, and increasing bulk infrastructure like water, sanitation, energy and roads.

SIP covers all type of infrastructure including 'hard' (such as roads, buildings, water etc) and 'soft' (such as institutional arrangement, regulatory frameworks, human resources etc) infrastructure and looks at 11 infrastructure sectors.

The strategy is led by the Department of Transport and Public Works.

These reports give details of how the clothing, fishing, metal, film, craft and other industries work. They show what is needed for economic development, empowerment, increasing employment and what skills are needed.

Twenty-five studies have been completed across primary, secondary, tertiary sectors and crosscutting activities.

The strategy is led by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism

The framework shows where growth in the province should take place. It points to how public transport and new ways of providing community facilities and housing can improve the quality of our lives now and in the future in urban and rural areas

The PSDF analyses the issues facing 28 sectors in the biophysical, socioeconomic and built environment; provides a set of normative principles that guide the Province's approach to dealing with socio-economic issues that are manifested spatially; provides a map giving guidance for the future spatial development of the Province and provides a set of policies.

The PSDF deals both with issues that are explicitly spatial (for example, where future residential development should be located), and with issues that have not previously been viewed as part of spatial policybut which have significant spatial impacts (for example, recycling of waste, or limiting carbon emissions).

The strategy is led by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Planning.

This strategy aims to reduce poverty through interventions such as job creation, giving needy people access to grants, health and education benefits, and programmes to address the great vulnerability of all poor people, especially women, to TB and HIV.

The strategy is led by the Department of Social Development.

This strategy emphasises retaining scarce skills, and promoting quality education to expand the skills base and increase job creation. It promotes adult basic education, and further education and training.

It is lead by the Western Cape Education Department.

This strategy examines issues such as migration patterns and how the province's population is changing. It addresses the challenges of violence and crime in communities.

This strategy sets out a number of options for solving the housing backlog, including upgrading informal settlements, creating more affordable housing choices, and ensuring sustainable construction methods that make communities safer and more comfortable, and also bring down the cost of energy. The SHSS shows the importance of living accommodation close to public transport, shops, work and places to relax.

The strategy, which is also called Isidima, meaning "enabling dignified communities", is led by the Department of Local Government and Housing.

This strategy focuses on the development of skills and greater participation, especially by young people, in the growing sectors of the Western Cape economy.

This project aims to bring together different laws that govern planning, together with environmental and heritage regulations, to make it simpler to develop land or set up businesses in a sustainable way.

This SDIP includes programmes to encourage biodiversity, effective open space management, and better management of settlements by ensuring sustainability in services such as water, waste, energy and land.

This draft strategy and action plan aims to strengthen the province's resilience to climate change and its adaptive capacity, particularly in vulnerable economic sectors and communities

Saving energy and using public transport are the most effective ways to slow climate change. Businesses and electricity producers will increasingly have to focus on clean production in order to reduce emissions. Together the public and private sector will promote renewable energy from the sun, wind and waves.

Prioritised programmes identified include an integrated water supply and infrastructure management programme, reduction of the provincial carbon footprint, the establishment of a focused climate change research and weather information programme and establishing clear links between land stewardship, livelihoods and the economy.

The strategy is led by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning.