Project profile — Building Inclusive Green Municipalities

• South Africa (100.00%)

• Public sector policy and administrative management:
Public sector policy and administrative management (15110) (23.35%)
Decentralisation and support to subnational government (15112) (59.88%)
• General Environmental Protection: Environmental policy and administrative management (41010) (16.77%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (principal objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (significant objective)
• Climate change mitigation (significant objective)
• Climate Change Adaptation (significant objective)
• Urban issues (significant objective)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This initiative aims to strengthen the capacity of South African municipal governments to support effective service delivery, strengthen women's empowerment, inclusive local green economic growth and enhanced climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. Focus is given to the poorest regions of the country. The project is piloting local economic development initiatives in up to six Eastern Cape municipalities in collaboration with community stakeholders, particularly women and youth. The goal also includes improving local policies and practices for climate change mitigation and adaptation, and increasing the South African Local Government Association (SALGA)’s effectiveness as the national voice of municipalities. Project activities include: (1) providing training to municipal practitioners on inclusive local economic development and climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and practices; (2) developing local economic development strategies and sustainable asset management plans in up to six municipalities; (3) implementing accountability mechanisms that empower women, men, youth and vulnerable groups such as local council oversight, social audits, citizen feedback, and issue-based scorecards to ensure open and transparent local governance (4) implementing knowledge management practices among SALGA members to promote the replication of pilot initiatives and disseminate information on innovation that reduces inequalities, engages women in municipal decision-making, and fights climate change.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) more effective, innovative and inclusive local economic development services within targeted South African municipalities, in particular for women and vulnerable populations; (2) improved asset management policies and practices related to climate change adaptation and mitigation; and (3) more effective institutional support provided by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) to South African municipalities.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (September 2021) include: (1) municipalities reviewed and updated their Local Economic Development (LED) and Assets Management (AM) policies. Both policies reviewed were more inclusive of women, youth and vulnerable populations; (2) participating South African municipalities and staff can collaborate better. With silos broken down, it’s easier for municipal staff to get relevant information from other departments. This should improve strategy development and service model implementation decision-making processes; (3) 4 municipalities went from seeing Asset Management as a financially driven compliance protocol exercise to a more holistic life-cycle view of municipal assets. In the long run, this should improve the handling of assets in the municipalities. As a result, the municipalities should be able to offer better services to their constituents; (4) South African municipal staff that participated in the job shadowing missions to Canada received practical knowledge of new tools, techniques and approaches. The lived tacit experience goes a long way when put into practice on the ground. Job shadowing participants were responsible for sharing what they learned with their peers; (5) metro/anchor municipalities and district municipalities now play a more supportive role in their catchment area. This has also meant that municipalities can now tap into the unlocked resources. These resources help bolster service offerings to constituents at the local municipal level; (6) through exposure to the Federation of Canadian Municipality’s pre-election advocacy and campaigning model, the South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA) organized its first multi-political party panel debate at its National Members Assembly. This is a great achievement as SALGA can now develop its position as a non-partisan entity; (7) 561 women and youth business owners have accessed LED support to grow their businesses; and (8) more than 700 municipal staff and elected officials attended LED training and learned to seize investment opportunities within their municipalities better.

• Proactive disclosure