Project profile — Capacity Building Technical Assistance Fund

The Capacity Building Technical Assistance Fund (CBTAF) supports South African initiatives to improve governance. More specifically, it helps build accountable public institutions and improve the capacity of government departments to deliver services. The goal of this project is to contribute to improved service delivery, particularly for poor and vulnerable populations in South Africa in support of the South African Government's Program of Action. The project provides technical assistance learning exchanges between civil society organizations and government departments, as well as government-to-government exchanges (South-South and between South Africa and Canada). The project also provides direct support to the Technical Assistance Unit of the South African National Treasury. The mandate of the Technical Assistance Unit is to improve the sustainable management of public finances through the provision of technical assistance and management support to other government departments (national, provincial and local).

N/A

Results achieved as of March 2012 include: 28 initiatives with civil society organizations funded through the CBTAF project have been implemented since the inception of the project. Examples of results achieved include the following: improved application of sustainable agricultural processes, improved efficiency and accountability in delivering housing services in Johannesburg, and increased capacity to implement an intervention programme for children affected by HIV/AIDS. On the government side, CBTAF has supported seven learning exchanges for South African government departments since project inception with a view to increasing capacity in policy-making and improving service delivery in areas such as education, housing, health, and agriculture. Government capacity has also been increased through support from the Technical Assistance Unit (TAU), which has successfully responded to new government priorities and restructuring as well as increased demand for technical assistance on large-scale strategic priority projects. This organization is on the cutting edge of public sector consulting. TAU has completed 88 sub-projects, and is actively supporting another 58 with long-term and systemic impact on government business and service delivery. As an example, TAU was instrumental in the establishment of the Infrastructure Delivery Improvement Programme (IDIP), which identifies and addresses capacity constraints and problems leading to under-expenditure of capital infrastructure budgets by provincial departments. Since infrastructure delivery is a key driver towards economic growth, this improvement in the delivery of infrastructure through the IDIP programme has significantly contributed towards economic growth in South Africa.