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The current phase of the LGSP is a 51-month initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under a bilateral agreement with South Africa’s Department of Provincial and Local Government (the dplg).
It has 2 specific objectives:
- Improve municipal planning skills and operating systems to increase effectiveness, transparency and accountability; and
- Increase the revenue stream of selected municipalities ensuring that citizens meet their obligations.
The LGSP, which began in October 2004, is implemented in all nine provinces.
In 2006/07, three additional components were included: the Local Government Anti-Corruption Initiative (LGACI), the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the DRC Trilateral Alliance Initiative.
The LGACI funding is used towards assisting the dplg with the implementation of its Anti-Corruption Strategy in selected municipalities. The objective is to support the dplg in rolling out support to two groups of 21 and 31 municipalities respectively to enable them to put in place credible and effective policies, processes and procedures which will render the municipal environment unfriendly to and unsupportive of corruption in all its forms.
The PEPFAR funding supported the following activities in FY07: 1) a gap analysis of the Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs) in terms of compliance with Department of Health guidelines and refurbishment of 4 TCCs; and 2) support to 23 (4 district and 19 local) municipalities on a) workplace programs for voluntary counseling and testing; and b) training of home-based care workers; and will support the following activities in FY08: 1) establishment of 7 new Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs); and 2) continued support to the 23 municipalities..
The DRC Trilateral Alliance Initiative will provide support to the dplg with the South African Government’s consultations with the DRC on the Organic Laws on Decentralization, a needs assessment workshop to develop a Practitioner’s Guide for provinces and municipalities and the Practitioner’s Guide.
In 2007/08, additional funding has been provided to place 7 advisors in 7 municipalities approved by the Director-General of the dplg to assist them with specific aspects of performance improvement and revenue enhancement. In total, the LGSP supports 68 municipalities.
The LGSP has been implemented through the application of a
four-phase methodology:
- Action planning;
- Targeted support to municipalities;
- Monitoring and evaluation of the program; and
- Information sharing on lessons learned.
The nature of targeted support comprises:
- Assisting municipal managers, committee chairpersons, financial officials and other key personnel/councilors to improve strategic planning skills, procurement skills and other technical skills to be determined by them;
- Designing and implementing the following systems: performance management, financial management, human resource management, procurement and public participation; and
- Conceiving and implementing effective revenue enhancement programs.
Partners
- VNG International, through whom Planact, the targeted support partner for training of trainers for ward committee strengthening, has been subcontracted. VNG provides ones trainer and Planact provides two trainers for ward committee strengthening;
- DataWorld, the IT Specialist, who is responsible for designing and maintaining the project website and the M&E tool. The DataWorld team also assists with IT needs in some of the participating municipalities who have specified IT issues in their action plans;
- Andisa Capital, who is responsible primarily for the revenue enhancement targeted support to municipalities. The Andisa team provides hands-on mentoring to participating municipalities around issues such as credit control, billing systems, customer databases, annual financial statements, meter reading, indigent policy, risk management, financial management and other revenue enhancement KPAs. It also provides assistance on the local economic development (LED) performance improvement KPA to some of the participating municipalities;
- Sizanang Centre for Research and Development, through which David Solomon, the LGACI Project Coordinator has been contracted. David Solomon assists Peter Vaz with all aspects of the management of the LGACI;
- Manto Management, through whom Gary Moonsamy and Tebogo Mabuza, the LGACI Hiring Specialists, have been subcontracted; and
- Talent Emporium, who is responsible for the workplace program and training of home-based caregivers for the district and local municipalities.
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