| BACKGROUND Almost 10 years after the democratisation of our
country and barely one year after being the proud
hosts of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, South Africa has made huge strides
towards building a new system of developmental local
government founded on the core values of Local
Agenda 21. The South African pathway to local
sustainable development is intertwined with our
system of municipal integrated development planning.
Integrated development planning seeks to address
development issues in a holistic manner and through
and co-operative action. This summit will celebrate
our achievements in the field of sustainable
development and focus our attention and action on
the milestones still to be accomplished.
LOCAL AGENDA 21
CAPACITY-BUILDING PROGRAMME
Since 1999, the U.S. Agency for
International Development in South Africa (USAID/South
Africa) and the Department of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism (DEAT) have jointly sponsored the
implementation of the Local Agenda 21 (LA21)
Programme through the Environmental Evaluation Unit
(EEU) of the University of Cape Town. The overall
objective of this programme has been to enhance the
capacity of local and provincial levels of
government to incorporate sustainable development
principals and approaches into their operations.
LA21 comprised two main training components:
- an Awareness Raising
Programme, which targeted politicians at the
local government and provincial levels; and
- a Training and Capacity
Building Programme, which aimed to increase the
capacity of senior and middle management
officials in local and provincial governments.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The LA21 programme was implemented
through a partnership arrangement between the EEU
and trainers from five previously disadvantaged
tertiary education institutions: the University of
Durban Westville (in collaboration with the
University of Natal), the Peninsula Technikon, Vista
University at Port Elizabeth, Vista University at
Soweto, and Venda University. The EEU training team
developed the generic LA21 training programme,
which, in turn, was adapted by these institutional
partners to suit the training needs in their areas.
The team of trainers from these institutions first
participated in training workshops with the EEU and
then implemented 4 training courses within their
regions. Overall, the EEU and these instituional
partners conducted a total of 31 LA21 training
courses over a three-year period, and approximately
800 trainees participated in the programme. In
addition, various other products were developed
under the LA21 programme, including a National
Framework for Integrating Sustainability Principles
into the Integrated Development Planning Process, an
LA21 video, a book, various newsletters, brochures,
case study brochures, and guidelines for
sustainability practice for specific municipalities.
The LA21 programme is considered
to have been very successful in addressing its
objectives. The number of trainees originally
projected was exceeded. Partnerships between the EEU,
as the lead partner, and the five other tertiary
education institutions were established and, to a
great extent, have been maintained. Networks
throughout the country have been established between
the training partners and local authority personnel,
as well as other local stakeholders. The success of
the programme is continually endorsed by requests
from various parts of the country for additional
and, in some cases, more specialized training. Local
authority employees, councillors and other
stakeholders have expressed eagerness for more
training to assist them in applying the principles
of LA21 and sustainable development to their
particular areas. For these reasons, efforts to
identify potential funding sources for continued
LA21 activities is now underway.
LOCAL AGENDA 21 SUMMIT
With the LA21 programme now at an
end, as currently funded, USAID/South Africa and
DEAT have agreed to jointly sponsor a workshop to
review the past achievements of the programme and
provide a forum for consideration of potential next
steps by key individuals and organisations involved
in the LA21 programme implementation. These include:
- members of the Training and
Capacity Building directorate of DEAT;
- members of the EEU who
managed the programme;
- SALGA, which assisted with
the organisation of many events;
- the five institutional
partners (University of Natal and Durban
Westville, Peninsula Technikon, Vista University
at Port Elizabeth and Soweto, and Venda
University);
- local specialist instructors
who took part in the training courses; and
- a selected group of the
programme trainees, including local government
officials, representatives of community based
organisations, councillors, other officials, and
politicians who attended the key awareness
raising events implemented through the programme.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this summit are
three-fold:
- To celebrate the
contributions and achievements of various
role-players (with special recognition of the
contribution of USAID) in building capacity and
raising awareness in the field of local
sustainable development;
- To review sustainable
development related initiatives and reconfirm
the resolutions emerging from the World Summit
on Sustainable Development; and
- To develop a roadmap for
translating the WSSD resolutions into a
programme of action in support of Local Action
21.
CONTACT PERSON
Ms Tiny Madiba, Director: Environmental
Capacity-building
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Telephone: (012) 310 3528
Cell: 082 655 4843
Fax: (012) 322 5056 |
