The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen local democracy in South Africa

Posted: 24 March 2022

True to its mandate to build the capacity of the municipality as an institution, which directly gives citizens more say in local government decision-making processes, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD). 

The agreement will see South African municipalities benefit from increased knowledge and capacity within the areas of equity and inclusion, participation, transparency, and accountability.

Signed by SALGA CEO Xolile George and ICLD secretary-general, Johan Lilja, in a ceremony on Monday 14 July 2022 at the Capital Hotel in Pretoria, the MoU will provide an opportunity for the ICLD leadership to meet with its SALGA counterparts to learn about each other's work and share outlooks on challenges and strategic opportunities.

The signing ceremony also served as an introductory meeting to strategic objectives and challenges that respective organisation face in 2022 and beyond. The SALGA-ICLD steering group will meet regularly to discuss planning of activities in accordance with the MoU, this meeting can provide strategic input to the collaboration, but is not meant to focus on practical planning issues

SALGA CEO Xolile George said the organisation looked forward to a continued relationship with the ICLD on many areas of collaboration, including capacity building in South African municipalities with the aim of improving public governance. 

"We are always excited to relive good memories and the solid relationship we have always had with you for many years. We look forward to building those capacity programmes on a wide range governance and leadership areas. We look forward to a sustained relationship," he said. 

Commenting on the agreement, ICLD secretary general, Johan Lilja welcomed the collaboration saying the partnership held enormous potential for South African municipalities to lead major changes in the lives of their citizens and communities. 

"This is an absolutely marvelous day in which we are sitting together to sign a document so that we can work closely together in the future for the benefit of all the local citizens of South Africa," Lilja said

"The ICLD has a strategy to make an impact."

SALGA CEO, Xolile George, and ICLD secretary-general, Johan Lilja, exchange firm handshakes after signing the MoU on behalf of respective organisations.

Also present in the SALGA delegation was COO Lance Joel, senior manager: strategic planning, Pauline Matsaung, manager: strategic support & information analytics, Mvuyisi April, manager: stakeholder relations, Zoyisile Gcilitshana, international project manager, Winnie Manganye, international projects coordinator, Emelda Thobakgale, protocol and events, Cynthia Ngobese and international project manager Tebogo Matlou. 

Forming part of the ICLD delegation was board member, Thomas Bergström, quality assurance manager, Joel Laurén and chief financial officer, Fredika Kraft. 

Mr Laurén took the opportunity to explain the work of the ICLD in collaborating with municipalities and regions in Sweden and local governments in the ICLD's partner countries.

"We have 135 projects across 23 countries. We do three things, municipal partnerships, we do international training programs, and we do research. All these components work together to strengthen capacity building in democratic processes, to spread methods, provide training so that good practices can be created and spread to municipalities across the countries where we work," he said.

Mr Joel engaged the ICLD delegation of the state of local government in South Africa. He explained that the country had just emerged from the 2021 local government elections where 9473 councillors were elected to serve in 257 local municipalities across the country's 9 provinces. 

He said that SALGA had its own capacity building initiatives for the sector, the Integrated Councillor Induction Programme (ICIP), and added that it was key to building the skills, knowledge, and personal attributes necessary to be an effective mayor or councillor and the lessons learned and experiences shared from the professional development activities will come in handy as members of councils began identifying priorities and crafting the vision for their respective municipalities for the new term of office.

Mr April delivered a presentation that explained the work of SALGA's municipal capabilities and governance cluster, which seeks to strengthen governance, leadership, and institutional capacity for developmental local government

Ms Matsaung outlined the roadmap towards the planning and adoption of SALGA's new five-year strategic plan, which comes into effect on 1 April 2022. 

She explained that the plan will give the organisation a solid vision, mission, and key objectives and goals to achieve over the next five years. 

Background to SALGA and the ICLD partnership throughout the years.

The Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD) and SALGA had several engagements regarding capacity building of local government in South Africa. ICLD is in cooperation with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) to call for applications to the next round of the International Training Programme: "Municipal Financing Supporting Local Development and Local Democracy". 

SALGA and ICLD met on the 10 July 2017 to discuss areas of collaboration, participants to international training programmes, and thematic areas on municipal change processes. The session was held with SALGA with the aim of assisting ICLD with information about the training programmes eligible for South African municipalities.

The ICLD programme is aligned with SALGA Centre for Leadership and Governance (SCLG). 

The overarching goal of SCLG is to transform municipal administrations into learning organisations, which are characterised by systematic problem solving, experimentation with new approaches, learning from own and past experiences, learning from the experiences and best practices of others and the quick and efficient transfer of knowledge. The call is responding to the SCLG co-operation.