“Enhancing local leadership & governance”
Pretoria, South Africa 7-13 May, 2006

TCBB has successfully completed the East and Southern Africa launch of the Elected Leadership Series through a seven-day Training-of-Trainers Workshop conducted in Pretoria, South Africa on 7-13 May 2006.  The Workshop was organized jointly by UN-HABITAT and several critical South African partners: Institute for Democratic Alternative in South Africa (IDASA), South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA), Department for Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).

The training was attended by 27 participants from eight countries in the region: Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. In addition, a group of seven ‘client representatives’ from the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and several South African municipalities, joined the training from the third day onwards to observe and provide constructive feedback to the trainers as they delivered their trail sessions on the selected key competencies for elected leadership—ranging from financial management to communication skills.

The design of the training programme was based on a carefully tested and piloted approach, based on an introduction to the series followed by an extensive opportunity for participants to internalize the training materials, develop sessions jointly in teams, and deliver sessions to their peers in a learning environment. In feedback sessions, each group would receive support in how to improve design and delivery of their sessions.

The capacity of elected officials within local government has emerged as one of the key factors behind examples of successful decentralization initiatives.  In an effort to roll-out the Leadership Series nationally, the last day of the Workshop focused on developing national-level Action Plans for follow-up.  TCBB will launch a newsletter to encourage and share the experience of each country in implementing the action plans—from finalizing the plan to designing, modifying and delivering their own courses.