COOPERATIVE Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, and the head of the United Nations (UN) in South Africa and Resident Coordinator, Nardos Bekele-Thomas, recently launched a COGTA-UN partnership in support of the District Development Model (DDM) in the O.R. Tambo District, Eastern Cape.
The model aims to foster a ‘One Plan’ approach to local development that seeks to incorporate public, private and civil society participation and investment in a joint effort to provide service delivery, localise procurement and create jobs.
The COGTA-UN partnership will initially focus on the three DDM pilot districts, namely: O.R. Tambo (Eastern Cape), Waterberg (Limpopo) and eThekwini (KwaZulu-Natal). The partnership will give practical expression to the DDM principles which are based on cooperation and collaboration among stakeholders.
The launch follows joint COGTA-UN extensive consultations in the three pilot districts to understand their development priorities.
The partnership has identified specific areas of support that the UN can provide to the districts, building on existing work and addressing specific gaps by establishing Business Solution Centres and strengthening the Thuthuzela Care Centres and the Thusong Centres to improve service delivery.
