SWEDISH - SOUTH AFRICAN MUNICIPAL PARTNERSHIPS

Building bridges for long-term relations

During the development of Comprehensive Urban Plans (CUPs), partnerships between South African and Swedish municipalities were initiated in order to deepen and broaden the cooperation between the two countries, and to build bridges for long-term bilateral relations.

The municipal partnership component of the Programme was initiated in 1999. It was based on the concept of twinning, defined as the cooperation between equal partners (e.g. municipalities), with mutual learning, problem solving and a beneficial exchange of knowledge and experience. Among the strengths attributed to ‘twinning’ are:
• similarities in corporate identity and institutional mandates
• prospects for collegiality arising from organisational similarities

Municipal twinning was planned at the beginning of the Urban Programme with the objective to help build relations and social capital between Swedish municipalities and those involved in the Programme in South Africa. The vision was that the links developed would form the basis for continued Swedish - South African municipal partnerships and relations beyond the duration of the Urban Programme.

The municipal partnership project came to encompass cooperation between Sol Plaatje, Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City and their respective Swedish counterparts, Falun/Borlänge, Göteborg and Gävle.

The selection of partner cities aimed to twin municipalities with similar partners to enable a more equal and beneficial exchange.

The cooperation between partner municipalities was governed by multi-year agreements that outlined the areas of cooperation identified by the municipalities themselves. The scope of cooperation was wide, covering not only urban development and municipal services, but also governance, business and tourism, education, youth, culture, sport and civil society, and addressing cross-cutting issues such as gender and HIV/AIDS.

Throughout the project important synergies were sought and created between the Urban Programme and municipal partnership activities, which contributed to strengthening the Programme in key areas such as urban planning and municipal services. A most important outcome of the municipal partnerships has been the creation of long-standing personal and professional contacts between municipal officials, politicians and individuals from civil society in both countries.

As the Urban Programme was phased out (Sol Plaatje 2005, Nelson Mandela Bay 2006 and Buffalo City mid-2007) the partners have been offered the opportunity to seek continued support from the Sida-financed programme ‘Municipal Partnership North - South’, that was launched late 2005. Today the partnerships between Nelson Mandela Bay and Göteborg, and Buffalo City and Gävle are ongoing, with support from this new programme, while Sol Plaatje has initiated discussions with a new partner in Sweden.