Thesis (Ph.D. (Development Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / In South Africa, various studies have indicated that achieving developmental mandates by local authorities is one of the biggest challenges largely due to poor planning and implementation. For instance, many local municipalities had performed inadequately in relation to their functionalities in planning and implementation of various IDP initiatives in Limpopo. The purpose of this research was to assess how local municipalities can further enhance their effectiveness in planning and implementation of development initiatives at the local level in Capricorn District Municipality, Limpopo Province South Africa. The methodology of this study was largely a qualitative case study and the quantitative approach was also used to augment the qualitative findings. The study was undertaken in three local municipalities such as Polokwane, Lepelle-Nkumpi and Agnang by engaging various IDP stakeholders including local government officers and the community representatives. The findings indicated that the local municipalities in the study area have not successfully played their role in local development. The basic service delivery was largely inadequate, the role in poverty alleviation was insufficient and community participation remains a serious concern at the local level. The finding reveals, inter alia, that the decision making process is limited, delayed and inconsistent; the institutional capacity was largely inadequate; limited understanding of IDP; limited stakeholder’s commitment; limited responsiveness to the local needs and priorities; and challenges in inclusive and wider involvement at ward and village levels. Furthermore, it was discovered that the local municipalities has not effectively addressed the planning and implementation of IDPs. The finding shows, inter alia, that tendency of top-down and technocratic planning; a concern over IDP on whether iv it reflects people’s needs and aspirations; lack of mobilisation of local resources; difficulty in integration and coordination; IDP projects implementation is slow, lacks sustainability and limited impact; and poor monitoring and evaluation of IDPs due to limited participation, lack of capacity and deficiencies in processes and procedures. Based on the findings, this research proposed the necessary strategic interventions and a framework for improving the effectiveness of the existing approach to planning and implementation of IDPs in the local municipalities. Therefore, it is recommended that local municipalities should promote their development role through strengthening the decision making process, institutional capacity, commitment, responsiveness and inclusive approach to local development. It is also recommended that local municipalities should emphasize more on people’s needs and priorities and encourages ward based planning approach to improve the planning process of IDPs. Likewise, local municipalities should strengthen their IDP implementation through mobilisation of local resources, better integration and coordination, improved project implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Furthermore, the proposed framework for strengthening the planning and implementation of IDPs be implemented, evaluated and integrated into the current IDP process of the local municipalities. Key concepts: development, decentralised development, local government, development role of local government, integrated development planning, Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), development planning, and development implementation.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Sc.-U.R.P.)-University of Natal, 2002.

This study seeks to determine the attitudes of public school and municipal recreation authorities in the state of Texas with respect to policies pertaining to the joint acquisition, planning and development, and use of school areas and facilities for school and recreational use. This study has a twofold purpose. The first is to determine the attitudes of selected public school and municipal recreation authorities toward certain policy statements pertaining to the joint acquisition, planning and development, and use of public school areas and facilities for school and recreational use. The second is to develop guidelines for public school and municipal recreation authorities for the resolution of possible conflicts.

This study investigated the effectiveness of Ward Committees in co-ordinating and facilitating authentic public participation processes at local government levels. This study focused specifically on the Knysna Local Municipality. Before 1994 the majority of South Africans had never had the vote, and therefore, had not had the opportunity of participating in South Africa’s governance and administration (Hilliard and Kemp, 1999:40). In this governance system, local government was the lowest tier of government in a strict hierarchical structure; and it had no constitutional standing of its own, but derived its powers from the two superior tiers of government, namely national and provincial. The local government elections of 5 December 2000 in South Africa provided municipalities with a historic opportunity to transform local government to meet the needs of the country for the next century. The local government transformation process (in tandem with the demarcation process that established the new municipal boundaries) introduced more developmental responsibilities to municipalities. In addition, this further implied that local government became an autonomous sphere of government with its own original powers and a broad developmental mandate. This had profound implications for local governance. An important element of the current local government system is the promotion of local democracy and participation in local governance. Public participation is an integral part of local democracy and is a legislative requirement for the local community to be drawn into the v municipal processes through inter alia: Integrated Development Planning (IDP), budgeting, performance management and Ward Committees. Although the ‘old’ South African local government system did not have an extensive history in ensuring a culture of actively engaging communities in developmental issues, the IDP under a Developmental Local Government (DLG) system now presents a framework through which such a culture can be established. The Ward Committees in particular, play a critical role in linking community needs with municipal planning processes. In South African local government the commitment to public participation is reflected in a host of laws and policy documents (namely the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 2000 (Act 32 of 2000), Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 1998 (Act 117 of 1998), the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , 1996). These laws and policies are intended to be realised through development initiatives that require formal participatory processes and institutions in local governance. Since 2001 Ward Committees have emerged as a key institutional mechanism intended to contribute towards bringing about people-centred, participatory and democratic local governance. The rationale for Ward Committees is to supplement the roles of the elected Ward Councillors by creating a link between communities and the political and administrative structures of municipalities. These Ward Committees have been established in the majority of wards in municipalities across the country in line with the vi requirements of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act,1998 (Act 117 of 1998) which stipulates that: Only metropolitan and local municipalities of certain types may have Ward Committees. The main objective of the study was to investigate the overall functioning of Ward Committees within the Knysna Local Municipality and to determine their impact on democratic local governance thus far. The study will carry out an investigation into the effectiveness of Ward Committees: whether they are useful conduits for public participation in local governance; whether they are inherently capable of playing the critical role expected of them; and whether they actually create opportunities for real power-sharing between the Knysna Local Municipality and its communities. The study’s main objective stated above was achieved by breaking it down into realisable objectives, namely: • A brief background of the Knysna Local Municipality, and in particular, an outline of its institutional arrangements and its Ward Committees in general. • An evaluation of the theoretical and legislative framework of public participation and the Ward Committee System in local government. • An analysis of the practical performance of Ward Committees in the Knysna Local Municipality and to provide a research report on the empirical findings. • Recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness of Ward Committees at local government levels in general, and in particular, in the Knysna Local Municipality. The hypothetical position of this study was that the maximum utilisation of Ward Committees as a means for public participation processes at local government levels, specifically in the Knysna Local Municipality, could improve communication between local municipalities and the public. Furthermore, this would also contribute towards the speedy delivery of services to communities, as Ward Committees could serve as the Local Municipality’s strategic partners in Council’s projects. Ward Committees should therefore be utilised to enhance a constructive interaction between a municipality and its local community. This position was premised on the fact that authentic and empowering participation can be established at local government levels if Ward Committees act as a foundation for development and Ward Committee Members as development change agents in their respective wards

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Technology: Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / Skills Development is one of the key priorities of the National Development Plan Vision for 2030, which views it (skills development) as a catalyst for the unemployment reduction in South Africa. Skills Development is a key National Priority in South Africa and requires a new approach to training and development, one that calls for positive interventions. However, a challenge has been identified, namely the lack of commitment and support to skills development by line managers at municipal level. The problem was not confined to the institutional capacity of the Municipality but included the individual capacity of the line managers who is responsible for managing employees. The challenge was ensuring that they have the relevant capacity and skills to undertake their functions. Managers are accountable for the development of their subordinates but tend to neglect their role in the area of skills development. Existing research focuses on the role of line managers in training and development and the significance of managerial support in training and development. However, there is a gap because managers understand training and development but do not understand their role in supporting and developing their subordinates, which impacts negatively on the performance of the organisation which in turn impacts negatively on the delivery of services. Human Resource Development (HRD) literature remains largely theoretical and rhetorical in encouraging line managers to take responsibility for training and development. The overall aim of the study was to identify the role of line managers in the implementation of skills development at a local municipality and the impact thereof on service delivery. A quantitative research study was undertaken to achieve the objectives of the study. One hundred and ten managers on Patterson Grades D1 to E2 were targeted for the study. They were required to complete self-administered questionnaires. The findings of the study will assist line managers to understand the positive impact that training and development has on the performance of employees, which ultimately impacts on the achievement of business goals and objectives. The findings are; • Managers understand the training and development practices of the municipality but do not know how to support the training and development of their subordinates. • Managers believe that the organisation supports training and development but do not know if the organisation has an approved Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) that is being implemented; whether the organisation has a training and development strategy which is related to the overall strategy of the organisation; and whether the training of employees is given adequate importance in the organisation and is being managed in a proactive way. • A majority of the managers believe that training and development of employees has an impact on service delivery, but cannot agree whether training and development has helped improve the performance of employees in the organisation. • In terms of what can be used to encourage managers’ buy-in to training and development within the organisation, the overall average level of agreement was 88.0% .The scores for this section demonstrated that managers lack the necessary skills and competencies when it comes to the identification of training needs and training gaps. The findings of this research has identified that although managers are experienced in local government and have an understanding of the training and development practices of the municipality, they tend to get stuck in the authoritative managerial role and cannot switch into the facilitator role, which impacts on the way that they perform their skills development function as a manager. This therefore impacts negatively on the development of employees and on the delivery of services by the municipality. Without skilled, competent employees, no services can be rendered to communities. / M

The state has a task to find solutions to alleviate poverty and LED has been identified as part of the solution. The municipalities are mandated with Local Economic Development and that function has been located within an LED Unit. Based on the above-mentioned issues it was regarded as fitting to conduct a study that would identify challenges contributing to the effective functioning of LED units with specific reference to Lukhanji and Intsika Yethu Local Municipalities in the Chris Hani District. Furthermore, the study will attempt to suggest recommendations to address the shortcomings. The sampling method used for this study was purposive sampling. Data was gathered through structured questionnaires administered to 15 LED officials from the Chris Hani District Municipality and the Lukhanji and Intsika Yethu Local Municipalities. Relevant literature that focuses on Local Economic Development has been reviewed. Various recommendations have been made on the findings of the study. It has emerged during the study that the municipalities within the CHDM perceive their role as that of being Implementer of LED policy instead of playing an enabling role as outlined in the LED Legislative Framework. There is a political will to support LED implementation at local municipalities within the CHDM. In the implementation of LED the LED units within the CHDM are faced with the following challenges: - Insufficient cooperation among stakeholders - Inadequate resources - Political dimensions - Poor LED planning, and - Inadequate LED training.

The internship with the Management Services Division of the Office of the City Manager in Dallas, Texas, provided opportunities to observe and participate in management and supervisory techniques and practices. The administrative environment of the Office of the City Manager provided the opportunities to assist the three Assistant Managers in the performance of their respective activities. Projects and assignments were discussed with these officials as were the personal views of administration and supervision of each Assistant Manager. The major portion of the internship was spent researching and writing reports on different projects assigned by the Assistant Managers. Research techniques, leadership theories, and interviewing concepts were practiced and tested.

No description available.

Between 1989 and 2007, Poland went through numerous reforms, the aim of which was to build a democratic country based on the rule of law. At the core of the multiple transition from the communist state to democracy was devolution which has been translated at different scales, national, regional and local. Of central importance were the local government reforms. Analyses of local outcomes of democratisation need to include the difficult to measure effects which manifest themselves through activities of local authorities and local communities. The aim of this thesis is to help fill the gap in understanding the processes and outcomes of the democratic transition by investigating the functioning of democracy at the local level, focusing on local self-government and its relations with civil society in the context of democratic consolidation in one of the major cities in Poland – Poznań and two of its community-based self-governing bodies called Estates which are accessory sub-local government units. The main question of this thesis is what is democratic about Poznań’s local government today. Here, the functioning of local representative democracy and citizens’ inclusion in local decision making are key. It is argued that in a ‘healthy’ democracy the actual practices of local authorities should facilitate an increasing involvement of local residents in decision-making processes. Consequently I focused on local democratic practices trying to evaluate local government’s responsiveness, effectiveness and accountability. In the light of the prevailing opinion that civil society in CEE has been weak, the effectiveness and efficiency of civil society in Poznań and its relations with the local authorities were explored. The study was based on a combination of qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (questionnaires) methods of research. The research identifies that the activities of the local government of Poznań are symptomatic of the authorities’ recognition of the need to be responsive, effective and accountable. Poznań’s authorities have partners in civil society. Among these partners are organisations with a low level of formality, i.e. a community, neighbourhood and a group of residents which organise themselves to achieve their objectives. The environment (law, regulations and attitudes of local authorities) in which they operate was noted to be important to their activities and much effort has been put into upgrading the quality and intensity of the authorities’ communication with local residents. The learning process has reached the stage at which the democratic system has begun to improve itself, a sign of a maturing democracy. The thesis addresses a gap in the literature on the processes underpinning democratic consolidation in Poland. Its findings suggest that as the reformers of Polish local government in the years immediately following the overthrow of communist rule believed, local democracy and local democratic practices are an important component of the wider (national) project of democratic consolidation.

This thesis seeks to provide a qualitative and comparative account of politics and power in two densely-populated Scottish suburban communities: the former Police Burghs of Partick and Govan. These are communities whose rich urban history has been relatively underexplored by dint of their proximity to Glasgow and the fact that they were formally outside the city boundaries until 1912. The study aims to redress the balance in the burghs’ favour, making a substantial qualitative, analytical contribution to the wider historiography of political change in the British Isles, while simultaneously adding a comparative empirical case study to the conceptual debate over centralism versus localism. Foremost among the historiographical concerns addressed are civic nationalism and local self-government, class politics, the rise of Labour, including ‘Red Clydeside’, and the interlinked electoral demise of Liberalism. This qualitative study of political change in two populous and pioneering ‘locally self-governed’ communities therefore goes beyond merely chronicling Partick’s and Govan’s creation as burghs, their subsequent development and annexation to Glasgow. Rather, it examines the dynamics of ideological and party-political change in two significant urban localities from the mid-Victorian period up to the arrival of near-democratic electoral politics after the First World War. Close attention is therefore paid throughout to political rhetoric in relation to the local experience of ideological, institutional and electoral change. The central contention of this work is as follows. Partick’s and Govan’s political and administrative development from the 1850s to the 1920s is best understood within the wider ideological context of the rise and fall of ‘local self-government’. ‘Local self-government’ was a mid-nineteenth century bourgeois Liberal solution to the myriad problems associated with urban industrial life in the Scottish context. In Govan’s and Partick’s cases, ‘local self-government’ was in large part sustained by the promotion of local civic nationalism, albeit this phenomenon persisted in the Scottish context until at least the 1975 local government reorganisation: long after the burghs and the legislative framework that allowed their creation were extinguished. By 1912, when the burghs were absorbed into Greater Glasgow, the ideology of ‘local self-government’ had been gradually eroded by large-scale ‘municipal socialism’ combined with ‘national efficiency’. In broad-brush terms, it is argued here that the transition between these dominant ideals mirrored, and in some ways pre-figured, the rise of Victorian Liberalism and its eventual eclipse by independent Labour. These developments and the political conflict which accompanied them are traced throughout the study with careful analysis of the political discourse from various ‘players’ in both communities from the formation of the burghs until their annexation, and even beyond, to the electoral politics of the early post-1918 period. It is shown that notwithstanding its intrinsic merits in theory, ‘local self-government’ as practised in Partick and Govan was often undermined by hypocrisy and self-interest from the burghs’ civic leaders. Analysis of the political culture and traditions of anti-landlordism in the former burghs also sheds new light on the phenomenon of ‘Red Clydeside’. Partick and Govan were shipbuilding boom towns from the mid-nineteenth century and throughout the years examined in this study. While both communities experienced rapid industrialisation and demographic growth in the mid-nineteenth century, the latter burgh was more populous and proletarian than the former. The implications of this for their comparative political development were significant, as is outlined below. Both communities’ rapid rise in the mid-nineteenth century prompted them to adopt the ‘populous place’ provisions of the 1850 and 1862 General Police Acts (respectively) to become quasi-autonomous police burghs, a distinctively Scottish form of municipality. Both communities jealously maintained their independence from the neighbouring city of Glasgow through several aggressive ‘annexation’ attempts until they finally amalgamated with the city in 1912. By 1904, the burghs had grown so fast that they were two of only nine Scottish towns and cities (including Glasgow and Edinburgh) whose population exceeded 50,000. As major urban centres by the 1900s, their political development clearly merits more than parochial interest. The thesis is divided into two complementary sections. The first considers the development of key themes in the burghs’ civic life, including the Liberal ethos of local self-government, industrial paternalism and the emergence of class-based politics. This begins with an examination of the reasons why Partick and Govan adopted the General Police Acts in 1852 and 1864 respectively, followed by an appraisal of the municipal policies pursued in both burghs’ formative years. There is especial focus on Partick, as one of Scotland’s first ‘populous place’ burghs. The focus then moves on chronologically to consider the ways in which both burghs responded to a number of critical episodes in the late 1860s and 1870s, with reference to what the community leaders perceived as threats to their existence emanating from outside and inside the burgh boundaries. From the mid 1880s until the 1912 annexation, the Burgh Halls became theatres of partisan and ideological conflict. The 1886 Home Rule crisis triggered a split in the ranks of the local Liberal Party, which among other things had the effect of introducing openly party politics to the municipal scene. The later municipal chapters examine the competing visions of the nature, purpose and extent of municipal power proffered by Liberal, Liberal Unionist, Conservative and Labour councillors, in addition to identifying tensions regarding temperance and sectarianism. This is followed by a longer term analysis of the reasons why both communities amalgamated with Glasgow in 1912, including discussion of annexation in the context of wider ideological debates about ‘municipal socialism’ and ‘national efficiency’ against the formerly prevailing ethos of local self-government. The second and final section of the thesis considers parliamentary politics from the burghs’ 1885 formation into county divisions of Lanarkshire, each returning one MP to Westminster. This includes scrutiny of the extent to which both communities deserved their reputation as ‘strongholds’ of Liberalism in the period before 1914. Consideration is given to the Home Rule split and its implications, and to the extent to which Labour was able to dent the dominance of the Liberals and Unionists before the war. Here, as with the earlier municipal analysis, much consideration is given to paternalism and sectarianism. Neil Maclean’s precocious victory in Govan in 1918 owed much to the community’s more proletarian character than Partick, and to Labour’s emerging ability to transcend sectarian boundaries there; an ability which had been evidenced in local municipal and parliamentary politics since the 1880s, well before the upheaval of annexation and the cataclysm of war. The specific focus of this study does not detract from its general contribution to historiography as outlined above. Nevertheless, it is conceded that the emphasis on municipal and parliamentary politics, especially electoral discourse, is overwhelmingly and necessarily qualitative in approach. In consequence, the war years are discussed only briefly, due to the associated abeyance of municipal and parliamentary contests from 1911 until 1918. And as this is not a social or economic history of the former burghs, it is not intended to be read as either, still less to substitute for them.