The overall objective of this short-term mission was to provide support to the Governance Support Programme (GSP) partner municipalities on the institutionalisation of municipal long term strategic and development planning models and identification of policy, legislative and institutional requirements necessary for these models to succeed. Of particular interest were international experiences on how strategic planning processes have been institutionalised at a local government level in other countries and the accompanying experiences made. Furthermore, recommendations were developed on the institutionalisation and integration of long term strategic and developmental planning on a local government level across South Africa, aiming at the achievement of the national development outcomes and improvement of public service delivery on the local level.
Specific purposes of the mission were the provision of support to the GSP partner municipalities through a presentation of the research findings on international experience and recommendations in order to support the adjustment of their current planning processes to be more long term orientated and focussed;
Furthermore, recommendations were developed and delivered on key aspects and actions concerning the institutionalisation and integration of long term strategic and developmental planning at a local government level across South Africa;
The GSP’s advisory services to its partner municipalities were supported through recommendations on how to best develop and implement their long term strategic and developmental planning and assistance was provided for policy development at national level through an abstract of the research findings and recommendations on long term strategic and developmental planning.