ECIAfrica

Technical Areas

Building capacity in rural and urban communities, and linking business and local government resources to alleviate poverty.

Local economic development approaches linking business and government resources to alleviate poverty in rural and urban communities is a key priority for South Africa. Since 2001, the South African government has concentrated support to eight urban poverty nodes which are home to more than 10 million South Africans. In these nodes, substantial portions of the population are still not receiving a basic level of service in water, sanitation, housing, and energy. An additional 13 rural poverty nodes were designated by the government to stimulate economic growth and employment opportunity. International donors have supported government efforts in a number of provinces with separate programmes of technical support and grants facilities.

ECIAfrica has been at the forefront of local economic development in South Africa. Through our work in the rural poverty nodes comprising the neighbouring municipal districts of Maruleng (Limpopo province) and Bushbuckridge (Mpumalanga province), we are pursuing a variety of market-based development initiatives to help establish an environment conducive for investment. Our efforts are based on strong business partnerships between commercial investors and communities that historically have been excluded from participating in the mainstream local economy. ECIAfrica is also providing technical support to the National Urban Renewal Unit based in the Department of Provincial and Local Government (dplg) in Pretoria and to the Provincial Unit in Bisho (Eastern Cape province). We complement our market-driven initiatives with advice to the government on mobilizing and coordinating resources from among the three spheres of government, targeting infrastructure investment, and fostering public-private partnerships. In all of our local economic development work, the experience gained is used to inform policy.

Some of our local economic development services include:

Commercial land asset management
Community-private partnerships
Public-private partnerships
Business linkages
Government planning and management capacity building
Integration of government infrastructure investment within and among national, provincial, and local levels
Knowledge management
Policy development
Grants management

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