Three Swaziland local authorities will benefit from the £184,000 CLGF project focusing on local economic development (LED). CLGF has signed the local government pilot project agreement focussing on LED with local authorities in Swaziland on 28 March at Manzini City Council. The three local authorities to benefit from the project include Mbabane City Council, Matsapha municipality and Manzini City Council.

The pilot aims to help build capacity for elected leaders, officials and stakeholders on the LED approach to development, in addition to developing a project plan including public/private partnership structures. The pilot will also help in enhancing community engagement and empowerment on LED, communications and advocacy strategy, preparing a public transport and operation management plan and rolling out a sustainable environment scheme.

Speaking at signing ceremony, Clifford Mamba, Principal Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Swaziland said, “We are grateful for such support from CLGF. This is a pilot project and other towns will be considered in the near future, but for now we have looked at these three municipalities.”

The signing was attended by Mbabane City Council CEO Gideon Mhlongo, Matsapha municipality’s Gciniwe Fakudze and Manzini City Council’s CEO Lungile Dlamini along with Jabulani Nxumalo and Phiwayinkhosi Ginindza from the Local Government Association of Swaziland and CLGF’s Southern Africa Regional Adviser Terry Parker.

CLGF’s Terry Parker said, “CLGF is currently undertaking Commonwealth projects for three regions in the African continent and we are pleased to be working with the Swazi government project move forward as part of the local government development campaign.”

The LED pilot is part of a series of pilot activities being initiated by CLGF under the Supporting local governance and local economic development in Southern Africa programme, which aims to improve capacity (individual, institutional and organisational) for better local council service delivery within the context of developmental local government. The programme builds on CLGF’s previous work in the region, working with a range of local government stakeholders and runs from 2012-2016. The project is part of the UKAID (the UK Department for International Development) funding to support and strengthen CLGF’s capacity building work across Southern Africa and the wider Commonwealth.

Local press coverage