In the final months of 2014, a small group of cities and local government associations in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Germany began an innovative new learning project with the aim of sharing best practices on citizen-oriented services.The ZIGESA Trialogue, which is funded by the South African-German Trilateral Cooperation (TriCo) Programme, builds on a number of existing bilateral relationships, including the long-standing twinning arrangement between the cities of Harare and Munich and the partnership between the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the German Association of Cities (DST). The project is facilitated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). At city level, officials from Harare and Munich have joined forces with counterparts at eThekwini Municipality to explore how geographic information systems (GIS) are deployed in local government as a means to improve service delivery and boost revenue. For their part, SALGA and DST have come together with the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) to look at ways in which to improve their offerings to members, specifically in relation to advocacy and lobbying.
After kick-off workshops for both levels of the exchange in South Africa in September and October, learning on GIS continued in two sets of internships hosted by eThekwini and Munich in October and December, respectively. These focused on building up a sustainable GIS in the City of Harare, starting with developing a GIS database “schema” – the barebone structure of the entire GIS. By systematically collecting and analysing spatial data relating to the city’s resources, the administration aims ultimately to make considerable improvements to services in areas such as water and sanitation, public lighting and roads. The GIS will also greatly facilitate work across council departments, increasing efficiency and reducing duplication of efforts. At association level, participants used the first workshop to develop joint principles for advocacy and lobbying based on an analysis of the common challenges and differences between their respective institutions, mandates, member structures and legal frameworks. Through virtual exchange on an online working group hosted by the German Connective Cities Platform, the associations are now providing updates on their institutions’ work under each of the principles identified. Since the workshop, they have also fed into the cities’ exchange by providing a number of documents on good practice in GIS in their member cities.
At a workshop to be held in Harare in February 2015, the two levels of exchange will meet concurrently and present their results to one another. Although this workshop will bring an end to the project under the TriCo Programme, participants are keen to continue to build on their work together and are currently looking into ways to secure the future of the exchange.