David Fourie

During the last fifteen years, it has become apparent that capacity building is an important ingredient for sustainable development. In this regard, governments in Africa rank capacity building for infrastructure delivery amongst the top priorities for promoting sustainable development.
A large share of Africa’s infrastructure is domestically financed, with the central government budget being the main driver of infrastructure investment. It is, therefore, important to strengthen the finance and technical capacity of public sector officials to effectively manage the preparation, structuring, implementation and operations and maintenance of infrastructure.
In the quest to improve the infrastructure delivery capacity of public sector officials, this dip stick survey has assessed and highlighted gaps in terms of limited working knowledge of financial instruments, products and services such as viability gap finance and partial risk guarantees, as well as different financing models including fixed and floating interest rate borrowing from DFIs. All officials interviewed confirmed the importance of prioritizing finance training in the areas of selection, preparation and appraisal of investment projects

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the findings of a local government sector-wide technical skills audit. A mixed-method research design was followed in both a positivist and interpretivist scientific paradigm to conduct the survey in local, district and metropolitan municipalities. Quantitative and qualitative data were processed and thematic analyses were done per respondent and participant category to obtain rich descriptions of current technical skills challenges and skills development priorities in local government. From the empirical survey it is evident that significant technical skills shortages exist, especially in rural district and local municipalities. This severely compromises the delivery of the four basic technical services, namely water provisioning, waste management, sanitation and sewerage, and electricity.

Gender representativity in political and managerial positions in local government in general and women empowerment in particular remain contentious issues. Although an extensive statutory and regulatory framework for gender equality was established and despite the fact that specific equity targets are set, it is evident that much more needs to be done to facilitate women empowerment in the local government sector. The purpose of this article is to reflect on findings of an empirical survey conducted amongst female politicians, managers, and experts in the local government sector with the aim to design the parameters of a competency framework for women empowerment. The results support the fact that a women empowerment competency framework should incorporate various dimensions and elements, notably sector-specific job requirements, registered gender-based formal programs in the tertiary education sector, as well as content of women empowerment initiatives taken by non-governmental organizations.