Compare this to celebrate 10 years of marriage - Normally in the 10th year of marriage, gifts are exchangedand there is an modern view with the recommendation that a gift containing a diamond must be exchanged.And this is so apt in our ten years of democracy. The diamond in the system of our government's crown ismost definitely and without a doubt in my mind, our municipalities.
In the arena of government, we have made tremendous progress, through various phases of transformation,towards making developmental governance a reality.
We have jointly come to realise that developmental governance requires a particular people-centreddevelopmental approach. This people-centred development path is based on an understanding ofgovernance (as opposed to government) which includes civil society in the way we plan and budget. In themunicipal sphere, ward-based participation structures and development forums must ensure combined actionby the social partners of government, business, labour and community-based organizations.
People-centred development specifically seeks to include the 'poor' as the critical component togovernment's development strategy. Our plans must speak to sustained livelihoods and continue to be"developmental" by ensuring the progressive realisation of shared socio-economic outcomes in the years tocome.
Our plans should be based on a clear understanding of our economic development reality. In delivering onour plans, we have come to recognise the inter-dependent roles of each sphere of government indevelopmental planning as well as the strong strategic management ability required to deliver on our plans.These issues will be discussed in detail at this conference.
It is imperative that we work together to maintain viable institutions for sustainable service delivery to ourcommunities. In this, we must be 'learning organisations'. This is to be seen in how we measure our ownprogress, how we learn by documenting our performance and how we use the powerful tools of sharing andpeer learning in order to secure co-operative agreements with similar roleplayers involved with peoplecentreddevelopment to ensure continuous improvement.
This Conference is one of those learning and sharing events. It speaks to the heart of developmentalthinking in government.
