The Municipal Development Partnership (MDP) was launched in May 1991 to improve the capacity of local governments and support the process of decentralization in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Programme has two regional offices: the Western and Central African office in Cotonou, Benin and the Eastern and Southern African office in Harare, Zimbabwe. Both units collaborate closely but maintain separate regional offices in order to increase administrative flexibility and respond to different local government modalities in Western and Eastern and Southern Africa. Each unit has a Board of Directors composed of Mayors, Town Clerks and local government practitioners and representatives of donor agencies.

The Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa is an active and hands-on capacity building facility with the aim of enabling effective self-governance at local level in Sub-Saharan Africa. It promotes alternative development approaches to problems and issues that affect local authorities by placing emphasis on ownership and direct participation of key stakeholders.

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Main ARIAL site | ARIAL News | Africa Region | Calender of Activities

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ARIAL Regional Trainings for Local Government Associations in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region

The Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa recently coordinated the organization of two regional trainings under the ARIAL Programme. MDP-ESA organized the trainings in close collaboration with the Regional Local Government Associations in the eastern and southern Africa region, namely UCLGA Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO) and the East African Local Government Association (EALGA).

The trainings aimed at strengthening Local Government Association advocacy and lobby roles. With the title “Developing Local Government Association Lobby, Advocacy, and Communication Strategies” the objectives of the training were:

1. To build on the first regional Trainings held in Arusha and Johannesburg in November 2011, which focused on increasing the knowledge of the LGAs on the development possibilities with national institutions and (regional) and development partners (esp. the EU)
2. To enhance the capacity of participants in developing the lobby/ advocacy and communication strategies of their own LGA
3. To get acquainted to tools used in advocacy and lobbying, e.g. position papers, policy briefs
4. To share some institutional experiences with advocacy and lobbying
5. To draft respective lobby, advocacy and communication strategies

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Participatory Budgeting On-line Course for Africa

The Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA) and the Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) are completing the delivery of a Participatory Budgeting E-learning Course for Africa. The e-learning course was conducted from 26 November 2012 to 28 February 2013, and hosted by the Global Campus 21.

Successful participants on the e-learning course from the three participating countries of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia will meet in Inhambane, Mozambique from 8 – 12 April 2013 for the 2nd face to face seminar.  The first F2F was held in Livingstone, Zambia in November 2012.

The purpose of the F2F training is to allow participants to review the entire training which lasted three months and share lessons learnt and challenges as well as develop personal work plans.  The F2F will also showcase presentations on Transfer Projects developed through efforts of team work by participants.

During the e-learning course, various issues came up as a result of the chat sessions and discussion forums.  The following were some of the questions posed to participants in the interactive sessions;

1. "How would you ensure the participation of marginalized groups during the Participatory Budgeting process?"
2. "Why would Participatory Budgeting lead to improved revenue collection?"
3. “How could the elite be prevented from hijacking the Participatory Budgeting process?"
4. "In what circumstances would it not be advisable to undertake Participatory Budgeting in a Council or Municipality?"
5. "The community should be involved in all stages of Participatory Budgeting".  What is your opinion?
6. "One of the key challenges in practicing PB in Africa is poor communication" How would you ensure effective communication between Councils and local communities in your country?

More packaged literature on the e-learning course and responses to the above questions will be shared on this portal soon.

GIZ and MDP-ESA wish to thank participants and course tutors for their commitment and valuable input on the Participatory Budgeting Course.

For more information or any queries on the above please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it