East London Local Government Project

March 1996 - October 1997

The East London Local Government Project, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), was carried out by UTUI in partnership with Ryerson University and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Its purpose was to assist the municipality of East London in the challenges of adapting to the new local government mandate within the new South Africa. It was carried out over 18 months through a combination of short-term consultants and one full-time ten-month appointment in East London and also short visits by East Londoners to Canada. The project focused on three areas:

• Assisting the municipality to develop a strategic plan for East London which tends to be an economically depressed area;
  
  
• Assisting the integration process. East London now takes in an area which included a number of administrations from small municipalities to informal settlements and including Mdantsane, itself a large urban area located in the former Ciskei; and
  
  
• Assisting the engagement between communities and local government.

Under the partnership arrangements, Ryerson and FCM participated in developing a strategic plan and facilitating integration, specifically involving human resources, affirmative action and public relations as well as negotiations with the province.

University of Toronto Urban International (UTUI) was involved in issues of community engagement, working with the East London Local Council and various Community Development Forums. In particular, UTUI worked with local community development workers and the Mdantsane Community Development Forum to develop a working local economic development committee in the forum in which the local business community and other stakeholders were able to work together. UTUI conducted an economic survey of small and micro enterprises in Mdantsane, which was carried out as a step towards assisting the development forum in its efforts to encourage community economic development. Local people participated in the execution of the survey and in data entry. In addition, UTUI conducted interviews with participants in community development forums, East London councillors and administrators and produced a report on the role of development forums in local government.

See Community Development Forums and Local Development Forums, for more information.