CANADIAN Municipality Prince Edward County (PEC) spent two weeks in Kouga in September as part of an agreement with the local municipality earlier this year.
The two work together on a Building Inclusive Green Municipalities (BIGM) programme, an initiative facilitated by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and funded by the government of Canada.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in March between Kouga and the County in Jeffreys Bay, committing the two on cooperation on matters of Local Economic Development (LED).
Executive Mayor Horatio Hendricks said part of the visit was around building municipal staff and stakeholder capacity to deliver inclusive economic development services, targeting vulnerable populations.
“Activities focused on supporting the municipality’s service delivery to entrepreneurs, ensuring that it favours innovative LED approaches and catering for vulnerable groups,” he said.
“We want to make the most of this opportunity of learning from some of the best practices internationally, with our own context in mind,” said Hendricks.
A three-day stakeholder engagement workshop on LED, facilitated by PEC, was held at the Mentorskraal Country Estate during the visit.
The workshop, which received rave reviews from participants, aimed at bringing on board social partners to be part of the municipality’s process of crafting an LED strategy.
