UKZN and Democracy Development Programme Strategic Partnership Bears Fruit

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The Democracy Development Programme (DDP) recognised UKZN’s School of Management, Information Technology and Governance’s contribution in its development initiatives during the programme’s 20th anniversary celebrations recently held in Durban.

The DDP, an independent non- government organisation which advocates active citizenry locally and nationally, benefitted from a mutually beneficial partnership with the Discipline of Public Administration. The academic affiliation, spearheaded by UKZN’s Professor Purshottama Reddy over the years, encompassed capacity development initiatives in critical areas such as local government financing and development and environmental governance.

Reddy was responsible for providing academic leadership and content to these projects and at the same time ensuring the programme’s relevance on the ground in terms of local empowerment and capacitation.

This was achieved through co-hosting workshops and conferences which created a platform for senior practitioners in government, practitioners from non-governmental organisations, academics, researchers and students to address critical issues in local economic development and financing; ethical conduct and integrity, traditional leadership and governance as well as provincial governance and development.

‘The thematic issues addressed in the workshops were critical in terms of preparing the new cadre of municipal functionaries who were going to take over the governance of the new municipalities in the then new political dispensation,’ said Reddy.

‘This joint capacity development initiative played a pivotal role in terms of addressing the skills deficit at that stage in the then transitional local councils,’ said Reddy

Among the achievements of the partnership is the success of the DDP’s national local government conference which has become an important event on the local government calendar in South Africa - evidence that the DDP has grown in stature and is now viewed as a major national player in the development field.

-          Purshottama Reddy