Date :

20 May 2010

Location :

Shanghai Expo

In distinction to the prevalent gloom and doom scenario approach to Local Government in South Africa, this study takes a different tack and examines the often neglected area of good practice and undertakes a comparative analysis with the local government sector in China in the service areas of water, sanitation and housing.

This study is in collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) and includes the opportunity for researchers from each institute to take responsibility for one of the case studies in the partner country. The study is currently at the literature review phase and will utilise the comparative case study methodology to be complemented by the key informant interviews, focus group discussions and consultative workshops.

The intended outcome is to make recommendations of good practices that could be adopted by municipalities to assist them in implementing approaches and policies to help them improve their performance across the identified focus areas. With the subsequent performance improvements, municipalities will then be models of good practice for their counterpart municipalities in their countries also over and above their Chinese counterparts. This seminar is an opportunity to showcase preliminary work done thus far and to engage in discussions that will further develop research ideas in this thematic area.