Globally and especially in Africa, good governance and service delivery challenges are complex and in need of visionary leadership to chart innovative ways forward. The School of Public Leadership (SPL) at Stellenbosch University (SU) provides solutions through unique research, graduate, postgraduate and executive programmes adding public value for the public good within a global and African context.
The Centre for Local Governance (CLG) at the School of Public Leadership of Stellenbosch University facilitates teaching and research, development and renders advisory services in the broad field of good governance, leadership and general management for the purpose of enhancing local government service delivery in South Africa. The work of the Centre includes research, community interaction and training in matters relating to local government. Specifically the objectives of the centre is to
- Undertake research in the fields of governance for local service delivery.
- Undertake research on community development.
- Serve as a knowledge hub or repository of data and good practices in local governance.
- Develop custom made training programmes for local service delivery practitioners.
- Provide professional development opportunities for local service delivery practitioners.
- Develop innovative approaches to the challenges faced in local service delivery.
Within these objectives, the centre annual launches initiatives to provide opportunity for academics and practitioners to learn by means of comparative study. In 2014, 16 representatives visited Brazil from 5 – 13 April 2014 with the theme Participatory local government. The visit was hosted by the Centre for Research and Documentation of Contemporary History of Brazil (CPDOC) of the School of Social Sciences at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. The Study group also visited The Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) in Porto Alegre.
See attached documents from the study tour: