A leadership development workshop was held on the 12th of September 2020 at the KwaNonqaba Community Hall with fifteen BLC members from Emfuleni, Transand, Asla Park C and E, Ward Councillors and officials from the Mossel Bay Municipality.
The primary purpose of the workshop was to inform, engage and cover some leadership training aspects with the active BLC members from these four areas. This is in preparation for the upcoming verification of households-process in each settlement and the process of planning and mapping of the relocation of beneficiaries.
The workshop was facilitated by Brian Adams (DAG), Rudolf Schröder and Anne Timms (Zutari).
The following were covered in the workshop:
- The role of the BLC members as leaders in the community where they were elected and that they are serving.
- To understand the government’s intention with informal settlement upgrading.
- To give the BLC members tools and a better understanding to fulfil their important role as leaders in the UISP.
- To equip them to organise and engage better with the Mossel Bay Municipality, other stakeholders and Zutari’s implementing team.
- To work towards building united and cohesive informal settlement communities.
The Informal Settlements Strategic Framework’s vision is to move people from precarious settlements to dignified communities and to improve the quality of life for those living in informal settlements. The methodology that we are using in the upgrading of the informal settlement programme is an innovative people-centred and partnership-based approach.
The major reshaping of government’s approach to the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) is to put people first, as users of public services and co-creators of their neighbourhoods.
In partnership with the Mossel Bay local municipality and Zutari, the role of the BLC member is to collaborate and represent, as a volunteer, the interests of the Emfuleni community in the UISP.
The leadership workshop was the first in a series of collaborative workshops, forums and interventions that Zutari will facilitate with the BLC’s. The BLC’s will participate in and co-create activities within the UISP, they will be collaborating and become equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to contribute meaningfully to the programme as it unfolds.
MB UISP 