The City actively encourages the creation of co-operative partnerships and agreements with key local and international stakeholders to boost knowledge sharing (via best practices), stimulate the local economy and empower communities via joint projects. The ultimate objective is to add value to the lives of Cape Town’s residents.
These agreements also help attract investors, skills and resources into the local economy. They enable us to bring the best resources to areas and the people that need it most.
Our new External Relations Policy was approved on 30 March 2011. This has refocussed all partnerships to become criteria driven and project based to ensure measurable outcomes.
To facilitate the formation and development of these relationships, we have created two specialised functions within our External Relations Department, Intergovernmental Relations and International Relations:
International relations
The City’s international partnerships are with cities that have similar characteristics and have overcome similar challenges in terms of their economies, urban growth patterns, climate change and environmental sustainability. (See our new policy for a complete list of criteria.) Similarly, Cape Town has also pioneered best practices that our international and local counterparts may find useful. For an overview of the City’s global partnerships, click here.
Cape Town’s performance is also continuously compared to that of a select group of cities that have made significant progress in recent years in global rankings, so as to enable us to enhance our future development.
Intergovernmental relations
The Intergovernmental Relations Unit establishes and maintains co-operative relations with other South African local authorities, provincial and national spheres of government. The unit also co-ordinates all of the City’s activities that relate to SALGA (South African Local Government Association), which is part of the intergovernmental network.
All local, provincial and national requests for co-operation, consultation, support and information sharing should be directed to this unit.
For more information, contact us on external.relations@capetown.gov.za