UNDP South Africa

The focus of UNDP South Africa is to support participatory capacity development initiatives for pro-poor growth.

Under the direction of key Ministries, the technical expertise and coordination capacity of UNDP South Africa is focused on pro-poor capacity development interventions to support the service delivery commitments of the Government, specifically within provincial and local government structures.

UNDP provides demand driven technical assistance for diagnosing delivery constraints and strengthening the delivery capacity of the state and its development partners in the following areas:

• Institutional and human capacity needs for the developmental state, including broad-based civic engagement;
• Strengthened capacity to implement policy frameworks that serve to deepen the macro-organization of the state and promote public participation;
• Strengthened capacity for Planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation;
• Consolidating the Government of SA - Africa Agenda;
• Mainstreaming practical hands-on support to Local Government to improve municipal governance, performance and accountability;
• Capacity to address the structure and governance arrangements of the State in order to better strengthen, support and monitor Local Government; and
• Strengthened capacity to refine and deepen the policy, regulatory and fiscal environment for Local Government and give greater attention to the enforcement measures.

UNDP has actively engaged with the Government to promote South Africa's transformation agenda for human development. Its principles of engagement are:

• Support the South African development agenda
• Align UN support with Government's development policies, strategies and frameworks
• Work coherently with the three spheres of Government
• Harmonize UN programming with five Government clusters & IGR principles of cooperative governance
• Support the Government's efforts to achieve MDG targets

As the lead development agency of the United Nations System, UNDP in South Africa works with the Government and the people of South Africa to support and promote their mutual, normative, pro-poor, development mandate and strengthen democratic governance.

South Africa, although the largest economy in Africa (accounts for about 38% of Sub-Saharan Africa's economy), is one of the countries with the youngest democratic experiences in Africa. The first inclusive election was held in 1994; the second election was in 1999 and the third in 2004. The country recently completed its fourth elections (2009) fifteen years into its democratic process and President Jacob Zuma of the African National Congress (ANC) emerged as the fourth President of the Republic of South Africa and was sworn in on 9 May 2009.

The inauguration speech, inclusive and reconciliatory in tone to other political perspectives, was quite clear about the administration's vision for the country. The focus was clearly on addressing comprehensively, poverty, inequality, job creation and skills enhancement, women's empowerment, health and education.

The key strategies for achieving the above goals would be through strengthening participatory democracy, civic engagement, and enhanced capacity for good governance, dynamic partnership and active membership of international community through strategic engagement of multilateral and bilateral institutions. The context for this renewed focus on citizen and multi stakeholder engagement is that, while South Africa has achieved a great deal since 1994 despite the history and the deep challenges it inherited, the country now stands at a crossroad. Fifteen years into democracy, South Africa faces critical challenges of reducing inequality and urban/ rural poverty.

UNDP's approach

The emergence of the new Government in South Africa and its renewed mandate to address poverty, inequality, social cohesion and global economic competitiveness, has emphasized the need for UNDP to focus on upstream and catalytic mandates which include capacity development support, technical and policy level advisory services and strategic advocacy of policy positions, complementary to national and UNDP and UN normative mandates.

Key results of UNDP's intervention in South Africa:

1. UNDP's support to both provincial & local municipalities has contributed towards improved service delivery, organizational effectiveness, strategic planning & reporting through the utilization of e-governance instruments & deployment of UNVs within provincial & local government in the Eastern Cape province.
2. UNDP's support to both national & provincial government has contributed towards enhanced quality for MDGs monitoring & reporting & civic engagement. This has also contributed to increased participation by the population in building knowledge base on developmental state.
3. UNDP's support to National Treasury contributed towards the strengthening of the department's capacity to manage and coordinate external assistance more effectively. Policy review on external assistance has been conducted and capacity building targets for managing and coordinating external assistance at all levels of government have been set.
4. UNDP supported national, provincial and local level institutions in climate change, biodiversity conservation,energy and sustainable development.
5. UNDP supported high level consultations around gender, Planning, M&E, south-south cooperation have resulted in the identification of high end intervention areas which will be implemented in 2010.

The above results strengthened and expanded UNDP programmatic partnerships with other UN agencies, EU and other external partners, the civil society and the government. These partnership has resulted in mobilizing additional resources, expanding development networks, and facilitated access to and participation of communities and repositioned UNDP within the development community in South Africa.