Local Government, Local Governance and Sustainable Development

Getting the parameters right An examination of the transformation of South Africa's apartheid local government system into a development-oriented system of municipal governance, requiring, however, continuing short and long-term interventions on the part of both the central and provincial governments if it is to deliver its desired outputs.

Doreen Atkinson was a Research Director with the Human Sciences Research Council. She was based in the Bloemfontein office of the HSRC during the time of the study. She has research and consulting experience in the following fields:

• Local Government
• Rural Development
• Intergovernmental Relations
• Constitutional Development
• Water and Sanitation
• Local Economic Development
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Health Delivery

Her publications during the last five years, include From a Tier to a Sphere: Local Government in the New South African Constitutional Order (co-edited with Maxine Reitzes, published by EISA and Heinemann Press, 2000); Rural Development Framework, for the Free State Provincial Government; and A Pathway to Sustainability: Local Agenda 21 in South Africa (co-edited with Penny Urquhart, for the Department of Environmental Affairs, 2001). She was working on municipal capacity-building, especially in the light of the implementation of IDPs; as well as the development of municipal capacity in commercial agricultural areas during the time of the study.