The Canada / South Africa Provincial Twinning Project's contribution to strengthening South African provincial governments

English: Twinning is a widely used instrument in the public, private and voluntary sectors. In recent years it has come to be used as a mechanism for building capacity in governance. Between 2000 and 2004 the Canadian government, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), funded the Canada South Africa Provincial Twinning Project, a twinning project on governance. The Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) served as the executing agency for this project. The offices of the project were located in the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa and the Public Service Commission, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The purpose of this project was to strengthen the South African provincial governments by matching them with Canadian provincial governments. The primary question examined in this study, therefore, was whether the instrument of twinning could strengthen democratic governance in new provincial South African governments when small injections of assistance from Canadian provincial governments were provided on a voluntary basis. The study covered the duration of the Twinning Project. Canadian provincial governments provided opportunities for South African provincial governments to examine structures, processes, programs, and service delivery models and shared with them the underpinning principles and the lessons learned during introduction and implementation. South African public servants evaluated their counterparts’ information and selected those elements that were relevant to their provinces’ needs. They introduced the desired changes to their own governments and provided the leadership needed for their adoption, refinement, implementation and continued use. Each South African province and every partnership achieved results, with many specific results documented. Some of the results responded to cross cutting issues including gender equality, sustainable development, poverty reduction, and HIV/AIDS. Polices, programs, methods, and resources developed by one province were shared with, and can continue to be shared with and used by, other provinces and other African countries. The results had a high level of sustainability because they were supported by senior officials and elected office holders, based on principles, adapted to local conditions, incorporated into the business of government, and funded in provincial budgets. By the end of the Twinning Project, the results documented indicated that much capacity had been developed in the South African provincial governments. Capacity had been developed by strengthening competencies of individuals, groups and provincial governments in the areas of decision making, machinery of government, human resources, and program development and delivery. Capacity was developed through the acquisition and sharing of knowledge as well as the application of knowledge. Learning of new ideas and information relevant to one’s province occurred in every activity and every province. Sharing of information and expertise occurred widely in the workplace and through the development of learning networks. Performance measurement, specifically results based management, was the tool the Twinning Project used to identify, measure and report results. While all participants supported the measuring of performance and documenting of results, the system used by the funding agency, in its current iteration, was found to be rigid, onerous, costly and unwieldy. Ambiguities in roles, requirements and responsibilities were other challenges. Many examples of the Twinning Project meeting or exceeding the benchmarks of best practices were identified. Such examples included effective use of the twinning instrument, knowledge transfer, capacity development, collaborative partnerships, and voluntarism. The Twinning Project demonstrated high levels of sustainabilty when benchmarked against the critieria of local ownership, relevance, results, inclusiveness, partnerships, linkages and stability. Linkages, both those established within and those established outside of the Twinning Project, supported the sharing of common values and contributed to the development of long lasting friendships and relationships between the South African and Canadian provinces. The overall experience of the two countries, with the twinning instrument, was positive. The twinnings helped build the capacity of central agencies and line departments. They helped public servants to acquire and apply the knowledge and skills needed to develop and implement policies and programs, and to meet the expectations of the public and commitments of the elected representatives. This strengthening contributed to a stronger foundation for democratic provincial governance as well as co-operative governance.