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Tirelo Bosha project wins public service innovator award
Guido COUCK | 17/01/2018
During the Western Cape Service Excellence Awards, the Tirelo Bosha project won a silver award in the Best Public Service Innovator Category. The project wants to implement a fairer housing allocation through settlement surveys and GPS tracing of applicants in informal settlements.Every year the province of the Western Cape in South Africa hosts its Service Excellence Awards. This is an opportunity to evaluate the progress made by the regional government, as well as to acknowledge the achievements of the public servants.This 2017 edition has been a success for the GPS Enhancement to the Western Cape Housing Demand Database project, which is part of the Tirelo Bosha Public Service Improvement Facility, funded by Belgium in cooperation with the Department of Public Service and Administration.In the category of Best Public Service Innovator (project/team), the GPS project won a silver award. It has the aim to implement a fairer housing allocation through settlement surveys and GPS tracing of applicants in informal settlements. These settlements pose a major challenge for many municipalities in South Africa in terms of resources, social services and poverty reduction.Therefore, it was opted to develop an informal settlement housing demand register and to record socio-economic data of people living in these informal settlements. A field for GPS coordinates was added to the database, which links the applicant to GPS coordinates in order to make sure that the applicants in informal settings are not missed out. All these activities will assist with the spatial identification of households registered in the Western Cape Housing Demand Database, but also with the spatial identification of households in informal settlements for improved housing opportunities. The enhancement of the database and selection process benefits the most vulnerable of the community and gives a clearer view of their needs and demands.Furthermore, The Government Technical Advisory Centre of the South African National Treasury was even asked to undertake a replication assessment of this project. Eventually, this report led to the approval of a replication of this project in two other municipalities (Breede Valley and Drakenstein), which is currently in the start-up phase.
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Exchange between South African Ministry of Finance and Universities on Public Financing Management (PFM)
Princia BAZABIDILA-MONASSALA | 13/11/2017
On Friday 20 October 2017, thirty Directors of South Africa’s Ministry of Finance, mostly from the National Treasury, visited BTC on the last day of their training session on Public Financing Management for a review of the training session. This Brussels study tour from 7 to 22 October 2017 was financed by the Studies Fund. It included a one-day visit (13 October) to the OECD in Paris. The study tour was organised by BTC in collaboration with the VUB and the University of Antwerp. It concerns a professional continued training exchange programme in Belgium and South Africa for civil servants of the National Treasury, of sector departments and of municipalities. For two weeks, the participants worked intensively with Professor Jacques Vanneste , who teaches Economics at the University of Antwerp, and with Professor Claeys , who teaches at the VUB in Brussels. The participants were satisfied with the training content and the exchanges. They will attend a second training session in Pretoria from 20 to 24 November 2017, which will eventually lead to certification.
