Municipal International Cooperation in Botswana: development strategy or social activity? Comparing the South – North and South – South municipal partnerships in terms of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency and exploring how the institutional environment can positively impact (the effect of) municipal partnerships.

Abstract

This thesis is the result of a baseline study conducted in Botswana at the Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA). It compares South – North and South – South municipal partnerships (city-to-city cooperation or Municipal International Cooperation). Botswana’s local authorities have engaged in a large number of municipal partnerships but most of those are inactive. When forming a municipal partnership it is important to execute this with care. There is need for practical guidance and deepen knowledge about MIC for local authorities that engage in partnerships. An important aspect of MIC and specifically in Botswana is the level of local governance and decentralisation. Botswana is not as decentralised and does not have a high level of local governance as is presented in the literature. It is therefore interesting to have witnessed that some municipal partnerships do develop into relevant, effective and efficient alliances. Most of the changes towards a more enabling environment would have to be made on the national level, such as changing the national HRM system and decentralise services to local government. However, since changes on this level are hard to accomplish suggestion is made to promote and enable MIC on a local level.