NGQUSHWA LOCAL MUNICIPALITY MAYOR VISITS INNISFIL TOWN OF ONTARIO, CANADA ON BUILDING GREEN MUNICIPALITIES PROGRAMME

The Mayor of Ngqushwa Local Municipality together with Council Speaker, Municipal Manager and project coordinator will officially visit the Innisfil Town of Ontario in Canada as part of relationship building between the two municipalities on the 24 February to 04 March 2018.

In November 2016, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in partnership with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) launched the Building Inclusive Green Municipalities (BIGM) Program to be implemented over a 52 month period. The programme is applicable to 6 municipalities in the Eastern Cape including Ngqushwa Local Municipality.

During October 2017, The Canadian delegation visited Ngqushwa Local Municipality, stakeholders and consulted on the design and development of the program implementation plan and collected baseline data on the indicators that will be used to measure progress towards the program’s expected results.

The aim of the visit is to improve the capacity in order to support effective service delivery, inclusive local green economic growth and enhanced climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. The program will pilot local economic development initiatives to promote job creation, poverty reduction, and enhanced well-being, while empowering women, youth and vulnerable groups, and ensuring their inclusion as decision makers and beneficiaries.

The Mayor of Ngqushwa Local Municipality, Cllr Mnikelo Siwisa said this is a knowledge exchange programme with million ideas that will benefit Ngqushwa communities. We go there to learn the best practices and share ideas in Local Economic Development and implement the strategies developed.