News

African School on Decentralisation 2020: Call for Applications

The South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development at the Dullah Omar Institute of the University of the Western Cape, and the Centre for Federalism and Governance Studies of Addis Ababa University are delighted to announce the inaugural African School on Decentralisation.

The following articles/publications are available in this issue:

Measuring transparency, public participation and oversight in the budget processes of South Africa’s metropolitan municipalities

The Metro Open Budget Survey (Metro OBS) is modelled on the global Open Budget Survey (OBS) initiated by the International Budget Partnership in 2006. The OBS is an independent, comparative assessment of budget accountability: transparency, oversight, and public participation.

Twice a year the University of Fribourg offers scholarships to young researchers who would like to undertake a research stay on a doctoral or post-doctoral level.

Prof Steytler talks about federal government at AAU

Prof Nico Steytler, South African research chair for multilevel government, Law and Policy at the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law made his presentation titled: ‘the federal character of federal government: the missing component of shared rules,; at the Center for Federal Studies of the Addis Ababa University.

Call for papers: Decentralization and Constitutionalism in Africa

The Organisers of the Stellenbosch Annual Seminar on Constitutionalism in Africa (SASCA) are pleased to announce the call for papers for the Fourth Stellenbosch Annual Seminar on Constitutionalism in Africa (SASCA 2016) which will be held in Stellenbosch (South Africa) from Wednesday 7 September to Friday 9 September 2016.

Prof De Visser addresses DDP Conference on Local Government

"Reflecting on 20 years of Local Government" was the title of a presentation by Jaap de Visser to a conference on Local Government, organised by the Democracy Development Programme (DDP) in Durban on 20 October 2014.

Gradual but consistent improvement in audit outcomes from 2008 to 2013

There has been a gradual but consistent improvement in municipal audit outcomes over the past five financial years (2008/09-2012/13), but notwithstanding national government’s new and more realistic strategy to improving audit outcomes, local government may fall short of achieving the new targets for 2019 set by the new Minister.

Measuring municipal audit consistency can be a useful policy tool

The data in the Auditor-General’s reports on local government can be used, not only as an annual scorecard of how many municipalities complied with their audit obligations, but as a measure of the resilience of local government as a public institution.

Majority of officials in local government fall outside the regulations

The vast majority of the 300 000 officials in local government fall outside the regulations. This is according Prof Jaap de Visser and Phindile Ntliziywana, researchers at the Community Law Centre’s MLGI project in their latest article on Talking Good Governance blog.

SARChI looks into governance of cities in federal states

To discuss and debate constitutional and legal challenges stifling cities, especially those in federal and quasi-federal states such as Ethiopia and South Africa, Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy at the Community Law Centre and Centre for Federal Studies at Addis Ababa University organised a seminar in June.

CLC looks into governance of cities in federal states

To discuss and debate constitutional and legal challenges stifling cities, especially those in federal and quasi-federal states such as Ethiopia and South Africa, Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy at the Community Law Centre and Centre for Federal Studies at Addis Ababa University organised a seminar in June.