More than 100 high-level municipal officials recently participated in a series of successful integrated development plan (IDP) workshops, hosted by GIS consulting specialist, Open Spatial Solutions.

Anja Scholtz, project co-ordinator, says the aim of the workshops was to empower local government and council bodies to take ownership of the IDP process and to provide tools to assist them in implementing and managing the process. "Open Spatial Solutions decided to take the lead in assisting local government, our primary market, to enhance its efficiency through the workshops. The workshops also provided a platform for local government to access private sector knowledge and resources."

According to Louis van der Merwe, IDP workshop facilitator, the National Department of Local Government and Provincial Affairs assisted and supported municipalities with the IDP guide packs, various capacity building and leadership projects by nature of their constitutional mandate, however, other sectors did not support the IDP process as was hoped for.

Every South African municipality was invited to participate in the first workshop. Held at Muldersdrift in May 2002, it was entitled 'Managing and implementing integrated development plans in the new demarcated municipalities.' "We had a tremendous response to the workshop, which was attended by mayors, municipal managers, IDP managers and various high-level officials from around South Africa," confirmed Scholtz.

"There was also a surprisingly large contingent of private sector organisations, including real estate, town planning and engineering firms, which was a pleasing demonstration of the level of interest in the success of the IDP process," she added.

The workshops were broken into work sessions that provided the participants with an opportunity to debate common problem areas, as well as to suggest possible solutions. Among the speakers facilitating the workshops were Mohamed Bhyat of Organisational Knowledge Management Systems and Racuni Naidoo of the United Nations, who facilitated a session on 'Background and aims of the IDP.' Additional topics included 'Resource requirements for the IDP', 'IDP project management' and 'spatial project management', among others.

"So successful was the first workshop that the participants requested follow-up workshops, focusing solely on the implementation process and concrete requirements for the IDP," says Martiens Pelser, managing director of Open Spatial Solutions. These were covered in two further successful workshops, held in August in Cape Town and Johannesburg respectively. Future workshops and strategic sessions are planned in an effort to bridge the divide and forge open communication channels between private and public sectors.

Open Spatial Solutions has dedicated a Web page to the IDP Workshops as well as an e-list. which can be accessed at www.openspatial.co.za/IDPWorkshop. Visitors to the site will be able to download documentation and demo software used during the workshops. The e-list's primary aim is to provide a tool to assist in the communication between delegates, speakers and other interested parties.

For more information contact Open Spatial Solutions, 011 783 1834.