South African representatives from the city of Johannesburg were in Malawi last Tuesday where they among others helped to mentor the countryt in developing its own capital, Lilongwe based on Joburg's experiences.
Jan Erasmus, one of the South African delegates in Malawi, was pragmatic about the trip.
"Lilongwe must not put us on a pedestal because we are also still working on building a better Joburg. But we will help them where we can," he told allAfrica.com the workshop.
Despite discussing several issues on the capital development, South Africa's officials l also provided technical assistance regarding the drafting of the strategy.
The country is to help with strategic analysis related to national frameworks, opportunities, environment, pre-evaluation and relevant lessons learned by the mentor city.
Malawi's capital, Lilongwe was also given advice on key topics such as local economic development, innovation and productivity, urban and spatial planning and natural resources, management and financing of infrastructure and services, set up of participatory processes, and methodologies and tools for an action plan.
The SA delegates also toured the Malawian capital, and assessed public service provision and growth trends.
The delegates who arrived last week Monday and visited businesses and got a geographical view of the place.
During the workshop, there were presentations on the approaches undertaken by Lilongwe in drawing up its City Development Strategy.
Johannesburg representatives also gave a presentation on moving from zero to results, and spoke about applying lessons learned.
The relationship between the two cities goes back to July 2007, when RSA hosted 19 African countries.
Representatives from Lilongwe said that they were struggling with a number of issues and asked for help from the city.
The chief executive of the South African Local Government Association, Xolile George, was tasked with supporting mentoring activities in Africa with formalising the mentor relationship between Lilongwe and Johannesburg. It is led by the city's central strategy unit.
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