SALGA annual report 2016/17 SALGA ANNUAL REPORT 201617 PRINTED FINAL | Page 130

Performance information Goal 7: Effective and efficient administration This goal encapsulates the various interventions that SALGA will implement to ensure that its administration functions effectively and efficiently. These interventions will cover areas of governance, products and services, performance management, people development, marketing and communication. The activities in goal seven addressed the following SALGA mandates: • • • Support and advice; Strategic profiling; and Knowledge and information sharing. Highlights of performance Knowledge management The launch of the local government knowledge hub is a significant step in the improvement of the management and dissemination of SALGA and the sector’s information and knowledge resources. Over time the hub will build a body of knowledge (institutional memory) of local government sector that will serve as an invaluable reference for the future. As part of encouraging documentation and preservation of institutional memory, SALGA completed the development of a multimedia knowledge product titled “20 years journey of SALGA” that is based on the 20 years review study of SALGA. The 20-year celebration video profiles the evolution of the organisation from inception to 2016 and the video unpacks the constitutional background, organisational development, international relations and rebranding of SALGA. SALGA developed a publication called “Good practices in cemeteries management: building local government capacity in cemeteries management” to document good practices and share them across the sector. South African municipalities are faced with a number of challenges with regard to cemeteries management. These include shortage of land 130 for burial, insufficient budgets, poor records management, vandalism and theft. With all these problems, there are municipalities that are excelling in some functions of cemeteries management; hence the need to document their practices to share with others that are struggling in the same functions. SALGA hosted a community protest seminar to share good practices and lessons on managing community protests. The key findings and recommendations of the study on local government perceptions of community protests were presented and shared with the participants. SALGA developed an innovation strategy for the organisation and the sector. The sector is still beset with problems of over-regulation, lack of resources and insufficient funding. To address these and many other ills facing local government, new perspectives and approaches are required. The SALGA innovation strategy will provide strategic direction, coordination and management of innovation for SALGA and the sector. The third edition of SALGA’s innovation publication was developed, packaged and disseminated through the SALGA website and local Government Knowledge Hub. The publication profiles municipal excellence and innovations. This edition showcased five South African innovations that can be applied to municipalities Municipal barometer SALGA provides local government and development data, information and intelligence via the municipal barometer: www.municipalbarometer.net to SALGA, municipalities and other stakeholders. This is aimed at ensuring that SALGA and municipalities use data and intelligence as a baseline to inform their decision making processes for improved municipal governance and performance. Service offerings provided by the municipal barometer are: raw statistics (data is available from 1996- 2016), benchmarking data (data is available from 2011-2015), and narrative reports. The reports are easily downloadable from the municipal barometer portal. Socio-economic profiles are