The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), through the 'Siyenza Manje' initiative, is harnessing engineering, finance, town planning, and project management skills, in order to capacitate municipalities in "challenged localities", to identify, design, and implement basic infrastructure projects, where this level of service delivery is most needed.

In the interim period, which ended in September 2007, skills deployment figures rose from 81 experts, to 118 experts in vital fields. This ‘hands-on' support to accelerate infrastructure project implementation was also extended from 86 municipalities, to 101 municipalities.

Knowing that "skills don't sit on the street", and in attempts to rope in the critical skills it needs, DBSA MD and CEO Paul Baloyi explained that the bank is now contracting with institutions that have the expertise to deliver the infrastructure projects on the ground. "We have taken on one or two companies," he added.

The initiative, aimed at complementing government's ‘Project Consolidate', which identified underperforming municipalities to be provided with skilled assistance, has enabled the flow of about R1-billion in municipal grant funding.

For the six months under review, the initiative has cost R43-million to implement - R30-million of which came from the National Treasury, and R13-million was contributed by the DBSA development fund.

The existing commitment of the development fund is R118-million, which includes commitments of R5-million approved in the last six-month period.

The amount would continue to support municipal and other capacity building efforts in the short- and medium-term. This figure is lower than the previous amount of R213-million at the same point last year, but the bank pointed out that this reduction is because of the 'Siyenza Manje' interventions and improvements in grants management.

"The fund has put measures in place to fast-track grant funding and disbursements and has confidence that these commitments will be disbursed to achieve the intended project objectives and development impact," the institution said.

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