FAQs on the United Nations-Government’s Partnership on District Development Model (DDM)

Why DDM is important?

1. Working together as partners, the districts of OR Tambo (Eastern Cape), Waterberg (Limpopo) and eThekwini (KwaZulu-Natal) as well as Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the United Nations and other stakeholders have been able to identify bottlenecks to development that are affecting the efficient and effective delivery of services to local communities in the three districts.
2. As a response to these bottlenecks, the partners have developed the District Development Model (DDM) to address the challenges to effective and efficient service delivery caused by government sectors operating in silos, which have had negative impacts and lead to a lack of coherence in planning and implementation. 
3. The silo approach to government delivery has also made it difficult to monitor and provide oversight to government’s programmes.

What are the key features of DDM?

4. The key component of the DDM is its ‘One Plan’ approach to local development. This approach is designed to incorporate public, private and civil society participation and investment in an effort to provide service delivery, localize procurement of goods and services and create jobs.
5. The DDM places more emphasis on the importance of local area planning to realize its goals. To achieve this, all spheres of government must work in an integrated manner to create efficiency in service delivery.

 What will be the role of the UN implementing DDM?

6. It is important to emphasize that the three DDM pilot projects are not UN projects but projects that have been identified by local authorities as development priorities. The role of the UN in the DDM will be to provide support in their implementation through its competencies and comparative advantage in South Africa. 
7. In implementing these projects, the UN will align them with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF). The framework is the document that spells out the work of the UN in SA, focusing on the government’s development priorities.
8. The UN has developed plans on signature projects that will be implemented in the three districts in collaboration with COGTA and the local authorities. These plans are built on three interrelated pillars: Unlocking Economic Value Chains, Social Transformation and Service Delivery enhancement.