On Tuesday 15 October, the governments of South Africa and Flanders held their 10th Bilateral Consultation on Development Cooperation in Pretoria. The purpose of this meeting was to review and assess the projects implemented under the previous development cooperation programme (2011-2016) on job creation, SME development, social entrepreneurship and social innovation, as well as to discuss the state of affairs of the current programme (2017-2021), which addresses climate change adaptation and the inclusive green economy. Exchange and discussion on successes of projects, lessons learned and challenges in implementation are important to better monitor the programme, to align projects and to reflect on the way forward.

Flanders has allocated 25 million Euro to the 2017-2021 programme, to be used for projects that enable South Africa’s transition to a climate resilient and inclusive society. Projects are being implemented by multiple actors, including government, civil society, multilateral organisations and academia. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Government of Flanders, the National Treasury, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF), the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).