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PRESS RELEASE: Cape Town Mayor, Western Cape Premier and partners reflect on the value of partnership and collaboration at the EDP’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations

Author: Kate Ribet

 

The EDP marks ten years as a collaborative intermediary organisation with a panel discussion on the critical need for partnering for inclusive economic development.

CAPE TOWN, 26 APRIL 2022 – The Western Cape (WC) Premier Alan Winde, City of Cape Town (CoCT) Geordin Hill-Lewis, Lebo Nke, Chief Cultural Officer of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and Western Cape Economic Development Partnership (EDP) CEO Andrew Boraine joined in conversation on the critical need for partnering and collaboration to solve South Africa’s development challenges at an event marking the EDP’s tenth year of promoting collaboration and partnering for inclusive economic development.

The event, which took place at Moyo, Kirstenbosch on Tuesday 26 April reflected on the EDP’s decade long history as an intermediary organization leading processes to drive collaboration for inclusive economic development, and the role that intermediaries like the EDP can play in helping to bridge divides and promote co-operation to improve economic growth and development outcomes. Guests included local, provincial and national government representatives, as well as individuals from business, academia, key funders, strategic, civil society and grass roots organisations that have worked or are currently working with the EDP across urban resilience, manufacturing, energy, food and nutrition security, community and business safety, water governance, and waste management, among others. 

“The past 10 years have served to highlight the importance of organising whole of society responses to shocks and stresses, as for example the EDP did during the Cape Town drought in 2017, and the food crisis at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, under the simple but effective banner of ‘connect, communicate, collaborate’,” said Andrew Boraine, EPD CEO. “There is a clear ongoing need to bridge the enormous divides in our society, through the creation of a shared vision and common agenda, and helping stakeholders to work together in practice, despite their differences.”

Established in 2012 under mandate from 130 government and non-government partners in the provincial economic ecosystem, the EDP is an independent, public benefit, not-for-profit collaborative intermediary organisation that facilitates effective partnering between civil society, business, knowledge and research, and government, helping stakeholders to work together cohesively to solve complex societal issues and system challenges. Primarily funded by the WC government and the CoCT, the EDP works to build and strengthen partnerships to help improve the performance of the socio-economic development system and improve livelihoods. 

In his recent State of the Province Address, Premier Winde admitted that the scale and complexity of the challenges facing the Western Cape today are beyond the ability of any single sector, discipline, or sphere of government alone to resolve. Ultimately, an integrated system improvement and partnership and partnering approach is needed to deliver public policy objectives.

Over the last 10 years, the EDP has provided its experience and methodologies in convening, facilitating, and collaborating across mandates and boundaries to support systemic change for a whole of society benefit, especially in low-trust, low-certainty environments. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative effects on the economic and social life of citizens across the country, there is an urgent need for workable whole-of-society responses in order to create jobs, foster safe communities, and promote the wellbeing of all. 

Notes to Editor

Media Enquiries Contact: 

Kate Ribet
EDP Communications Manager
kate@wcedp.co.za
078 057 4687