Increasingly, local governments in Zimbabwe are turning to their national association, the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) to help them address issues of service delivery and economic development with ever-shrinking resources. UCAZ, whose members include the 24 municipalities of Zimbabwe, represents the interests and needs of elected officials, town clerks, finance officers, public works directors, and other municipal officials.

To enhance UCAZ’s ability to meet the increased demands imposed by a growing membership, USAID funded a Resource Cities partnership between UCAZ and the National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA), a professional membership organization dedicated to the advancement of Black leadership in the public sector.

During the partnership, the two organizations met in Zimbabwe and the United States to further their objectives of creating a market-driven, self-financing training program to meet UCAZ members’ need for ongoing professional development, enhancing UCAZ’s lobbying efforts; expanding the organization’s public policy research capacity, and enhancing UCAZ’s revenue.

UCAZ formed a committee of town clerks with a training background to identify priority training topics and develop a prospectus for the training program. NFBPA’s staff provided information and advice to the committee and to UCAZ staff on options for structuring the program and creating partnerships with universities and other institutions. The partners launched the training program with pilot workshops led by NFBPA staff and board members and UCAZ experts.

UCAZ envisioned a member training program that would be self-financing and provide a revenue stream to support other UCAZ activities, a more effective strategy and methods for advocating local government interests before the national government, stronger capacity for public policy research, and a financial plan for diversification and expansion of the association’s revenues.