Centre Managers’ Workshop

Multi-skilled for effective service delivery

Bloemfontein, February 2007 - Centre managers are the key to efficient and integrated service delivery at Thusong Service Centres. Without them, alignment and coordination of day-to-day service delivery is an impossible task. The 2007 Centre Managers' Workshop held in Bloemfontein, was aimed at developing managers' skills to ensure excellence in service delivery and operations. Accountable for finance, human resource management, operations, administration, marketing, communications and technology, centre managers have a varied and demanding workload.

The main thrust of the workshop was to develop skills and increase knowledge regarding project management and promoting Thusong Service Centres. Social development and government service delivery define Thusong Service Centres. Good promotion creates awareness within both the private and government sectors of the opportunities in service provision, encouraging them to use the centres as platforms where all can interact and mutually benefit. It also creates awareness in communities, of the information and services offered at their local Thusong Service Centres, to empower themselves and improve the quality of their lives.

Although not always project managers, centre managers must be able to supervise and interact in projects, making informed contributions. They analyse how to use limited resources with quick responses, while still effectively managing budgets and ensuring maximum impact in projects. To ensure that Thusong Service Centres actually impact the community positively, centre managers consistently monitor and evaluate policies, programmes and services related to the Thusong Service Centre.

Centre Managers are employed by the municipalities but work closely with GCIS, the overall coordinator for the Thusong Service Centre programme. GCIS ran the Bloemfontein workshop in collaboration with Samdi, an important partner in the programme.