eThekwini municipality has been identified by the education and training arm of the United Nations as a centre that is able to offer training to other local authorities, particularly English speaking authorities in Africa. As such, a centre for local government training, or Cifal which is recognised by Unitar, was established in the eThekwini municipality.

eThekwini is one of the selected centres that provides training for local authorities, mayors, governors or municipal councillors and their key executives, as well as private sector and civil society leaders in the areas of sustainable urbanisation and environment, information sharing, human, social and economic development.

The United Nations General assembly by its resolution 57/7 of November 2002, adopted Nepad (New Partnership for African Development) as its framework for its operations in Africa. The Environment, Population and Urbanisation Cluster of the United Nations has made programme proposals in response to Nepad, several of which will be led by UN-Habitat. One of the key programmes is the sustainable Nepad Cities Programme. The eThekwini municipality has been selected as one of the seven African Nepad cities.

Nepad cities are defined as cities that are functional, environmentally sound, safe, healthy and secure (UN-Habitat), and Durban is one of them.

Source: eThekwini Online