The council has since written a letter of intent as required by the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy, the facilitators of such twinning arrangements. The twinning programme follows a meeting Trollhattan and SPTC held in Selebi-Phikwe in September. This was a series of meetings arranged by Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) between the Swedish Municipality and Botswana local authorities aimed at forging cooperation by the two parties. The Mayor Godfrey Mbaiwa said that the September visit by Trollhattan was a demonstration of interest in the Phikwe municipality through past collaborations. "We are highly optimistic that the twinning arrangement between the two will bear fruit and we will mutually derive benefits that are expected from such partnerships," he said. The mayor also indicated that Selebi-Phikwe has been selected alongside Chobe and Gantsi as a pilot site for Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) programme commissioned on August 4, this year.
SLA is a process, which anchors on community-based planning aimed towards the empowerment of different communities. The principle of this approach is facilitation of community resource allocation and to encourage participation in improving the livelihoods of the local people.
