The aim of the African Mayors Summit 2011 was to bring together local and regional government executives, policy makers, representatives of the civil society, NGOs, various multilateral organisations and leading experts to identify innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges currently faced by African local governments. Dr Monkam presented a paper entitled “Local municipality productive efficiency and its determinants in South Africa”, which assesses the efficiency performance of local municipalities in South Africa and identifies the potential determinants of local spending efficiency in the country in order to draw policy conclusions about efficiency and effectiveness in South Africa’s local service delivery.