Adrian Sayers is an independent development and labour researcher and practitioner whose focus covers state-society relations and its impact on public policy and planning. He was awarded the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy by the University of Cape Town for the dissertation titled: Development, Transformation and Freedom: Critical Perspectives on Development, Transformation and Freedom with reference to a Social and Economic History of the State, Markets and Civil Practices in the Western Cape of South Africa, c. 1910-1948.

Adrian has drafted a number of Working Papers dealing with sub-national planning and public participation which will be consolidated into a more comprehensive monograph in the near future provisionally titled Development, Participation and State Formation in Modern South Africa.

The research work is augmented by a wealth of accumulated public sector management experience coupled with strategic networks within various constituencies. This is evidenced by lengthy involvement in commercial, metal and municipal unions, including COSATU as well as being a lead facilitator in negotiations between all the key business, government and community constituents in the Western Cape as the founding Executive Director of the Western Cape Provincial Development Council (PDC) – a position held for just over thirteen years. These networks and attributes can be of immense benefit to the development of insights into poverty and development.

He has recently worked as a:

• Technical Consultant and facilitator to establish a provincial development council to facilitate social dialogue on provincial growth and development matters in Mpumalanga since 2008-9
• Technical Consultant and facilitator on matters related to the construction of service delivery agreements pertaining to the Medium Term Strategic Framework for the Office of the Premier and GTZ in the province of Mpumalanga-2010-12
• Technical Consultant on the development of a small towns intelligence report for the Small Towns Development Initiative that involves GTZ, COGTA, AHI and IDASA-current Participant:

• International Conference: Emerging Directions in Decentralized Participatory Planning, Organised by the Institute of Rural Management (Anand), Xavier Institute of Management (Bhubaneswar) and Cornell University (Ithaca), March 2011, India
• The Alec Erwin Seminar Programme on the State and Economy: Contemporary Challenges at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of the Western Cape, 2010-11.
•  Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI 2009) Development and Inequality in the Global South Institute at Brown University, Rhode Island, May-June 2009.

Lead facilitator and managing executive in the establishment and development of the Western Cape Economic Development Forum and its successor the Western Cape Provincial Development Council (PDC), the principle organs for public participation and social dialogue in the province before and since 1994. Adrian was inducted in this role as the leader of the Organized Labour Delegation and subsequently bore the responsibility as the Executive Director of the PDC. He facilitated a series of agreements among spheres of government in the Western Cape, organized business and labour and civil society. Foremost among these was the Framework Agreement for Provincial Growth and Development of 2003 and the Triennial Provincial Growth and Development Summit Resolution of 2007, which provided the basis for the construction of a range of sector or issue specific agreements

Trade unionist involved in the National Union of Metal workers of South Africa as an education officer for Western and Northern Cape and parts of the Free State and regional secretary for the Western Cape until 1994. Previously involved in the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) between 1987-88 and the Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (CCAWUSA) between 1985-1986. Co-ordinated the COSATU Working Group for Regional Economic Development, overall-convenor of the Labour Delegation’s involvement in the WCEDF between 1991-1994. Served on the core leadership structures of a number of initiatives such as the establishment of the Worker College at the University of the Western Cape, COSATU’s National Economic and Development Task, the National Co-ordinating Committee for Labour Intensive Construction and the Accreditation Board for Labour Intensive Construction.