CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT FUND NEWSLETTERIssue #1

October 2011-January 2012

The Civil Society Development Fund (CSDF), an initiative of the Embassy of France in South Africa, supports South African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in their endeavours to strengthen democratic governance and social cohesion. This quarterly newsletter is intended to provide you with some news from the ground projects supported by the CSDF. The majority of the articles in this newsletter are provided by the CSOs. The content thereof is the sole responsibility of the CSO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Embassy of France.

Supporting social cohesion strengthening

Workshops on Tolerance and Social Cohesion expanded to PhilippiThanks to funding from the CSDF, ARESTA (Agency for refugee Education, Skills Training and Advocacy) has expanded its Community Education Campaign, which was mainly in Khayelitsha Site B and C, to Lower Cross Road in Philippi East. As a starting point, ARESTA conducted the mapping of target communities and stakeholders whereby ARESTA staff identified key stakeholders who are relevant to the project "promoting refugee rights, improving the self-reliance and sustainable livelihoods of refugees and disadvantaged young South Africans in the Western Cape”.

Through this project ARESTA will, among others, provide support to partner organisations to carry out community/public education activities, inform the public on refugee and migrants rights and documentation, organize workshops of tolerance for learners and teachers in schools, support community leaders in the organization and the implementation of local actions against xenophobia, organization of sport and cultural events (music festivals, dance spectacles, etc.), - all of these just to promote peace, safety and security and to fight against xenophobia in communities.

So far, we have had good meetings with the councillors who welcomed the project. In these meetings, it was suggested that we meet with community leaders to ensure that everybody has the same understanding of what the project seeks to achieve. All the community leaders welcomed meetings that have taken place with different wards. We all left the meeting with the same spirit of having community leader’s workshops and, given that timing was not good, agreed to have workshops early next year.

ARESTA has had good meetings with school principals to introduce the project, suggesting that ARESTA hold workshops for learners. Principals said that, from experience, the issues that ARESTA would talk to learners about would help change the learners’ mindsets. In some schools like Faku Primary school, foreign national learners are given a hard time by local community learners who call them bad names. Councillor Gqola showed his support by attending some events hosted at Faku Primary school.Faku Primary School, Vuyiseka High School, Phandulwazi High School, Vukani primary school and Mzamomhle primary school are the schools that have, in these two months, worked with learners, expressing their eagerness to be part of ARESTA projects and are even being invited to take part in some community meetings. They are also engaged in giving talks around the issue of Xenophobia like the one chaired by then National Police Commissioner, General Bheki Cele, who was interacting with the Khayelitsha stakeholders at Look out Hill on the 6th of October 2011.

Festival of Cultural Diversity in Harare, Khayelitsha

Furthermore ARESTA, together with African Tales and Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU), organised the memorable 2nd edition of the cultural diversity festival in Khayelitsha Harare on 26 November 2011. This multi-discipline event provided a space for locals and foreign nationals to engage in dialogue around tolerance, giving them an opportunity to get to know each other and to forge partnerships through performances and art exhibitions. Mr Antoine Michon, Consul of France in the Western Cape, honoured the festival with his presence, receiving a

round of applause when festival participants learned that he is from the same country as Zinedine Zidane, Fabien Barthez, Lilian Thuram and Thierry Henry who are well loved by South African youths. The Consul noted that we need to create an environment that embraces diversity and cultural activities. He said that he was happy to take part in this noble initiative. With the creation of Peace Ambassadors clubs in schools, ARESTA intends to empower young learners with the necessary tools so that they can be agents of peace from an early age. For more information on the project, visit: www.aresta.org.za

Supporting innovative public participation initiative and deepening democracy

Afesis-corplan conducts the Civil Society Action Group (CSAG) training in Buffalo City Metro

Afesis-corplan held training sessions with civil society organisations from Mdantsane in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The aim was to capacitate civil society organisations on how local government works, key legislation and the role they can play in holding local government accountable and monitoring local government performance. 25 people were trained - the majority of them unaware that they have a legislative right that govern their involvement in participating and monitoring municipal processes. The training confirmed that local government is too politicized, so much so that citizens no longer know what actions are within their rights without “betraying the ruling party and in turn betraying the liberation movement”.At the end of the training, the group identified key intervention areas and key issues they wanted to engage with the municipality on in the new year. A session to strategise and to prioritise issues will be held early in the new year.

What is CSAG?

The Civil Society Action Groups (CSAGs) program aims at promoting effective public participation through an independent forum whose operations are unencumbered by political affiliations and agendas. CSAGs are meant to provide a freer space and strengthen public participation in the manner initially intended for the ward committees. The groups mainly comprise of members of the public, faith based organisations, and community based organisations and local forums. These groups are capacitated to understand how local government works and how they citizens are to engage with the state. Once they understand all of this, they decide on the key issues that they want to engage with the state around in a year and develop strategies based on these key issues. The aim is to build a partnership around development, but for CSAGs to be independent enough to not be tainted by local politics and to be able to boldly hold local government to account.

Promoting Community Participation By Afesis-Corplan

The debate over economic and social development in developing countries almost invariably reflects a pursuit of social justice. In many societies, ways are being sought on how to promote self-reliant development devoid of perpetual dependence on external assistance. For this to be possible, the central focus of development should be on fostering and enhancing people's capability to be role players in their own development and willingly get involved in a wide range of development activities as role players and beneficiaries of development.

In promoting self-reliance, the process of citizen participation cannot be transient, but rather ongoing and sustainable. Therefore there is a need for the facilitation of long-term participation and self-reliance through encouraging people to form action groups. Against this background, Afesis-corplan took the initiative in training Civil Society Action Groups (CSAG) to promote an understanding of the following issues:a. Understanding the legislative environment, good governance and participatory democracyb. Understanding CSAG’s tool, roles and responsibilitiesc. Promoting partnerships through networks, media and advocacyd. Group activities, role plays and discussionsWithout citizens knowing about such provisions and the opportunities given by the legislative framework, it would be for them to participate meaningfully in determining how they are governed. Public participation in simple terms can be defined as a process of allowing people to execute their most basic human right—the right to participate in decisions regarding their future, as stated in the South African Bill of Rights.As a starting point, for people to arrive at good, rational decisions, they need to be adequately informed about what choices or options exist and how they could take advantage of such opportunities.

In many cases, government and its local agencies charged with the role of ensuring access to information necessary to enable people to pursue gainful ventures have failed either inadvertently or because of sheer lack of innovativeness in how to make this work.

Quite often, initiatives meant to help the broader community have ended up propping up just a few people. This not only undermines development but also breeds discontent and alienation of huge sections of the population who nurse the feeling that the state has deliberately marginalised them.

Ward Committees

Ward Committees were established to bridge the gap between local municipalities and communities by facilitating proper communication. By working directly with the municipality, ward committees serve as a cord that articulates the new system of local government to the majority of the people, especially to previously disadvantaged groups. The most important innovation of public participation at local government level lies in the ward committee system. The Municipal Systems Act provides for the establishment of ward committees. There is a continuing gap between what is in the legislation with regards to the election of ward committees and the current practise. Also, there is a need to continuously review and identify whether the committees have the necessary capacity and resources required for them to perform their roles as community voices or representatives. In some of the municipalities where Afesis-corplan works, there are ward committee members who have never attended council meeting despite having been in existence since 2006.In light of this, Afesis-corplan has been capacitating ward committees as the legislated structure that is supposed to bridge the gap between the municipality and its citizens. But beyond that, ward committees are to ensure that local citizens hold the municipality to account and monitor its performance. This is the part that almost all government led ward committee trainings are silent on. Through the Ward Key Performance Indicators Matrix (WKPI) ward committees are empowered to use an Afesis-corplan developed tool to monitor the performance of the municipalities and give developmental feedback to the municipality regularly. The process is initially facilitated and coordinated by Afesis-corplan but after two years ward committees and their respective municipalities continue to create the feedback space and to implement the changes agreed upon. For more info, visit: www.afesiscorplan.org.za

Our partners

2009-2011:

Planact Rhodes University Legal Aid Clinic Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security Built Environement SupportGroup The Mvula Trust

2011-2013

ARESTA Lesbian and Gay Equality ProjectAfesis Corplan Masimanyane Women’s Centre

For more information about Development Cooperation or the Civil Society Development Fund, contact

Ms Aurélie VoixTel : 012 425 1710

Or visit our webpage : www.ambafrance-rsa.org