Broadband and the South African NGO Sector

Access to broadband is an essential enabler of active citizenship in today's world. With affordable broadband, the enormous potential for socio-economic, cultural, and educational development in South Africa can be realised.

The Association for Progressive Communications, South Africa Connect, Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) and The Shuttleworth Foundation hosted a one-day event on 24 March 2009 in Johannesburg as a first step towards drafting a framework for a national broadband strategy for South Africa.

To read the draft document which was discussed at the forum - "A Framework for a Comprehensive National Broadband Strategy in South Africa", click here.

To read the blog postings from the event, click here.

Broadband is an issue of specific interest to the NGO sector in South Africa. Access to increased and affordable broadband will no doubt result in more NGOs investing in their ICT infrastructure and skills, and as a result, strengthen the scope and impact of their work.

Traditional NGO activities such as fundraising, networking, advocacy and information-sharing will directly benefit from increased emphasis on, and the availability of a wide range of affordable online services and applications.

Furthermore, in terms of responding to South Africa's national development challenges, we can't afford to continue operating without a clear national broadband vision and strategy. As NGOs we should take a keen interest in this issue, especially how government, telecommunication operators and other service providers respond in this regard.

SANGONeT will continue to engage with NGOs about these issues in the period after the event, and the 2009 SANGONeT Conference will be dedicated to "preparing the NGO sector in South Africa for a broadband era".

SANGONeT welcomes any feedback, comments and suggestions regarding the potential impact of a new broadband era on the work of the NGO sector.

Please forward your comments to info@sangonet.org.za.

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