Quote of the week
The mother of revolution and crime is poverty.
- Aristotle, Ancient Greek Philosopher.
Comment of the week
The severe economic downturn means that NPO’s must make the most of fewer funding opportunities.
- Errol Goetsch, Director of the Centre for Social Impact, South Africa.
SN-Announce
SN-Announce is an e-mail advertising service with a readership of more than 10 000 people. Subscription to the SN-Announce service is free. For more information contact Nicolle Beeby on +27 11 403-4935 or nicolle@sangonet.org.za
Prodder Directory
Prodder is the most comprehensive directory of NGOs and development organisations in South Africa. To view the directory, click here. Order your copy of Prodder - NGOs and Development in South Africa 2008, here.
SANGOTeCH
SANGOTeCH provides software and hardware to NGOs at discounted fees in conjunction with ICT donor partners. It supports NGOs to make the most of their ICT purchases and infrastructure. For more information about SANGOTeCH, click here.
BackaBuddy
SANGONeT supports BackaBuddy, an online fundraising website which combines the power of sport and the reach of the Internet in support of NGOs in South Africa. For more information contact David Barnard or Matthew de Gale on +27 11 403-4935 or e-mail: info@sangonet.org.za
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Poverty, Elections, Prodder Online Survey…
Do we ‘cost’ the impact of poverty and hunger to a country’s development? Whether it be in the form of higher health costs or poor school attendance, poverty and hunger in South Africa, and in developing countries more broadly, are key factors in economic and social development.
In an article we publish this week, Tracy Cull and Katharine Vincent from the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme ask what it would cost to alleviate hunger. Quoting Jeffrey Sachs at a UN meeting late last year, they write of the irony that the US could find $700 billion for “a bailout of its corrupt and errant banks, but couldn’t find a small fraction of that for the world’s poor and dying.” In his blog Sachs writes: “...the very banks being bailed out so generously had awarded themselves more than $30 billion in bonuses early this year, roughly the world’s entire aid budget for 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.” Cull and Vincent review a new book, Seasons of Hunger: Fighting Cycles of Quiet Starvation Among the World’s Rural Poor, which “puts a figure to how much it would cost to alleviate hunger.” Click here to read the full article.
Reporting on a debate held between political parties on eradicating poverty in South Africa, Butjwana Seokoma, SANGONeT’s information coordinator writes that while the country has one of the highest poverty levels in the world, government has made efforts to address poverty through the provision of social grants. Seokoma presents the positions of different political parties who participated in the debate. Click here to read the full article.
We also publish the first of a series of articles on the work of the Sonke Gender Justice Network which works to address the social aspects of the HIV epidemic, with a particular focus on gender issues. This week we include an article by Kristin Palitza on an anti-xenophobia mural project in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Quoting Sonke co-director Dean Peacock, she writes: “Although we see no reports on violence against foreign nationals in the media anymore, it is an ongoing issue, even if it happens on a smaller scale...With the help of public art, we want to draw attention to xenophobia as an ongoing problem, to the importance of reintegration of refugees and migrants who had to flee their homes and to the fact that we don’t do nearly enough in South Africa to protect marginalised groups.” Click here to read the full article.
In last week’s edition of NGO Pulse we included a notice of the launch of the UNISA free online courses in African languages. While they received a very positive response, the launch has had to be postponed due to the possibility of mass action taking place on campus. We will let you know of the new date.
As mentioned last week, remember to diarise 9 March if you are in Durban and 12 March if you are in Cape Town when you will be able to find out more about SANGONeT’s programmes and services and also participate in a training session on how to make NGO Pulse work for you and your organisation. RSVP to Dipuo Mahanyele @ SANGONeT by 4 March 2009 on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or dipuo@sangonet.org.za. We look forward to seeing you there.
We also invite you to help us improve the Prodder NGO directory. Please complete the Prodder Online Survey by 6 March 2009.
Results from the survey will assist SANGONeT in identifying NGOs’ information requirements, and develop new features and search functions for Prodder and inform the implementation of the Prodder-GuideStar NGO Directory Project, a strategic partnership between SANGONeT and GuideStar International aimed at expanding the functionality and value of the current Prodder NGO Directory.
As always we invite your comments ideas and suggestions.
Editor, editor@sangonet.org.za
New Jobs, Proposals & Events
Employment Opportunities
- Norwegian Church Aid invites applications from suitably qualified candidates for the position of Assistant Programme Administrator/Junior Programme Officer to be based in Pretoria. The application deadline is 6 March 2009. For more information, click here.
- Gender Links, a NGO that promotes gender justice and equality, seeks to appoint a Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance Manager. The application deadline is 6 March 2009. For more information, click here.
- Grassroot Soccer, a NGO that provides life skills education to young people to prevent HIV/AIDS, seeks to employ a Junior Bookkeeper to be based in Cape Town. The application deadline is 10 March 2009. For more information, click here.
Proposals, Grants & Awards
- The Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme is calling for applications for country research partners for its project on sexuality and the Internet. The submission deadline is 16 March 2009. For more information, click here.
- The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and Ernst & Young invite entries for the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Competition - South Africa 2009. The submission deadline is 31 March 2009. For more information and to submit an entry, click here.
- The Harvard South Africa Fellowship Programme in conjunction with the Mandela Rhodes Foundation invite applications for the 2010/11 Fellowship. Applicants should be South Africans who were previously disadvantaged by law and resource allocation as a result of apartheid and its legacy. The submission deadline is 30 April 2009. For more information, click here.
New Events
- The Gender and Media Southern Africa Network, is hosting the CSW53 Cyber Dialogues on 4, 6 and 9 March 2009. For more information, click here.
- The African Institute of Corporate Citizenship is hosting a seminar on Standardising Social Responsibility: ISO 26000 on 9 March 2009 in Johannesburg. For more information, click here.
- Distance Education and Teacher Education in Africa (DETA) is hosting the DETA Conference 2009 from 3-6 August 2009 in Ghana. For more information, click here.
Training
- The Centre for Economic Journalism in Africa, a unit of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, is conducting an accredited certificate course on Economics for Journalism from 3-7 April 2009 in Grahamstown. For more information, click here.
- The Institute for the Advancement of Journalism is conducting a two-day course on Writing Opinion Pieces for Publications from 23-24 March 2009 in Johannesburg. For more information, click here.
- The School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh is launching a new taught MSc Programme in Africa and International Development, starting from September 2009. The application deadline is 30 March 2009. For more information, click here.
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