Lwati January 2007, Number 31

The monthly e-newsletter of the Southern African Non-Governmental Organisation Network (SANGONeT)

January 2007, Number 31

www.sangonet.org.za

"Lwati" is an isiSwati word meaning information.

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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS
<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION
<> ICT SERVICES
<> ICT ADVOCACY
<> CONTACT DETAILS

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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS

Dear reader

Welcome to the 31st edition of SANGONeT’s monthly e-newsletter!

I would like to wish all our stakeholders and Lwati readers a prosperous 2007. Building on our work of the past year, we look forward to engaging with you during 2007 in developing innovative solutions to the ICT challenges facing civil society in Southern Africa.

We finished 2006 on a high note with the official launch of SANGOTeCH on 12 December 2006 in Johannesburg. SANGOTeCH aims to assist NGOs by providing software and hardware for very low or discounted fees in conjunction with ICT donor partners. Already, a number of local NGOs have benefited from this initiative by purchasing software at discounts of up to 95% of the retail value.

Refer to www.sangotech.org for more information about this initiative.

Looking at the year ahead, we will continue to implement many of the strategic initiatives launched in recent years. In terms of our online civil society content activities, the focus will be on expanding the SANGONeT NGO and Development Information Portal (www.sangonet.org.za), PRODDER: The South African NGO and Development Directory (www.prodder.org.za) and the SN-Announce service (http://sangonet.org.za/url/55u). A number of new NGO database and directory initiatives will also be implemented.

In the next few months SANGONeT and Hivos will also start implementing a three-year Southern Africa civic journalism project.

As far as our technology services are concerned, the emphasis will be on developing SANGOTeCH into a comprehensive online technology procurement and information resource for the NGO sector. Our plans in this regard will be informed by the research project on ICT trends in the South African NGO sector which we are implementing in conjunction with Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx.

Our ICT advocacy activities will include the third SANGONeT “ICTs for Civil Society” conference and exhibition that will be held in June 2007 (http://sangonet.org.za/url/55v), as well as various local and regional Thetha ICT discussion forums (http://sangonet.org.za/thetha). As part of our objective to increase NGOs’ awareness of the strategic importance of their websites and the online environment in general, the “South African NGO Web Awards 2007” will be held in conjunction with our annual conference.

As always, we are very interested in how you think we could best serve the NGO sector with relevant ICT products and services. Please send us your views, comments and suggestions.

Best wishes

David Barnard (dbarnard@sangonet.org.za)

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<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION (CSI) PROGRAMME

# SANGONeT Portal

The SANGONeT portal has developed into a companion for the NGO sector in South Africa. For 2007, our plans include a stronger focus on news and information related to non-profit sustainability as this issue continues to plague the South African NGO sector. We are keen to focus on the matter from a local perspective. Much of the fundraising news and information that we currently gather is from international sources, and while there are universal lessons that are globally applicable, we are concerned the South African NGO sector does have its own unique challenges, which we would like to highlight through information that is specific to the local context.

Visitors to the portal can also expect to see some subtle changes to the look of the portal, which are aimed at improving the aesthetics of the site. Moreover, we will continue to engage with development practitioners and activists to gauge perspectives and views that can be shared with you and hope to increase the voices that speak on the SANGONeT portal.

Looking back at 2006, one of the most popular items on the portal was our monthly poll. In December, we asked voters to identify the most successful campaign tactic. While we are aware that any campaign may employ a combination of these tactics to promote a cause, we were still curious to find out what people believed was the most effective individual tactic and are surprised at the outcome of this poll.

The results of the poll, which was taken by 83 voters, are as follow:

Print T-shirts - 32.5%
Host multi-stakeholder debates - 21.7%
Lobby decision-makers - 12%
Write articles in the newspaper - 12%
Have a picket demonstration - 7.2%
Hold a march (toyi-toyi) - 7.2%
Make parliamentary submissions 7.2%

As always, the CSI team continued to produce relevant civil society and development-related content for the portal. The editor’s choice for articles produced during December 2006 includes the following:

Feature: SANGOTeCH Software Donation Portal Goes Live
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/55r

Opinion: Ahmed Motala on Human Rights
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/55s

Feature: SANGONeT Stakeholders Reflect on 2006
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/55t

For more information about the SANGONeT NGO Portal, kindly send a query or comment to the Editor of the portal, Fazila Farouk, at fazila@sangonet.org.za or editor@sangonet.org.za.

# PRODDER:

The South African NGO and Development Directory The SANGONeT portal continues to house the most up-to-date online directory of NGOs and development agencies in the form of PRODDER, and we remind you to list your organisation on this free and searchable database.

The directory is available at http://www.prodder.org.za.

# SN-Announce

SN-Announce is an e-mail advertising service that provides an invaluable service to the NGO sector in Southern Africa. With a potential readership of more than 10 000 people, it remains one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to reach non-profit organisations, development practitioners, grantmakers and others working in the development sector.

All members of the development sector can advertise on SN-Announce. The type of information distributed includes alerts for vacancies, events, campaign launches, conferences, meetings and services for the development sector.

Subscription to the SN-Announce service is free.

Refer to http://sangonet.org.za/url/55u for copies of past announcements.

For more information about how to subscribe to SN-Announce or post an announcement, please contact Butjwana Seokoma at SANGONeT on (011) 403-4935 or butjwana@sangonet.org.za.

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<> ICT SERVICES

# SANGOTeCH Online Technology Donations Portal

SANGOTeCH was formally launched at a function held at Moyo in Newtown on 12 December 2006. Although the site has been live since 1 December, the launch marked an important day for this new SANGONeT initiative. An inaugural purchase was made by Learn to Earn, a Cape Town-based NGO, which placed an order with a retail value of R150 000 and for which it will only pay R9 000.

A number of other large orders have also been received, with NGOs paying only R25 000 for software with a retail value of approximately R500 000. Too date 65 organisations have registered for the programme.

NGOs interested in ordering the software available on SANGOTeCH should first check their general eligibility for the programme at http://www.sangotech.org/eligibility. If an organisation fulfills these requirements, then check the specific eligibility requirements of our initial donor partners, Cisco and Microsoft. If you qualify for at least one of these, then register for the programme at http://www.sangotech.org/user/register.

The product catalogue can be viewed at http://store.sangotech.org/directory.

For more information about SANGOTeCH, as well as to receive regular updates about new products and services, please refer to www.sangotech.org or contact us on 086 110 6443 or support@sangotech.org.

# Telecentre Train-the-Trainer Project

SANGONeT, in conjunction with the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA), Microsoft and Torque-IT, continues to implement a project aimed at improving the capacity of IT trainers based at telecentres in South Africa.

Twelve Western Cape-based based participants completed the fourth train-the-trainer session from 14 November - 1 December 2006.

# Telecentre Governance Training Workshop

SANGONeT, with the support of telecentre.org and Microsoft, hosted a governance training workshop for the Executive of the Telecentre Association of South Africa (TASA) and representatives of the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) from 12-14 December 2006 in Johannesburg. Abongile Maqwazima of Imara Consulting facilitated the workshop.

# Technology Consulting

SANGONeT offers a wide range of customised technology solutions, including open source software consulting, facilitation of web workshops and developing a technology plan for your organisation.

For more information on how we can assist you, please contact Matthew de Gale on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or matthew@sangonet.org.za

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<> ICT ADVOCACY

# Thetha - The SANGONeT Regional ICT Discussion Forum

SANGONeT and Development Workshop/Angonet will host the fifth Southern African Thetha forum from 31 January - 1 February 2007 in Luanda, Angola.

If you are interested in participating in the Angolan event, please contact Olivia Augusto of Development Workshop before 30 January 2007:

Tel: (+244) (222) 44-8366 / E-mail: olivia@angonet.org.

# Third Annual SANGONeT "ICTs for Civil Society" Conference and Exhibition

SANGONeT will host its third annual "ICTs for Civil Society" conference in June 2007 in Johannesburg. Building on the success of the first two events, the next conference will focus specifically on how the NGO sector is adopting, using and implementing ICT applications in their work.

SANGONeT invites anyone interested in participating in the event as a speaker or participant to register their interest at - info@sangonet.org.za.

We are especially interested in receiving information on any case studies, technology solutions, etc. which could be incorporated into the conference programme.

Refer to http://sangonet.org.za/url/55v to assist us in shaping the conference programme.

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<> CONTACT DETAILS

SANGONeT
P O Box 31392 2017
Braamfontein
SOUTH AFRICA

29th Floor,
UCS Building
209 Smit Street
Braamfontein

Tel: (+27) (11) 403-4935
Fax: (+27) (11) 403-0130
E-mail: newsletter@sangonet.org.za
WWW: http://www.sangonet.org.za

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CopyLeft. 2007. SANGONeT.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and modify this document. Please provide an acknowledgment to SANGONeT.

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