Lwati May 2006, Number 23

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

May 2006, Number 23

www.sangonet.org.za

"Lwati" is an isiSwati word meaning information.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS
<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION SERVICES
<> TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH
<> CONTACT DETAILS

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS

Dear reader

Welcome to the 23rd edition of SANGONeT’s monthly e-newsletter!

I am currently in Adelaide, Australia, participating in “Connecting Up 2006”, Australia's only national conference focusing on how ICT issues impact on local communities and the NGO sector.

“Connecting Up” is organised by Community Information Strategies Australia (CISA), an Australian NGO with objectives and programmes similar to those of SANGONeT. The conference topics and themes also have much in common with the focus of the 2005 and 2006 SANGONeT conferences.

Refer to http://connectingup.cisa.asn.au for more information about CISA and the “Connecting Up” conference.

One of the key issues that will be discussed on the second day of the conference is the proposed formation of a National Nonprofit ICT Coalition (NNIC) in Australia. CISA has won a tender from the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts (DCITA) to develop a model and business plan for the establishment of this proposed coalition. Other consortium members include national NGOs, IT companies, professional associations and academic institutions.

In conjunction with representatives from nonprofit technology organisations in the United Kingdom and United States, I have been invited to brief participants about how NGOs in our respective countries are adopting technology, as well as responding to ICT policy and application issues of national importance.

The formation of the proposed coalition in Australia is very relevant to the South African situation. Very few NGOs in South Africa specialise in ICT issues, while the NGO sector is still characterised by low ICT infrastructure and skills levels. In addition, there are very few if any representative national platforms for multistakeholder cooperation around ICT issues in South Africa, especially where NGOs play the leading role.

During the past few years SANGONeT has created dedicated platforms such as the annual SANGONeT Conference and ongoing Thetha ICT Discussion Forums to be catalysts for more pro-active ICT interventions in support of the work of the NGO sector, both from within and outside the sector. Although these initiatives are successful in their own right, closer alignment and engagement with other ICT stakeholders and initiatives could strengthen these efforts in encouraging NGOs to take a more active interest in ICT issues, sustain and expand this interest, and harness the power of ICTs in meeting their development goals.

We will therefore monitor developments in Australia very closely over the next few months.

Turning to internal SANGONeT matters, the first Board meeting of the year was held on 20 April 2006. An important outcome of the meeting was the adoption of the 2006/7 SANGONeT business plan.

Moreover, I am extremely honoured to announce and welcome Kgotso Schoeman, Chief Executive Officer of Kagiso Trust, and Sipho Ndaba, Director of Information Risk Management at KPMG to the SANGONeT Board of Directors. Their collective experience and expertise will make an important contribution to strengthening SANGONeT’s governance structures and achieving our strategic objectives.

As always, we are very interested in how you think we could best serve the NGO sector with relevant information and ICT products and services. Please send us your views, comments and suggestions. Also visit my blog at http://davidbarnard.blogspot.com/

Best wishes

David Barnard (dbarnard@sangonet.org.za)

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION SERVICES

The SANGONeT portal has been up and running for six months and its popularity is on the rise as more and more people visit the site and subscribe to its weekly alerting service. Currently more than 3 000 people subscribe to NGO Pulse, the weekly e-mail newsletter that keeps visitors abreast of new postings on the portal. The CSIS team is extremely honoured by the calibre of its subscriber base, which is developing into a niche group of development professionals and practitioners that includes NGO workers, development consultants and a significant number of donors.

To visit the SANGONeT portal, please refer to http://www.sangonet.org.za   As the CSIS team continues to focus on meeting the expectations of its development audience, team members worked diligently during April 2006 to produce and publish a number of original articles. This emphasis on original content is particularly important for us to promote development issues (and models) from a civil society perspective.   Three key development events, viz., World Health Day on 7 April, National Freedom Day on 27 April and the Global Campaign for Education Campaign Action Week from 24-30 April 2006, provided the inspiration for a range of SANGONeT articles. 

The following list of original SANGONeT pieces has been compiled especially for Lwati readers:  

NGO Profile: The Institute for Democracy in South Africa
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3dv

Opinion Piece: Priority Areas for Educational Attention in South Africa
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3dw

Preventing the Health Workforce Shortage
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3dy

Guide to Environmental NGOs in South Africa
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3e3

Nuggets of Gold: Search Tips for the Internet
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/3e4

In addition, the portal's April 2006 poll sought to reveal perceptions about the impact of the local NGO sector in bringing about social change. A total of 94 people participated in the poll. The vast majority of participants (65.3%) believe that NGOs make a significant impact on social change. Only 27.4% hold the view that NGOs have limited influence on social change, while a meagre 7.4% argue that NGOs play no role in social change. These results are encouraging for the thousands of NGO workers in South Africa who often work in challenging conditions with little affirmation.    Another important achievement for the CSIS team was the enormous effort made by the PRODDER team to transfer all the donor information from the Thusanang Donor Database to the PRODDER directory. As a result of this development, visitors to the SANGONeT portal can now view valuable donor information simply by searching the PRODDER directory, without the added burden of subscribing in order to access the service.

For more information about NGOs, donors and development organisations in South Africa, please visit http://www.prodder.org.za

For more information about the SANGONeT portal, kindly send a query to SANGONeT's deputy director and editor of the portal, Fazila Farouk, at fazila@sangonet.org.za or editor@sangonet.org.za.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

<> TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

# GPL License for the Central Case Management System (CCMS)

The Central Case Management System (CCMS) that was developed by the programme team for the paralegal sector in South Africa will soon be released as Open Source Software under the General Public License (GPL). This will be done in the interest of making the software available to a wider user base, whilst allowing external developers access to the source code to enhance and modify the software as required. Efforts are underway to list the software on SourceForge. User support documentation for installation is currently being prepared.

A demo version of the web-based CCMS is available for online testing on the project website. A default user name and password is available on site for this purpose.

For more information about the CCMS, please visit http://www.ccms.org.za

# User Registration - NGO.ZA

The NGO.ZA portal features a User Registration facility which enables access to the intuitive shopping cart for online procurement of 18 different technology products and services. Registration is enabled through a simple user process on the portal. Registered users will be placed on the NGO.ZA mailing list and receive updates on products and services listed on the portal.

Visit the NGO.ZA portal at http://www.ngo.za

# 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 Joseph George on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or joseph@sangonet.org.za

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH

# SANGONeT’s Technical Support Assistant, Mzwakhe Makhalemele, attended the OSS Technology Fair on 1 April 2006 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria.

SANGONeT hosted the second meeting of the CEO Circle on 21 April 2006 in Braamfontein. SANGONeT and Project Literacy have initiated the CEO Circle to create a platform for discussion within the leadership of the NGO sector in Gauteng, encouraging networking, collaboration and peer support. An important objective of the forum is to create a safe space for decision-makers to discuss common institutional and strategic development issues, creating the opportunity to highlight problems and share solutions.

The topic of discussion was “Human Resources in the NGO Environment”, with Liza Lazarus of the LTF Consulting as the guest speaker.

# SANGONeT’s Civil Society Information Services Manager, Diane Babak, attended a workshop hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to discuss the implications of changes to "Company Law" legislation for the NGO sector. The workshop was held on 24 April 2006 at the DTI in Pretoria.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

<> 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

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

CopyLeft. 2006. SANGONeT.

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

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

To subscribe to the SANGONeT Newsletter, simply send an e-mail message to sangonet-enewsletter-request@lists.sn.apc.org with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject line.

To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to newsletter@sangonet.org.za with the word 'Unsubscribe' in the subject line.