Lwati October 2005, Number 16

*LWATI *

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

October 2005, Number 16

www.sangonet.org.za

"Lwati" is an isiSwati word meaning information.

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

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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS

Dear reader

Welcome to the 16th edition of SANGONeT's monthly e-newsletter!

On 24 October 2005 SANGONeT will launch an important new Internet portal for and about the NGO sector in South Africa. This comprehensive new information service will replace the current SANGONeT website, and integrate the activities of the Thusanang, PRODDER and Africa Pulse projects.

The new portal will become a gateway to the South African NGO sector. Its four main objectives are to develop the institutional capacity of the NGO sector through the provision of information that is intended to support stronger management practises; map NGOs and their activities through PRODDER, the most comprehensive database of its kind in Africa; create a community space for civil society exchange (e.g. conferences, training opportunities, RFPs, press releases, jobs, calendars, campaigns, etc.); and promote the benefits of ICTs in support of the work of civil society.

From an NGO perspective, the new portal will provide an important resource for the sector, giving it access to information that will develop its institutional capacity, build cohesion and increase its impact. From an external perspective, it will map the work of the sector, providing donors and other stakeholders with valuable information about NGO activities on the ground, the challenges they face and their impact. The portal is also intended to inform strategic decision making for all development stakeholders engaging with the South African NGO sector.

The portal will therefore become an important community space, providing NGOs with a strategic platform to communicate with each other and other stakeholders. It will be a mechanism for NGOs to air their views, while also creating the opportunity for other stakeholders to critique and evaluate the sector. Moreover, it is envisaged to become a market place where services can be procured and exchanged.

The establishment of this new portal is the culmination of SANGONeT's years of experience of working in the online environment. Since our inception, we have developed  a wide range of websites and online resources to highlight development issues in South Africa, the wider Southern African region and the African continent in general. The new service will expand our existing range of development information activities, as well as deepen our knowledge of the NGO sector.

The development of this new service was also informed by an extensive consultation process which we have conducted during the past year with NGOs, funders and other stakeholders throughout South Africa. The objective of this process was to assess the information needs and requirements of the NGO sector as, ultimately, the success of the new portal will be determined by the extent to which NGOs and other stakeholders use the information on the portal, as well as actively contribute information on their own activities and experiences.

Given the significance of the new portal in raising awareness about the South African NGO sector in future, it is therefore appropriate that it will be launched during a SANGONeT event on 24 October 2005 to celebrate World Development Information Day (WDID).

For more information on the WDID event, and its relevance to SANGONeT's activities, please refer to the article on "Promoting Development Information" which was written by Fazila Farouk, SANGONeT's Deputy Director (available on the Thusanang website at http://www.thusanang.org.za).

On another note, SANGONeT relocated to new premises in Braamfontein at the end of September 2005. Our new physical address is 29th Floor, UCS Building, 209 Smit Street, Braamfontein. Our telephone and fax numbers remain the same.

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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<> EVENTS

# World Development Information Day (WDID) 2005

SANGONeT will host a special event on Monday, 24 October 2005, to celebrate World Development Information Day. The United Nations General Assembly instituted World Development Information Day in December 1972 with the objective of drawing public attention annually to development problems and the importance of strengthening international cooperation to solve them.

The event will be held in Johannesburg, while a video conference link with Cape Town and Durban will enable participation from those two cities.

The objective of the event is to highlight the role and significance of information and communication in the South African NGO sector and to profile specific initiatives aimed at improving its information and communication capacity.

Key speakers include Godfrey Mokate, CEO of the National Development Agency (NDA) and Michael Gilbert of the Gilbert Center in Seattle.

If you are interested in attending the event in Johannesburg, Durban or Cape Town, please contact Cathy Niken at SANGONeT on (011) 403-4935 or cathy@sangonet.org.za.

There is no charge for attending the event, but as space is limited, please register by 20 October 2005.

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

SANGONeT will host its second annual "ICTs for Civil Society" conference from 1-3 March 2006 at the Indaba Hotel in Fairways, Johannesburg. Building on the success of the 2005 event, the next conference will focus specifically on a wide range of practical ICT solutions and applications relevant to the work of civil society organisations in Southern Africa.

SANGONeT therefore 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.

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<> TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

# NGO.ZA

SANGONeT established NGO.ZA in October 2004 to respond to the ICT
and connectivity requirements of the South African NGO sector, and as a result, transform the ICT usage, capacity and infrastructure levels of the secctor. Initially implemented in collaboration with ICOZA, the NGO.ZA platform was revised earlier this year to enable a multi- stakeholder structure to better serve the NGO sector.

Two new partners have joined NGO.ZA to offer a wider range of ICT products and services through this platform. BCSNet is a leading BEE e-service provider of outsourced ICT infrastructural services in Southern Africa.

The BCSNet range of solutions includes Application Hosting Services, World Carrier Class Telecommunications Services, Internet Access Services and Office Automation Professional Services. Torque-IT is a widely accredited BEE training service provider which will focus on offering affordable high quality ICT training courses at subsidised rates through NGO.ZA. Torque-IT's unique training philosophy and business flow incorporates a broad spectrum of options, allowing a wide variety of cost effective options in training and capacity building.

In view of the new strategic partnership established with BCSNet, all NGO.ZA connectivity clients were migrated to BCSNet during the last week of September. Although carefully managed to minimize disruption, a number of clients were affected temporarily during this process. However, all clients have been migrated successfully and will now benefit from the expanded range of services on NGO.ZA.

For more information on NGO.ZA, please visit http://www.ngo.za. The website is currently being upgraded to accommodate the expanded range of ICT products and services, which will be available through an automated shopping cart facility.

# NGO.ZA Strategic Workshops

SANGONeT hosted a workshop on the future direction of NGO.ZA on 8 September 2005 in Braamfontein. It was attended by key stakeholders such as BCSNet, Torque-IT, Wits School of Computer Science and SANGONeT. This was followed by a second workshop on 20 September 2005 with selected NGOs that are currently using NGO.ZA.

The following mission of NGO.ZA was developed at these workshops, namely "To offer quality, accessible and cost-effective technology products and services which will help NGOs achieve their goals".

NGO.ZA presents the South African NGO sector with an opportunity to accelerate its ICT uptake and capacity. It is a multi-faceted initiative, with the objective of not only providing ICT products and services, but also promoting an environment of informed decision-making where NGOs can develop a better understanding of how technology will support their work.

# Web Portals

SANGONeT's Technology Services programme continues to develop and maintain web portals for various NGOs throughout the country. Based on a common open source platform, these portals enable sophisticated content management through a user-friendly browser-based interface. Examples of these portals include the following:

SACP (http://www.sacp.org.za), with the latest editions of Umsebenzi Online.

Young Communist League (YCL) (http://www.ycl.org.za), featuring the fortnightly Y-Reds online publication.

Agenda (http://www.agenda.org.za), the award winning news and information resource on gender issues.

SANGOCO (http://www.sangoco.org.za), press releases and latest news and announcements are posted regularly on the portal of the South African National NGO Coalition.

For more information on SANGONeT's web services, please contact Daniel Gray on Tel: (011) 403-4935 or danielr@sangonet.org.za

# Technology Consulting

SANGONeT offers a wide range of customised technology solutions, including open source software consulting, facilitation of website
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

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<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION SERVICES

# NGO Portal

September was a very busy month for the CSIS team, including consulting a wide range of stakeholders, building partnerships and developing the soon-to-be-released SANGONeT development information portal for and about the NGO sector in South Africa.

A very significant event in this regard was the "content partner" meeting for the new portal which SANGONeT hosted on 27 September 2005 in Johannesburg. This meeting brought together leading development NGOs from a broad range of sectors and located in various regions of the country for a discussion about how to contribute content to the portal. Partnerships are being established with a range of organisations.

If you are a development NGO with an interest in contributing content to the new portal, please contact Fazila Farouk at SANGONeT on (011) 403-4935 or fazila@sangonet.org.za.

# Thusanang: The Southern African Funding Information Facility

Thusanang is an Internet portal (http://www.thusanang.org.za) that aims to disseminate information on funding and fundraising issues, promoting good grantmaking and grantseeking practices.

The Thusanang team members visited Port Elizabeth for a focus group discussion on 19 September 2005 that was hosted at the offices of the Ikhala Trust. More than 20 NGOs from the area attended the meeting to engage in a discussion about finessing the content on the website. They also used the opportunity to talk about their experiences and particularly challenges faced in keeping their organisations up and running.

To subscribe to the Thusanang Alert, submit news and articles, or to request more information about Thusanang, please send an e-mail to thusanang@sangonet.org.za.

# PRODDER: The South African NGO and Development Directory

SANGONeT is making good progress in improving the functionality of the new online directory, adding new organisationsand validating existing entries. The response to the  directory has been very positive with increasing numbers of new organisations submitting  their details to the directory.

If you have not yet been contacted by one of our PRODDER validation staff, kindly visit http://www.prodder.org.za to update or add your details to the directory.

To submit an inquiry, send an e-mail to prodder@sangonet.org.za.

# Advocacy

SANGONeT participated in the South African civil society caucus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and made a submission to the final civil society statement about critical ICT issues for the MDGs.

# SANGONeT Conference Calendar

A new feature on the SANGONeT website is a comprehensive listing of forthcoming Southern African and international development conferences.

To have your event included in this facility, please forward details to
info@sangonet.org.za

For more information about forthcoming conferences, please visit the "Conference Calendar" section on the SANGONeT website at http://www.sangonet.org.za

# SN-Announce

SN-Announce is an electronic mailing list that has provided an invaluable service to the CSO sector in Southern Africa for the past six years.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 organizations and the development community in general.

All members of the development sector, including government departments and commercial organisations with a development focus, can advertise on SN-Announce. The type of information distributed on SN-Announce includes alerts for vacancies, events, campaign launches, conferences, meetings, lobbies, petitions and services in the development sector.

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

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<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH

# SANGONeT's Senior Information Coordinator, Julie Machin, attended a SANGOCO workshop to draft a Civil Society response to the government's MDG Country Report on 8 September 2005 in Braamfontein.

# SANGONeT's Technology Services Manager, Joseph George, attended the launch of Equip, a new expo aimed at SMMEs and linked to Futurex, on 21 September 2005 in Sandton.

# SANGONeT's Senior Information Coordinator, Diane Babak, attended the International FLOSS and Free Knowledge Workshop 2, "Enabling communities to empower themselves with knowledge", from 21-23 September 2005 in Pretoria.

# SANGONeT's Executive Director, David Barnard, attended the Mission 2007 Knowledge Centre Training Workshop from 22-23 September 2005 in Chennai, India. He also attended the UNESCO Communication and Information Sector Meeting on 29 September 2005 in Midrand.

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<> CONTACT DETAILS

SANGONeT
P O Box 31392
2017 Braamfontein
SOUTH AFRICA

10th Floor
76 Juta 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. 2005. SANGONeT.

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document. Please provide an acknowledgment to SANGONeT

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