Lwati October 2006, Number 28

* LWATI *

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

October 2006, Number 28

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
<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH
<> CONTACT DETAILS

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<> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS

Dear reader

Welcome to the 28th edition of SANGONeT's monthly e-newsletter!

In 1992 the United Nations General Assembly declared 17 October as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (Resolution 47/196 of 22 December 1992). This Day is devoted to presenting and promoting concrete activities targeted at the eradication of poverty within the national context.

SANGONeT and the National Development Agency (NDA) will host a national conference on 17 October 2006 in Johannesburg to coincide with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The theme of the conference is "Partnerships for Development - A Strategic Mechanism for Accelerated Progress towards Eradicating Poverty in South Africa".

The objectives of this event are to reflect on the scale and manifestation of poverty in South Africa, assess the role of key development roleplayers such as the National Development Agency (NDA) in coordinating national poverty eradication efforts, and consider the formation of partnerships among key stakeholders as a strategic approach to meeting South Africa's MDG targets as well as eradicating poverty.

SANGONeT's interest in partnering the NDA in hosting this conference is to provide the South African NGO sector with a strategic platform to engage key development and funding stakeholders, such as the NDA, in support of efforts aimed at eradicating poverty in South Africa. This will be done through the conference on 17 October 2006, as well as the ongoing dissemination of information and communication with the NGO sector through the SANGONeT NGO portal.

The role of government-initiated development agencies such as the NDA, USAASA, SETAs, etc. are increasingly coming under public scrutiny as a result of their problematic performance and service delivery track record. The conference provides a strategic opportunity to the more than 200 participants to reflect on this situation in the context of the poverty eradication challenges facing South Africa.

Please refer to http://sangonet.org.za/url/4fk for more information about conference, as well as to comment on critical issues related to the debate on poverty and inequality in South Africa.

As far as our other activities are concerned, key SANGONeT highlights of the past month include the following:

- Second annual content partners' meeting that we hosted on 21 September 2006 in Johannesburg (http://sangonet.org.za/url/4in);

- The submission of the Civil Society Petition on Free and Open Source Software and Open Content to the Minister for Public Service and Administration (http://sangonet.org.za/url/4ip);

- Third regional Thetha ICT Discussion Forum that we hosted with BOCONGO from 5-6 October 2006 in Gaborone, Botswana (http://sangonet.org.za/url/4iq).

Looking ahead, our preparations are gaining momentum for the Third Annual SANGONeT "ICTs for Civil Society" Conference and Exhibition that will be held in March 2007 in Johannesburg (http://sangonet.org.za/url/4ir). We are also finalising the roll-out plans for the Techsoup Stock South Africa project and an announcement in this regard will be made shortly. In addition, we are embarking on a feasibility study to determine the viability of a quarterly NGO newspaper.

We are also adding a dedicated human rights component to the PRODDER NGO and Development Directory in partnership with the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR). Finally, the research project on ICT trends in the South African NGO sector, implemented in conjunction with Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx, will also kick off in October 2006.

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.

Best wishes

David Barnard (dbarnard@sangonet.org.za)

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<> CIVIL SOCIETY INFORMATION (CSI) PROGRAMME

# SANGONeT Portal

The SANGONeT editorial team hosted its second annual content partners' meeting on 21 September 2006 in Johannesburg. The aim of the meeting was to consolidate our partnerships with leading development NGOs in South Africa to increase critical and comprehensive development dialogue on the SANGONeT NGO portal.

In general, SANGONeT's partners are extremely pleased with the progress of the portal and committed once again to providing ongoing support on specific development themes.

Refer to http://sangonet.org.za/url/4im for the list of content partners.

Content partners did however express a need for more critical analysis of issues within civil society and argued that they would like to see more controversial views expressed, for example, a critique of weak donor programmes or the real nature of the relationship between NGOs and the state. In addition to the more substantive content issues, partners also offered advice on how to improve the navigability of the portal from a user perspective.

During the month of September 2006 the SANGONeT portal hosted a poll asking NGOs what their websites are used for. For the 116 voters that participated in the poll, the results are as follow:

- Marketing - 43.1%
- Education - 17.2%
- Networking - 16.4%
- Advocacy - 9.5%
- Fundraising - 9.5%
- Don't Know - 4.3%

This is an interesting result in light of the fact that many NGOs are notoriously poor at maintaining their websites and attracting site visitors.

As always, the CSI team continued to produce relevant civil society and development-related content as well as keep the portal updated with related news, notwithstanding keeping the classifieds sections current. The editor's choice for articles produced during September 2006 includes the following:

NGO Profile: Centre for Education Policy Development
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4i6

Opinion Piece: Adult Literacy: Quick Fixes Don't Work
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4i7

Opinion Piece: Transparency and Accountability - Whither Civil Society Governance?
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4i8

Feature Article: The Business of CSI - Is Enough Being Done?
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4i9

Resource: Guide to Democracy NGOs in South Africa
http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4ia

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.

# SANGONeT Development Calendar 2007

SANGONeT is currently compiling its 2007 Development Calendar, which will once again be designed and produced in the form of a year planner. The Calendar covers a comprehensive list of international, African and South African dates (e.g. World AIDS Day, 1 December) of significance to people involved in development and civil society issues.

If you know of any dates which should be included in the calendar, please forward the information to info@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.

In partnership with the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR), a dedicated human rights component of PRODDER is currently under development. This added dimension will also be available to the public and will be launched in early 2007.

For more information about PRODDER, please contact Aadila Molale at SANGONeT on (011) 403-4935 or prodder@sangonet.org.za.

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<> ICT SERVICES

# 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.

The second three-week training session was completed by the end of August 2006, and the third session started on 2 October 2006.

# Ditsela CMS Training

SANGONeT conducted a training session on using content management systems (CMS) for Ditsela. The Ditsela portal is built on Mambo, an open source content management system. The training intervention focused on best practices when creating new pages and editing web content.

Ditsela's central objective is to assist the labour movement in building its capacity in response to the challenges it faces.

For more information about Ditsela, please visit http://www.ditsela.org.za

# Comments module for the SANGONeT NGO portal

The SANGONeT NGO portal's functionality was enhanced with the addition of a 'Comments' module, which allows visitors to comment on specific stories published on the portal.

This functionality now enables visitors to interact more effectively with the portal.

To see the Comments module in action, please visit http://www.sangonet.org.za/url/4i5

# Technology Consulting

SANGONeT offers a wide range of customised technology solutions, including open source software consulting, facilitation of web workshops, portal and other web-development queries, as well as assistance in developing a technology plan for your organisation.

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

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<> ICT ADVOCACY

# Thetha - The SANGONeT Regional ICT Discussion Forum

SANGONeT and the Botswana Council of NGOs (BOCONGO) hosted the third Southern African Thetha forum from 5-6 October 2006 in Gaborone, Botswana. More than 100 participants drawn from civil society, government, private sector and academic institutions attended the event.

The two-day event focused on ICT policy issues in Botswana, and how they impact on different sectors of society, especially civil society. One of the topical issues in Botswana, namely 'Community Radio Stations', was hotly debated by panelists from Parliament, MISA-Botswana and National Broadcasting Board. In addition, challenges and opportunities facing civil society organisations in Botswana regarding their participation in ICT issues received special attention. Participants were also given practical training on ICT applications such as blogs.

For more information about the Botswana Thetha Forum, please visit http://www.sangonet.org/thetha

The next regional Thetha forum will be held in from 22-23 November 2006 in Maseru, Lesotho.

# Civil Society Petition to Government on Free and Open Source Software and Open Content

SANGONeT and the Internet Society of South Africa coordinated a civil society petition on Free and Open Source Software and Open Content during September 2006. The petition called for government to adopt an open source policy and was submitted to the Minister for Public Service and Administration on 3 October 2006.

Refer to http://sangonet.org.za/url/4ig for a short article about the petition, as well as a copy of the final document.

The petition reflects growing civil society awareness about open source as a national developmental and economic issue.

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

SANGONeT will host its third annual "ICTs for Civil Society" conference in March 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 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.

Refer to http://www.sangonet.org.za/conference2007 to assist us in shaping the conference programme.

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<> NETWORKING AND OUTREACH

# SANGONeT's Technology Services Manager, Joseph George attended the iWeek 2006 conference from 4-7 September 2006 in Kyalami.

# SANGONeT's Information Coordinator, Badumile Duma, attended the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Southern Africa conference from 5-6 September 2006 in Johannesburg.

# SANGONeT's Information Coordinator, Butjwana Seokama, attended the launch of the "State of the World Population Report 2006" on 7 September 2006 at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in Pretoria.

# SANGONeT's Executive Director, David Barnard, made a presentation on SANGONeT's online content services and activities at the CSI event hosted by the Siyakhula Trust on 8 September 2006 in Randburg.

# SANGONeT's ICT Advocacy Manager, Nthabiseng Taole, and Joseph George attended the Software Freedom Day event hosted by the Department of Science & Technology on 16 September 2006 in Pretoria. Joseph George made a presentation on 'Civil Society and Free and Open Source Software'.

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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. 2006. SANGONeT.

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

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