LWATI - The SANGONeT e-Newsletter, January 2009

* L W A T I *

The monthly e-newsletter of the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT)

 

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Executive Director's Comments

Welcome to the 55th edition of SANGONeT's monthly e-newsletter!

I would like to wish all our Lwati readers a prosperous 2009. Starting with a new look and feel for Lwati, and building on our work during the past year, we look forward to continue engaging with all our stakeholders in developing innovative solutions to the ICT and capacity-building challenges facing civil society in Southern Africa.

Looking at the year ahead, we will continue to implement many strategic initiatives introduced in recent years. In terms of our online civil society content activities, the focus will be on expanding the NGO Pulse Portal (http://www.ngopulse.org) and Prodder: The South African NGO and Development Directory (http://www.prodder.org.za).

We will also continue to distribute the weekly NGO Pulse e-newsletter, which currently has more than 20 000 subscribers.

Linked to our online content work, SANGONeT and Hivos will continue to implement the Citizen Journalism in Africa project, while a number of related initiatives are in various stages of planning and development.

As far as our technology services are concerned, the emphasis will be on the ongoing development and expansion of the SANGOTeCH technology donation portal (http://www.sangotech.org). We hope to introduce a number of new donation partners in the coming months, while the project will also be expanded to other Southern African countries. Building on the outcomes of the MobileActive08 Summit that we hosted in October 2008, SANGONeT will also introduce a number of mobile phone projects this year. The follow-up study to the "State of ICTs in the South African NGO sector" will also be conducted this year.

Our ICT advocacy activities will include the fifth SANGONeT "ICTs for Civil Society" conference in August 2009, as well as various local and regional Thetha ICT discussion forums. Events will be held in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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 2009" will be held in conjunction with the annual conference.

Ultimately, the focus and success of SANGONeT's work, as with all other NGOs in the Southern African region, is affected by the socio-economic and political environment in which we operate. The current global financial crisis will no doubt present many NGOs with serious challenges for the foreseeable future.

As in previous years, we have once again published an article on NGO Pulse to coincide with the first edition of the year which highlights the expected challenges and opportunities that NGOs will face in 2009. I would like to encourage you to reflect on the issues raised in this article and share your impressions with us.

Click here to read the article.

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

NGO Pulse

As 2008 came to a close, the CSI team spent time reflecting on the year and the launch of the new NGO Pulse portal. Far from resting on our laurels, we have plans to ensure that the portal become a truly community space for civil society in South Africa. These include road shows, strategies to increase blogging, and, as we have done in the past, the publication of articles and information that you find useful.

Refer to http://www.ngopulse.org/user/register to find out how to register on NGO Pulse and what your status allows you to do.

We also announced the winners of the 2008 South African NGO Web Awards. Congratulations to the three winners:

 

• Career Planet
• Gender Dynamix
• Women'sNet

They will receive prizes to the value of R10 000 each from Torque IT.

Articles published on the Portal during December include:

• 2008 SA NGO Web Award Winners
  
• Make politicians use public transport to teach them humility
  
• The Politics of Hope
  
• Taking a Closer Look at the Domestic Violence Act
  
• Celebrating 15 Years: MMP becomes Media Monitoring Africa
  

A number of blogs were also posted. These include:

• The silence that is killing Zimbabweans
  
• Internet Fundraising and the NGO Sector in South Africa
• Democracy for all
  
• South African NGOs in the Rest of Africa
  
• Support Emergency Relief Efforts in Zimbabwe
  
  

NGO Pulse on Facebook

To join the growing NGO Pulse online community on Facebook, refer to our Facebook Group.

For more information about NGO Pulse, please contact Janine Moolman at SANGONeT on Tel: (+27) (11) 403-4935 or janine@sangonet.org.za.

Prodder Online Directory

Prodder is the most comprehensive directory about NGOs and development organisations in South Africa. To search this online directory, please visit - http://www.prodder.org.za.

We encourage NGOs and development organisations to review their entries and forward us information about changes and corrections that need to be made.

Please forward your comments to - prodder@sangonet.org.za.

Prodder: NGOs and Devcelopment in South Africa 2008

The 2008 Prodder directory in book format is still available from SANGONeT's office in Braamfontein.

To order your copy, please refer to the information about the book on http://www.prodder.org.za or send an e-mail to prodder@sangonet.org.za, specifying your interest to order the book (R250 VAT inclusive plus R35 postage).

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ICT Services

SANGOTeCH Online Technology Donations Portal

SANGOTeCH assisted South African NGOs in saving more than R1 million on Microsoft software and Cisco networking equipment during December 2008. A total of 13 donation requests were fulfilled during this period.

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

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

SANGOTeCH Southern Africa

SANGOTeCH operates in South Africa and Botswana. Programmes in Lesotho and Malawi are under development.

Citizen Journalism in Africa

SANGONeT and Hivos are collaborating on a project aimed at developing citizen journalism in Africa, with a specific focus on South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique.

Refer to the CJA Portal - http://www.citizenjournalismafrica.org - a space where participants post news, audio, blog and comment on other people's input.

Tanzania Media Fund

SANGONeT recently developed a website for the Tanzania Media Fund (TMF), a newly established fund that seeks to promote independence and quality in media, with a particular focus on public interest and investigative journalism. The website was launched on 3 December 2008 in Dar es Salaam.

Refer to http://www.tmf.or.tz to view the website.

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Networking & Outreach

SANGONeT's Executive Director, David Barnard, made a presentation on "Rhetoric to Reality - Developing a Guidestar Africa Strategy" during the GuideStar International Assembly from 2-3 December 2008 in London, United Kingdom.

He also attended the AfDB/OECD/UNECA ICT Experts Meeting on 15 December 2008 in Paris, France.