South African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) need a common, structured, resourced collaborative National Action Plan to ensure the role they play in building the “South Africa We Want” has a significant and sustainable impact.
This was the outcome of a three-day Kagiso National Consultative Conference of the NGO sector co-ordinated by Kagiso Trust that brought together NGO representatives to develop this very necessary common plan of action.
The conference, themed: “Civil Society Unmuted: Building Common Ground for an Agenda for Social Change” was hosted by Kagiso Trust in November, with 500 delegates attending in person and virtually. Former deputy minister of finance, Mcebisi Jonas, kicked off the conference as the keynote speaker.
“Twenty-eight years into our constitutional democracy and South Africa is facing multiple and deepening crisis on every level – political, social, economic and a downturn in the material conditions facing the mass of our people,” said Mankodi Moitse, Kagiso Trust CEO. “The NGO sector is once more called to play its role in re-mapping our future”.
“The objective of the conference was to re-engineer and re-energise activism in the NGO sector through a unified and coordinated framework, in response to the ongoing crisis in the country. We must build common ground and coordinated action in the period ahead.”
As well as requiring Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and NGOs to undergo self-reflection to better understand their specific roles in the National Action Plan, the three main themes that were discussed included:
• How should the NGO Sector organise itself to amplify its voice and impact to meet South Africa’s current challenges as part of active citizenship and the critical author of national destiny?
• How can NGOs’ strategically re-position and partner to maximise resources, and its social impact in aiding government to be responsive, inclusive, effective, and accountable in bringing about desired social transformation?
• How can we build coordination and collaboration among the NPO’s to share ideas, mentor and build strong relationships with the communities they serve?
Delegates spoke about the challenges they faced. These included a lack of co-operation from local and national government, resources, authorities operating in silos, local service delivery, a dearth of female leaders, as well as capacity, logistics, administration and technology issues.
“The takeaway for many at the conference was that civil society needs to be strengthened and that we have common challenges as civil society organisations,” said Sizakele Mphatsoe, Head of Education at Kagiso Trust. “There is a need for a unified civil society with a strong amplified voice, but the conference provided a lot of inspiration. People are still inspired to make a difference. There is so much we need to do to support each other in order to support the nation. CSOs are the new hope of South Africa”.
“There was a time when the NGO sector in South Africa was perhaps the best organised in the world. If you think back to when Kagiso Trust was formed, in 1985, during the state of emergency, NGOs were a vital part of bringing about change. It was a time of a vibrant, well-organised, resilient, innovative, responsive, and progressively engaged NGO sector – a beacon of hope and a shield for communities in distress. We need to work together and invoke that sense of organisation and hope if we are to build the South Africa we want and desperately need.”
Kagiso Trust work to overcome poverty by developing and implementing scalable, replicable, sustainable development programme models in the areas of education development, institutional capacity building, socio-economic development and financial sustainability. For more information see www.kagiso.co.za
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