[SN-ANNOUNCE] SANGOCO Dialogues and Debates - 1st to 5th September Information Pack

[SANGOCO Western Cape]

TO ALL SANGONeT USERS

Press Release

‘INVITATION TO DIALOGUE’
Rebuilding a Platform for Civil Society Engagement – Challenges and
Prospects

Monday 1st to Friday, 5th Sep 2008

One of the most crucial challenges in our democracy has been the absence of
an organised united civil society voice. SANGOCO has therefore initiated a
process to critically engage with the opportunities and challenges facing
the building of a vibrant civil society. Despite increasing resources for
poverty alleviation, capacity building and governance progress towards
universal access to human rights within South Africa is undermined by
inefficiency and the failure to ensure that resources reach those hardest
hit.

Civil society organisations (CSO’s), community based organisations (CBO’s)
and faith based organisations (FBOs) continue to play a vital role in
delivering services to communities.  Yet, persistent bottlenecks occur in
disbursing international and national funding. This makes it difficult for
CSOs, CBOs and FBOs to rapidly scale effective responses at community level.

The SANGOCO Western Cape Indaba held in June 2008 sparked the need to
critically engage with civil society actors to collectively assess various
approaches on how to strengthen Community Systems through Programmatic
Planning and Resource Building. As there is an urgent need to strengthen
mechanisms to access and disburse resources to civil society, to build
capacity and develop and strengthen leadership and good governance.

Therefore, SANGOCO Western Cape, drawing on existing resources of a range of
networks invites you to participate in a series of dialogues and debates to
be held from Monday, 1st to Friday, 5th September 2008.

SESSION PROGRAMME

Mon, 1 Sep 2008: Collective Identities and Human Rights: Claim ownership of
our Rights

Tues, 2 Sep 2008: Leadership and Governance: Revisit the need to be
accountable to communities

Wed, 3 Sep 2008: Building Capacity for Community Based Responses: Invest in
the capacities of communities Thurs, 4 Sep 2008: Facilitating Access to
Resources: Examine current models and initiatives.

Fri, 5 Sep, 2008: A platform for engagement: Mark the launch of an organised
and UNITED civil society

Contact: Media Liaison: Tasneem Gamieldien npm at telkomsa.net; 082 315 9435/
088021 4471217 (fax)