NPA in South Africa

In the 1970’s NPA was a channel of support to the South African liberation movement in exile. In 1990 the apartheid laws were lifted and the democratization process started. The civil society played an important role in bringing apartheid to an end. South Africa of today is a democratic country, but in terms of inequalities between groups of people South Africa ranks highest in the world. Official figures show that the unemployment rate is above 25%. The problem is probably chronic and the figure is probably much higher since many people drift in and out of jobs in the informal sector and are women. They have difficulties in accessing social security or other income to sustain their families.  About half of the predominantly black population of approx. 50 million cannot access the rights that the constitution guarantees.

Since 1992, NPA has been established in South Africa with a program portfolio that supports civil society’s struggle for social change and state delivery. Some civil society organizations engage with the state while others work through organized actions to put more pressure behind their demands. Many combine these approaches.  The program has a small budget of approx. 2,5mill. and is supported through the cooperation agreement with NORAD. In addition, the program implements a regional program for democracy and capacity building of partners in southern Africa. Among NPA’s partners in South Africa are:

Soweto Concerned Residents (SCR) organizes residents in the Johannesburg suburb of Soweto. Currently, it has a membership base of 2000 residents and is part of a bigger network of social organizations against privatization of social services in South Africa (Anti-Privatization Forum -  www.apf.org.za) .  Most will remember Soweto from the uprising in 1976 against the apartheid system and its school policies. Today, the constitution guarantees equal right to education, but young people drop out of school because the public school in the neighborhood has closed down and they cannot afford the private school; they don’t get scholarship for tertiary education or they might be forced to work to sustain themselves and their orphaned siblings. The situation is similar in other areas of public services. In spite of the government’s enormous construction efforts the housing backlog increases and the quality of the houses is poor. Water and electricity are luxury to most people as these services are not provided by the state but by private enterprises through pre-paid water and electricity systems. In Soweto, as in many other places in South Africa, people react against the consequences of such systems and demand that the state assumes responsibility and provide free access to social services. The SCR engages with and pressures local authorities and public institutions to deliver free public services, and to correct injustices against their members.

NPA’s partnership with SCR concerns capacity building to improve leadership and management functions, and hence increase the organization’s ability to serve its social base. In particular, capacity building will target women to broaden and strengthen the leadership base.    

South Africa Young Voices Network (SAYVON) is a network of South African youth organizations established in 2003 through support from NPA. Young people are a huge resource, but have few opportunities. Their potential to mobilize is great and many engage in youth wings of political parties, in youth organizations or in the social movements.

More than fifty youth organizations have formally joined SAYVON, most of them from the provinces of Kwa Zulu Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Free State. SAYVON networks to advocate policies that advance young men and young women. The right to free education is a particular aim. Currently, SAYVON argues for the education unit of Sedibeng district in Gauteng to adopt a pilot scheme that supports access to tertiary education for the poor, and which includes career counseling and guidance at high school and financial support schemes.

In 2008, SAYVON hosted a regional youth hearing which attracted more than 2000 delegates from the region(Southern Africa) through the (Youth 4 Solidarity Movement).The 2000 participants collected more than 40000 youth concerns from seven Southern African countries brought the SADC secretariat to the hearing. The report from the youth hearing has been acknowledged by SADC and some parts of the report are now being used to guide SADC on its work on youth issues for the next five years.

NPAs partnership with SAYVON concerns capacity building, in particular enhance the skills and the knowledge of the young people who are active in SAYVON’s network, and improve institutional management skills. Young women will be trained in leadership in an effort to achieve gender equality by increasing the number of women within its management and executive structures. In 2008 the organization conducted one of the biggest research in Kwa-Zulu Natal (9000 young women between 16-26 years were interviewed) to investigate the reasons behind young women’s poor participation within civil issues. The research results are being used to guide SAYVON on its work to achieve gender equality.

You can read more about SAYVON here: http://www.sayvon.org.za/ and http://www.y4sm.org/