wpso-sort-order domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/democxmp/staging.democracyworks.org.za/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131Why Access to Opportunities For South Africa’s Youth is Important for the Country’s Future.
Place: Zoom
Date: 9 June 2021
Time: 12:00 – 14:00 GMT+2
Register by 8 June 2021: click here
]]>“Why Access to Opportunities for South Africa’s Youth Is Important For The Country’s Future”.
The launch event, held online and streamed live on Facebook, aimed to present its objectives and scope and answer questions from participants. The event also brought together civil society representatives and high-level officials to discuss and share insights into how they can collaborate to use civic technology and digital engagement for facilitating civic participation, essentially promoting inclusive public decision-making.
Esteemed speakers comprised representatives from the European Union and the African Union, including Alban Biaussat, Senior Policy & Programme Manager – Democratic Governance and Human Rights, Delegation of the European Union to the African Union; Dr Nkhalamba McBride, Head of the Research, Methodology and Development Division, African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM); as well as Ambassador Salah S. Hammad, Head of the African Governance Architecture (AGA) Secretariat, African Union. Speakers also included representatives from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and Pan-African Parliament (PAP).
What is the Charter Project Africa?
The Charter Project Africa is a pan-African project focused on the commitments contained in the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) – the central African Union policy document to advance democratic governance in African Union member states.
The project promotes the usage of civic technology to amplify citizen voices. This will be achieved by providing grants, technical resources, and know-how to civic initiatives pursuing democracy, particularly those led by underrepresented groups.
The project also opens collaboration spaces between citizens, civic initiatives, and African Union policymakers at national, regional and continental levels – emphasising digital formats. The project will also give the African Governance Architecture’s (AGA) role and mandate a particular focus. Furthermore, the role of the ACDEG in achieving positive change in African Union member states will be monitored, analysed and promoted.
Who will the project fund?
The Fund will pay special attention to youth- and women-led initiatives. Additionally, the Fund may also support initiatives led by businesses and civil society organisations that are strongly committed to advancing civic participation. “We are looking for projects that target and include voices that are usually difficult to reach. We encourage applications that focus on inclusion and diversity. The project also hopes to support existing projects with inclusion and diversity at its heart.” Andrew Songa, the Civil Society Secretariat Coordinator of @charter_africa, emphasised.
The programme’s approaches will cover
• Civic technology fellowships
• Digital engagement
• Evidence creation
• Policy dialogue
• Analysis of AGA & civil society processes
• Design of tools & methods for strategic AGA engagement
How will the call for ideas work?
The Charter Project Africa will announce the call for expression on the Civic Tech Fund Africa Website and the Charter Project Africa’s social media pages. The consortium partners will also spread the open call on our social media platforms.
Our contribution to The Charter Project Africa
“We’re an independent foundation that has a growing reputation for building and promoting inclusive, equitable and sustainable capacity development programmes. We look forward to being a part of providing the tools, platforms and content to strengthen democrats, democratic culture and democratic institutions with the much-needed capacity and funding support from the Civic Tech Fund,” said DWF’s Project Manager Nompumelelo Runji.
Our contribution involves coordinating the activities in the southern Africa region at a country and REC level by hosting Democratic Governance Initiatives and grant-making for our region. We will
provide capacity building and support to civic initiatives to promote the ACDEG and engagement with the AGA, and host regional engagements to help facilitate and foster collaboration between civil society in the region and continent.
Our consortium partners
The pioneers will also be granted access to policy and topic experts from the consortium partners, which involves AfricTivistes, Code for Africa (CfA), Gorée Institute, European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) and European Partnership for Democracy (EPD). The European Union financially supports this initiative. The Fund will initially target innovators in 11 African Union member countries (Benin, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia). It will expand to supporting initiatives elsewhere on the continent in a future phase.
Follow us on our socials for updates on the call for applications Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn
Click to visit the Civic Tech Fund Africa Website, and follow LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook for more information and updates.
Contact our Project Manager: Nompumelelo Runji for project enquiries.
]]>There has also been the emergence of new conflicts such as in Ethiopia and a series of disputed election outcomes on the continent that have resulted in mass protests, shrinking civic space, and loss of life in extreme cases. Most worryingly, 2021 has seen countries such as Mali, Guinea and Chad revert to military regimes as opposed to civilian-led governments. In the latest edition of its Africa Governance Report, the African Union stated that the continent’s strongest performance lay in the area of socio-economic development, while the weakest performance was in the areas of democracy and political governance.
How then can the continent consolidate its gains and address gaps as far as democratic governance is concerned? The consensus has gravitated towards calls for a transformative approach to governance; one that entails vision, innovation, integrity, inclusivity, responsiveness and effectiveness. Indeed, Africa’s leaders have articulated their collective vision through Agenda 2063, which includes the goal of “An Africa of Good Governance, Democracy, Respect for Human Rights, Justice and Rule of Law”. The realisation of this vision requires a governance framework that encourages public participation to centre people’s needs in policymaking and respects the people’s will in the election of political leadership. A lot can be said of methods to enhance public participation, but the recent experiences of youth-driven revolutions during the Arab spring, the 2014 revolution in Burkina Faso, the 2020 Sudan revolution and now the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the aspect of civic technology into sharp focus.
Civic technology in this context refers to the digital tools that make it easier for citizens to organise and mobilise on matters of governance and also to engage with those in power. If properly deployed, civic technology can help strengthen democratic processes and promote inclusive decision-making.
During the 2011 Arab spring protests in Egypt and Tunisia, smartphones and social media platforms were credited with facilitating an organising structure that outpaced the governments that were trying to suppress the protests. In 2008, Kenyan civil society successfully deployed crowd-sourcing technologies to map out the unfolding post-election violence in the country that year. This contributed greatly to informing the mediation efforts that brought an end to the violence.
In Mali, the mobile application MonElu has been utilised as a medium to strengthen citizen participation in governance by facilitating dialogue with elected officials and in the process increasing accountability to citizens. In Zimbabwe, Justice Today is a mobile application that bridges the gap in legal aid by utilising “artificial intelligence to educate citizens on the steps to take when victimised.” Given the experiences of restricted movement and assembly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, civic technology has become an essential tool to coordinate state responses to the pandemic, maintain civic engagement and promote solidarity across civic movements.
However, in appreciating the possibilities of civic technology, we must also be aware of the challenges faced within this space. In some countries, civic technology has triggered a backlash from governments in the form of internet shutdowns and cyber-surveillance. And while in other countries the smartphone has accelerated the penetration of civic technology, the reality is that internet penetration on the continent is approximated to stand at 43%. It is for this reason that the enthusiasm for civic technology needs to be matched by support for maintaining open internet spaces and investment in infrastructure that enables access for citizens. In the end, civic tech initiatives will not be a silver bullet that completely resolves Africa’s democratic challenges; rather, they open the door to broadening the conversations to resolve these challenges and invite vibrant ideas from the youth as Africa’s largest constituency.
]]>FROM FOUR AFRICAN COUNTRIES
DWF has recently concluded the Charter Project Africa seed grants awarding process for Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The seven civic initiatives that demonstrated an ability to amplify citizen voices and undertake advocacy on the African Charter for Democracy Elections and Governance using technology were officially inducted into the initiative in December 2022.
DWF has been implementing the Charter Project Africa with consortium partners in eleven African Union member states. DWF coordinates regional dialogue and advocacy activities and supports the Democratic Governance Initiatives (DGIs) implemented in the four countries through the grants provided under the project. Since its launch in November 2021, the project has provided grants, technical resources, and know-how to civic initiatives pursuing democracy by using civic technology to amplify citizen voices in East, West and Southern Africa.
The grant selection process for Botswana and Tanzania was concluded by October 2022, with four organisations awarded grants. The organisations are Motheo o Mosha Society and The Clicking Generation from Botswana, African Child Projects and Tanzania Youth Vision Association from Tanzania. The process for South Africa and Zambia was concluded by November 2022. The three organisations awarded grants are African Youth Development Fund from South Africa, as well as Zambian Governance Foundation and Lobby and Advocacy Youth Program 2050 from Zambia.
After signing the grant agreements, virtual induction meetings for the organisations were organised, first for the Botswana and Tanzania grantees, followed by South Africa and Zambia inductions in December. This involved onboarding the organisations by unpacking the terms and conditions of the grant agreements and orientation on the program processes, covering program and financial reporting, funds requesting, communications and branding processes. DWF Charter Project Manager, Nompumelelo Runji, chaired the sessions with other team members presenting on finance, communications visibility and various aspects related to managing their grants successfully.
“It is exciting to work with the seven civic initiatives, and we congratulate everyone selected. We’re looking forward to upcoming activities with the initiatives, including the country-level and regional multi-stakeholder dialogues due to occur this year. We’ll also have bilateral monthly check-in and quarterly joint meetings with all initiatives to share experiences and lessons during the project implementation. DWF remains committed to providing continuous support to the initiatives as they implement their project,” Nompumelelo Runji.
The grant implementation induction ended with a virtual information session to introduce the organisations and initiatives to the consortium members and provide them with an overview of the kind of support available to their projects.
You can keep updated with the latest from the initiatives by following our social pages Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn
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About the Charter Project Africa
The Charter Project Africa is a pan-African project that focuses on the commitments contained in the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) – the African Union’s principal policy document for advancing democratic governance in African Union member states. The project promotes the use of civic technology to amplify citizens’ voices in African Union member states; Botswana Benin, Cabo Verde, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia – as well as at regional and continental level. DWF is implementing the Charter Project Africa in Southern Africa, targeting Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The consortium comprises AfricTivistes, Code for Africa (CfA), Gorée Institute, European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) and European Partnership for Democracy (EPD). The project is made possible with the financial support of the European Union.
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