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Idasa has entered America’s Giving Challenge, which gives us a chance to win $50,000! Join our cause on facebook and donate too.
To win, between now and November 7th we have to get the most donations to our cause (every person can donate once per day and have it count as a unique donation). We can also win daily awards of $1,000 and $500 if we can get the most people to donate in any 24-hour period. The great thing about this Challenge is that it doesn’t matter how much you give, but instead how much you do to encourage friends and family to get involved in our cause. We all need to come together and start promoting the cause if we want to win.
Each of us has tons of friends on Facebook who we can ask to donate to our cause. But let’s think big too—can you put our cause in your email signature, can you throw a party and get people to donate through the cause when they enter, can you organize other people to go out and fundraise from all of their friends? As you reach out to your friends be sure to tell them why this cause matters to you. The possibilities are endless so let’s talk about what we can do to win on the Wall of the cause or by replying to this bulletin.
I think we can do it! But it’s going to take all of us. Check out the Giving Challenge ( www.causes.com ), then visit our cause to see how we’re doing so far and get involved.
SA Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivered the South African medium term budget statement on 27th October. Government priorities remain social spending, infrastructural expansion and job creation. See Idasa’s comment in the video and statement below.
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is a comprehensive ranking of sub-Saharan African nations according to governance quality. The criteria for assessment capture the quality of services provided to citizens by governments and focus on the results that the people of a country experience.
The criteria are divided into five over-arching categories which together make up the cornerstones of a government’s obligations to its citizens:
•Safety and Security
•Rule of Law, Transparency and Corruption
•Participation and Human Rights
•Sustainable Economic Opportunity
•Human Development
President Jacob Zuma ’s administration could significantly increase economic growth if it carefully spelt out the objectives of its economic relations with the US, says Witney Schneidman*, who advised Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on African affairs.
He was at the University of Pretoria yesterday, where he delivered a lecture in memory of the late US senator Edward Kennedy, who had a particular concern for SA.
Schneidman said SA was important to the Obama administration, but was trailing Angola when it came “to a game plan”.
“From the moment (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in Angola to the time she flew out of Lusaka during her recent African Safari, they (Angolans) tabled their strategic document, which outlined goals and objectives about the two countries’ future relations.”
Schneidman, who was also deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa in the Bill Clinton administration, told Business Day yesterday the Obama administration wanted relations with SA that would advance the continent and the world on issues of climate change, alternative energy, agriculture development and capacity building for the continent’s institutions of democracy.
On Zimbabwe, he said the US would play a bigger role in a bid to help both SA and the Southern African Development Community resolve the political impasse.
Idasa recently hosted the‘Southern African Civil Society Consultation Workshop & Multi-Stakeholders Consultation on Aid Effectiveness: Catalysing Broad Implementation Of The Accra Agenda For Action (AAA)’. This was one of a series of workshops on the African continent and around the world. Others have been held in the Philippines and Columbia. These workshops are aimed at providing information and building capacity for participation in the aid reform process, ultimately making aid more effective, transparent and democratically accountable in achieving mutually-agreed development objectives. See more here.
This is the question I’m mulling over, after a presentation by Dr Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid. The book has caused quite some controversy, not least among NGOs and recipients of the aid that Moyo critiques.
Foreign aid is a complex subject and one that has many vested interests. Any discussion on the future of aid is likely to be heated and emotional. There are those of us whose very livelihoods depend on it, for without that donor money, we wouldn’t be able to pay our own bills. And there are those of us lefties who struggle with the politics of the author – neo-liberal, economic focus, seemingly aligned to the interests of global capital. Her work experience is at the World Bank (seen by some as an arrogant manipulative International Financial Institution (IFI)) and Goldman Sachs. Her background at these institutions dents her credibility in South African development circles, where your politics and credentials are judged before you’ve opened your mouth.
Some people view her ideas with skepticism and see her as an emissary from yet another global institution that is intent on imposing their own agenda. Moyo contests this vocally, saying she is born and bred Zambian and has strong roots in the heart of Africa. For most of us, despite any critique, it is fabulous to have an African academic raising these issues for debate. Read more »
Without information, citizens live the lives assigned to them or lives of chance. With information, they choose their future.
Celebrating International Right to Know Day on 28th September, Idasa has a range of activities planned – starting with the screening of a documentary about participatory budgeting in Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. Beyond the documentary, Idasa’s commemoration of Right to Know day includes panel discussions on the importance of information in quality basic education in Argentina and the quest for quality basic education in Malawi.
Idasa believes that the citizen’s right of access to information is at the heart of a healthy democratic system. The right of access to information facilitates the ability of citizens to claim other rights (e.g. health, education). enhancing dialogue between citizens and their representatives and ensuring transparency and accountability in the use of resources.
Imagine a common vision for development across the country? Perhaps this could be the start. Trevor Manuel (Minister in the Presidency for National Planning) released the Green Paper on national strategic planning in early September, which aims to provide a co-ordinated, coherent plan for government delivery. See more analysis below.
By Justin Sylvester
Since President Jacob Zuma announced a restructured cabinet shortly after the April election, the future functions of government have remained largely unclear. Moreover the political landscape with regards to influence over policy matters has been even hazier. However, the lay of the land has become much clearer since Minister’s in the Presidency, Trevor Manuel and Collins Chabane, released two green papers for public discussion on 4 September. The first, presented by Minister Manuel and titled Green Paper on National strategic Planning, concerned the newly created National Planning Commission (NPC). The second presented by Minister Chabane and titled Green Paper on Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, concerned the Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation component. This memo seeks to discuss some of the structures that are envisaged in the documents, with a view to participating in the public discussion of these documents. And also to posit some initial thoughts on the politics surrounding the release of these green papers and the impact on the political terrain.
In celebration of Right-to-Know Day on 28 September, Idasa is screening a documentary entitled, Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas. See the trailer below. And read more about Right to Know day here – http://idasa.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/your-right-to-know/
African democracy institute Idasa marks the second United Nations International Day of Democracy on 15 September with a call to political leaders on the continent to take up the challenge of strengthening and supporting democratic governance systems within Africa.
Idasa commemorates International Democracy Day by extending its campaign for the endorsement of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, written by the African Union, and calls on more governments to sign the Charter. Read more »
