The Southern African Non-Governmental Organisation Network (SANGONeT) is known for being at the forefront of South Africa’s civil society, especially in matters related to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the internet. How that came to be and how SANGONeT is using technology is discussed with the SANGONeT portal editor, Fazila Farouk here.
APCNews: The slogan of your organisation, SANGONeT, is "Linking civil society through ICTs". Who is today’s South African civil society?
South African civil society is immense. A 2002 study recorded 100,000 non-profit organisations in South Africa (SA), with roughly a 50/50 split between the more established NGOs and the grassroots and survivalist oriented community based organisations (CBOs).
SANGONeT is acutely aware of the diversity of the sector in terms of its strategic objectives and varied levels of capacity. As a result, at an organisational level, we have developed our programmes to engage with various audiences, providing different levels of support. The SANGONeT portal acts as a community space for NGOs in South Africa, specifically those working in the development arena and promoting social justice. Thus, the portal is an important space for "linking" a particular segment of civil society in the online environment.
APCNews: So what ICTs do you use of to link these non-profits together?
Our support and engagement strategy has a two-pronged approach. Given the challenges associated with the digital divide, half of our work takes place offline. Moreover, our offline communication strategy engages with the NGO constituency in a stratified manner, attempting to identify the particular needs of specific groupings within the sector and engaging with these in a dedicated manner.
The following offline activities highlight the scope of SANGONeT’s constituent engagement and offline content generation strategy:
• The CEO Circle
A bi-monthly meeting of NGO executives, jointly initiated by SANGONeT and Project Literacy. The forum is a peer support group for directors of Gauteng (broader Johannesburg and Pretoria region) NGOs who come together to talk about common leadership issues. These conversations find expression in some of the topics covered in the thematic focus of the portal. For example, a CEO Circle input on NGO governance and accountability was followed by an opinion piece on the matter.
• IT Managers Forum
A dedicated group of IT managers from the NGO sector that meets on an ad-hoc basis to talk about the upstream application of ICT for social benefit.
• Regional Focus Group Discussions
A series of annual day-long discussions groups targeted at project managers and directors of NGOs in regions outside of Gauteng. The aim of the initiative is to engage in discussion and debate about a common institutional concern, which also informs the development of content on the portal. The discussions are also aimed at critiquing the portal in general, to ensure relevance for beneficiaries. Focus group meetings have been held in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth and were attended by 46 NGOs in total. Future meetings are planned for Mpumalanga and the North-West Province.
• Other SANGONeT events
Other SANGONeT events such as the annual SANGONeT “ICTs for Civil Society” Conference and Exhibition, the ongoing Thetha – The SANGONeT ICT Discussion Forum series, the annual World Development Information Day (WDID) event and ad hoc events such as the National Poverty Conference (held on October 17 2006 in conjunction with the National Development Agency) also provide everyone involved with the portal strategic opportunities to interact with a wide spectrum of representatives from the South African NGO sector and wider development community.
APCNews: OK, so much for offline tactics. But how do you keep civil society hooked in the online world? Who is your main audience?
The portal targets people with an interest in civil society and development in South Africa. However, its main target is the local NGO sector, especially those working in the development arena. One of its key objectives is to act as a community space for these NGOs, providing them with a channel to promote development models that emanate from within civil society.
However, an extremely important aspect of attracting visitors to the portal is “NGO Pulse”, the weekly email newsletter that informs people about new articles that have been posted on the portal.
APCNews: How many single visitors use your portal every month?
Presently in the region of 500+ people visit the portal on a daily basis, bringing the monthly total to approximately 15,000 visitors. In total, more than 185,000 people have already visited the portal since inception a year ago. A significant 30% of this total, are international visitors and SANGONeT’s web tracking software indicates that their “key searches” seek information related to civil society and development. Thus, in addition to enhancing the internal capacity of the NGO sector in South Africa, the portal elevates its profile in the global arena.
In addition to the number of people that visit the portal, 7,000 subscribe to the weekly e-mail alerting service “NGO Pulse”, which is the news arm of the portal and includes links to aggregated as well as original news stories on the SANGONeT portal.
APCNews: How many people are involved in making this portal such a lively place?
The SANGONeT Civil Society Information (CSI) team uploads upwards of 50 new articles on the portal on a weekly basis, thus ensuring that the site remains relevant in relation to current issues.
The portal falls under the auspices of SANGONeT’s CSI Programme. I am the head of this programme and the editor of the portal. The programme itself is split between an editorial and a database team, each headed by a project manager, who have two staff working under them. In total the CSI team comprises seven staff.
The database team is responsible for expanding and maintaining the PRODDER NGO and development Directory. This is a huge responsibility as it is presently the most current (validated) NGO directory in the country. It has just over 2,000 entries. We have also entered into a partnership with the local Foundation for Human Rights, which will see a specific human rights dimension integrated into PRODDER.
The editorial team headed by myself, with the support of a newly appointed project manager, is responsible for collecting news and information for the various categories on the portal. In order to ensure the relevance of the issues that we cover and to ensure that we increase the dialogue (voices) on the portal, we work with content partners. Presently we have sixteen content partners (NGOs) that act as specialists providing guidance on specific development themes.
APCNews: From SANGONeT’s portal, one can currently read features about fundraising for nonprofits, the protection of the environment and HIV/AIDS activism. Are these topics on top of South Africa’s civil society agenda?
Financial sustainability is an important issue for NGOs in SA – and I would imagine this to be common throughout the world. We recognise this and strive to keep our constituency informed about grant opportunities, while keeping them updated about funding trends, as well as trying to develop their capacity through "toolkit" types of information, such as proposal writing tips.
Yes, HIV/AIDS is a major issue for civil society and the country as a whole. We have a high prevalence rate in the country and there are many NGOs involved in addressing the problem at various levels. As regards the focus on the environment, I would argue that the environmental NGOs are just a little bit more communications and media savvy than the rest, so it’s hard to avoid their "news". Personally, I would like to see more balanced reporting of other development themes on the portal, but in general, resource strapped NGOs, largely do not prioritise the communication and marketing of their work.
APCNews: Do these issues get picked up by independent or mainstream media?
Yes, but not as much as we would like to see. For example, an opinion piece produced for our portal was carried in a liberal daily newspaper. However, we often get called by journalists to comment on specific development issues or for referrals to the appropriate person working in the NGO sector.
But our audience is still largely a progressive/developmental one. For example, the editor of the "South African Labour Bulletin" (http://www.nedlac.org.za/docs/salb/index.html ), informs me that she subscribes to NGO Pulse, our email newsletter, to pick up development leads for her labour audience.
APCNews: Your portal is very comprehensive. There is even a section on ICT advocacy where current issues shaping the policy environment and development agenda in South Africa are listed and explained. What are the main issues you are advocating for and why should everyday South
Africans care?
Among issues on our advocacy agenda, there is free and open software (FOSS), telecommunication costs, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and e-waste. We feel these are some of the topical issues that civil society organisations should be aware of and take interest in, especially since these issues directly and indirectly affect their development work.
High telecommunication costs have a negative impact on the work of CSOs, as communication is central to their business. FOSS on the other hand brings a lot of opportunities that could potentially contribute to the economic and educational uplifting of South Africa.
Another issue is that of e-waste. There are so many electronic appliances being used both at home and at work. These include computers, mobile phones, fridges, fax machines, etc. Talking about computers and cellular phones, in 2004 it was estimated that about 1.5 million computers enter the South African market every year and that by 2006 there will be 20 million mobile users in the country. Now, if you take into consideration the short life span that these electronic devices have, the hazardous materials (chromium, lead, mercury, etc) they are made of and the fact that there is currently no legislation on how to deal with electronic waste in South Africa, all this raises is great concern.
Nthabiseng Taole who, amongst her broader programme duties, takes responsibility for populating this section of the portal and heads the ICT advocacy programme.
APCNews: SANGOTeCH, your "web-based platform that links technology donations and the South African NGO sector" has been launched in
December 2006. What is it for? How does it help small and/or rural non profit organisations? Could you provide an example?
SANGOTeCH is a new SANGONeT programme that will be launched on the 1st of December 2006. In partnership with TechSoup, the San Francisco-based non-profit technology capacity building organisation, SANGOTeCH links donations from a variety of IT vendors in a structured and systematic manner.
The SANGOTeCH programme will assist NGOs in two key ways: firstly, by providing software and vendors for a very low fee and, secondly, by assisting NGOs to make the most of their ICT purchases and infrastructure. Although many NGOs have access to ICT service providers to help make these decisions, ‘accidental techies’ support many with limited formal training in ICT management. The portal aims to build up resources to assist such managers in making correct technology planning decisions.
Of course many smaller (and rural) non-profit organisations have no capacity around IT at all – and cannot afford to buy that knowledge in. SANGOTeCH’s operations centre has been set up in such a way to handle basic support queries for these organisations, so that any donations that have been channelled to them are used appropriately. The SANGOTeCH project is managed by our ICT Services Manager, Matthew de Gale.
For more information, contact Fazila Farouk at: editor [at] sangonet.org.za
Photo: Fazila Farouk.
Courtesy: SANGONeT
