| Sangoco Western Cape - 'Invitation to Dialogue' |
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TO ALL SANGONeT USERS Press Release - No Embargo: SANGOCO WESTERN CAPE - 'INVITATION TO DIALOGUE' Theme: Reclaiming the Resources for the fight against poverty: Challenges, Prospects and Opportunities - to be held Thursday 23rd October; Jubilee Centre, 21 Nelson Road, Observatory, Cape Town, 10h00 to 13h00 The SANGOCO series of dialogues and debates, is a forum to enable civil society actors to critically engage with the challenges, prospects and opportunities facing them. A space to meet, dialogue, learn and develop 'good' practice together and reinforce the vision of a coherent, united, vibrant civil society to combat poverty and inequality. During the South African NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) Western Cape series of dialogues and debates, kick started during September 2008, over 150 civil society organisations came together and: * Shared their views of social change in order to confront the multi-dimensional challenges facing our democracy. * Engaged key actors and reflected on critical issues which impact on the sustainability of the sector. * Engaged with one another in a challenging and frank way and reviewed the path civil society as a sector has traversed whilst looking to the future and plotting a way forward. * Gained consensus around what the development agenda should achieve. * Started to build on their strengths and confront their own challenges in order to address issues related to poverty and inequality * Started asking the hard questions, examining the inherent tensions and relations between and amongst themselves and others and acknowledged the mistakes they have made - yet they had the courage to revisit and or take a few steps back * Expressed their shared concerns in relation to (a) the nature of government and its relationship with CSOs, and (b) the interests and needs of the donor community within such an uncertain environment The forum called for the Coalition to play an effective role in promoting change and urged SANGOCO to facilitate a dialogue between CSOs and the donor community with the aim to catalyze more effective civil society responses and partnerships aimed at addressing complex development challenges. In line with this mandate a dialogue with the broad theme: Reclaiming the Resources for the fight against poverty: Challenges, Prospects and Opportunities - will be held Thursday 23rd October; Jubilee Centre, 21 Nelson Road, Observatory, Cape Town, 10h00 to 13h00 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. 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. SANGOCO hopes that this platform will enable key actors to come together to engage and reflect on critical issues which impact on the sustainability of the sector and enable us as a province to start the necessary process of embarking on unified programmatic planning and resource building for the benefit of the most marginalised and the poor. SANGOCO Western Cape therefore urges you to join us as partners in social dialogue on 23rd October 2008. Media Liaison: Tasneem Gamieldien, 082 315 9435 (cell) / 0880 21447 1217 (fax) This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Bookmark this article:          |
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