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SA Government financially committed to priorities
Pravin Gordhan became South Africa’s new Minister of Finance in troubled economic times, and with continuing tussles within government over who is running the economy. However, he managed to calm the waters and deliver a budget that kept both left and right appeased.  See Idasa’s commentary and video here.

To order Idasa’s latest book on the budget - Parliament, The Budget and Poverty in South Africa: A Shift in Power, click here.

Media and HIV
Join the discussion on our Governance, Citizens and HIV blog - we've set it up to encourage debate about media coverage of HIV and AIDS ...  write your thoughts on the blog, bookmark it for discussing your ideas in the future - go and see it now - click here.
 

African Governance - Ibrahim Index
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is a comprehensive ranking of sub-Saharan African countries' governance. The index measures quality of services to citizens and the results experienced by the people of that country. There are five over-arching categories 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. See more and downloadable country reports here.

Empowering communities in Zambia to find solutions
Read first hand stories of people who have participated in Idasa’s Citizen Leadership for Democratic Governance training course, encouraging community organisation and mobilisation.  Dawn belongs to a national body called the Forum for African Women Educationalists in Zambia (FAWEZA) and Trifonia works for the Umozi Orphan Care Community Based Organization. They work to empower citizens and facilitate the communities own decision making processes. Through the skills they have learned during Idasa’s training, they have assisted the community to organise itself around challenges and find ways to solve their issues. Read more about Dawn and Trifonia, and see some pictures here.

Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity  – 6 months later
Last September the Global Political Agreement (GPA) was signed, and 6 months ago the Government of National Unity (GNU) began functioning under the parameters of the GPA.  Idasa has compiled a brief to assess the progress of the new government 6 months into its work, according to benchmarks set out in the GPA. See the full report here.
For monthly assessments of the GNU’s work in achieving its aims, click here.
An accurate voter’s roll holds the key to free and fair elections – read this report about an audit of the voter’s roll in Zimbabwe here.
Reforming the security sector and demilitarising the state is central to economic and political progress in Zimbabwe.  Read more here.

SA selling weapons to rogue regimes?
Recent allegations over South Africa’s sale of conventional arms to repressive regimes around the world have raised questions about Parliament’s ability to provide oversight over arms exports, and also rejuvenated old concerns first highlighted by Defense Committee members in 2002. Read more here.

Power tussle over energy
Two government agencies control investment in renewable energies in South Africa (functions were split after President Zuma created an Energy Ministry in May 2009). Legally these two government agencies perform complementary functions and should work together - investors have to engage with both to invest in the energy sector. However, recently they have created conflicting policies about tarriffs and tenders, which has created uncertainty and confusion. Behind this also lies the power tussel that stands to wreck the future of the electricity market in South Africa: whether the government should once and for all free-up the electricity sector or keep its hold over the market and allow the ongoing monopoly of the sector by Eskom. Read more here. 

Promoting accountability in energy sector
Policymakers, regulators and citizens all over the world are grappling with the challenges of providing access to clean, reliable and affordable electricity, and addressing major environmental challenges including climate change. The Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI-SA) aims to improve governance of electricity in South Africa.  The project analyses government’s ability to create the right conditions for improved transparency and public participation in the development of energy policy.  This brief provides a comparison of two policy processes - examining the public consultation process that was followed and comparing the extent to which issues raised by the public were taken into account. Read more here.

Good local reporting produces results
Idasa recently held a competition for journalists in East and Western Cape who have been part of their training in the Municipal Journalism Training Project funded by the Open Society Foundation.  The training and competitions were held in the Amathole District, Eastern Cape and Eden District, Western Cape. The awards were given to encourage journalists to write good articles about municipal issues. Read the winning stories here

Development aid and the Accra agenda
In order to make development aid more effective in achieving development objectives, a series of workshops are being held in Africa, which aim to make aid more transparent and democratically accountable. Idasa hosted the ‘Southern African Civil Society Consultation Workshop & Multi-Stakeholders Consultation on Aid Effectiveness: Catalysing Broad Implementation Of The Accra Agenda For Action (AAA) – see more here.

AIDS, security and conflict
Idasa’s Governance and Aids Programme published a study this year entitled, “AIDS and Local Government in South Africa: Examining the Impact of an Epidemic on Ward Councillors”, which has now been published as part of a broader series of studies by the AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative (ASCI), a programme driven by the Social Science Research Council and the Netherlands Institute of International Relations – see more here.

Youth and Soccer – creating a safe society for young people
The 2010 FIFA World Cup is an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young children living in vulnerable communities, particularly through providing recreational and educational opportunities.  Football is a preoccupation with young and old alike in Africa with many young people excited about the 2010 FIFA World Cup happening on their doorstep. The legacy this project seeks to imprint is that the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa should be an effective vehicle for social change in vulnerable communities. See more here.

African Democracy Charter
The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance was adopted by the African Union in January 2007 and while 27 Member States have signed the document, only two have ratified it. Idasa is working with the African Development Forum to promote the Charter and build constituencies of support in ten different African countries, namely: Cape Verde, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Africa. See more about this work here.

Small Farmers and Budgets
The Agriculture project aims to help small-scale farmers participate more in policy making, and have an influence over agricultural policies which determine so much of their lives and livelihood.  The project works in nine African countries: Malawi, Zambia, Senegal, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Mali, Liberia, Ghana and Uganda. See more here.

Accessing Information and Education
Idasa's Right to Know, Right to Education project focuses on increasing democratic participation in developing national budgets; sensitising communities to rights of access to information; improving parental involvement in local school governance; and sensitising policy-makers to better alignment between education policy and budgets. See more here.

Good Governance in SA Municipalities
This project focuses on Partnering for good governance in 50 South African Municipalities between 2009 - 2014.  Citizen protests in municipalities across South Africa are an expression of their dissatisfaction with lack of service delivery, as well as frustration with poor governance. We collectively have the power to change bad governance by bringing together all stakeholders to start a dialogue in the process of change.  Read more about this project here.

Training civic and political leaders
iLEDA’s mission is to strengthen democracy in Africa by preparing a new generation of civic and political leaders to be effective agents of change. iLEDA offers three programmes: the Political Leadership Programme (iLEDA Academy), the Citizen Leadership Programme (iLEDA School) and tailor-made consulting services (iLEDA Consulting) on training and leadership development. Trainees can become members of the iLEDA Alumni network. Read more about this project here.

States in Transition in Africa
Idasa’s States in Transition project aims to strengthen African understanding and knowledge about democratic transformation and transitions in Africa.  This work will strengthen African capacities to analyse and provide advocacy on countries in transition – or in crisis – in the SADC region. SITO works in Zimbabwe, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  See more here - http://www.statesintransition.org/

Events

Public transport transformation – how should civil society be involved?
On 19 November, Jeremy Cronin, SA’s Deputy Minister of Transport will speak about the role of civil society and the informal sector in transformation of public transport. See more here.

The Importance of Information in African Development
Mr. Pali Lehohla, the South African Statistican General, gave a public lecture at Idasa on the importance of information in African development in October.  In clarifying the role of Statistics SA, he highlighted the role that reliable and consistent information plays in economic policy development.  Mr. Lehohla placed emphasis on the responsibilities that all government agencies have, national and local, in collecting and disseminating information to the public.  
 
The Politics of Migration and its Implications for Democracy
Vincent Williams of SAMP spoke about the “The Politics of Migration and its Implications for Democracy” at a public seminar of the South African Institute of International Affairs on Wednesday 28 October. See more from his presentation here.

Do traditional leaders have a role in the modern African state?
Professor Keshav C. Sharma (from University of Botswana) and Dr. Mcebisi Ndletyana (from Human Science Research Council) presented at an internal seminar on traditional leadership in Africa and how it works alongside democracy, on 21 October.

Access to Information Public Dialogue
ANSA Africa, a project of Idasa’s co-hosted a public dialogue seminar in Kampala, Uganda on Access to Information. See more about ANSA here. 

Meetings 

Measuring Governance and Democracy
Idasa’s Paul Graham spoke on “Measuring Governance and Democracy” at the OECD World Forum on "Statistics, Knowledge and Policy" held in Busan, Korea in October – see more here - http://www.oecdworldforum2009.org/ 

Agricultural Actors Forum
Idasa staff participated in our partner’s Agricultural Non State Actors Forum (ANSAF) learning and sharing event in Dar-es-Salaam in October, aimed at understanding the implementation process of the District Agricultural Development Plans (DADP’s) and its challenges.

Social Accountability in East and Southern Africa
ANSA-Africa staff have been meeting with Municipal Development Partnerships in East and Southern Africa about a video-conferencing series on social accountability themes across 8 or 9 African countries in 2010. See more about ANSA here.

iLEDA at EU Development Days
The initiative for Leadership and Development in Africa hosted a reception and participated in the European Union Development Days conference in Stockholm in October.  See more here - www.ileda.org.

Training and Capacity Building  

Budget analysis training in Kinshasa
Idasa staff trained civil society organisations in basic HIV and AIDS budget analysis and resource tracking in Kinshasa (DRC) in October. 

Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe
Idasa staff ran a two-day training course for transitional justice survey enumerators in Harare, in partnership with the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU).

Local Governance Barometer in SA
Idasa’s Local Governance Unit will conduct the Local Governance Barometer in three provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and North West in upcoming months, with a coordinator responsible for each province. In the first phase, the unit will work with 24 local municipalities – six from each province and six from the National Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ list in other provinces. For more on this project, click here.

Local Governance in Malawi
Idasa is currently helping to formulate a country strategy for local governance capacity development in Malawi as part of the Building Capacity for Local Governance in Southern Africa project, which works to improve the quality of local governance in 3 countries (Botswana, Malawi and Zambia). See more here.

AIDS and local government research
Idasa’s Governance and Aids Programme (GAP) spent time in Tanzania this month, for research workshops focused on local government research.  One project seeks to understand how the AIDS epidemic may affect the capacity to govern; the second will track AIDS resources allocated to provinces for use by local communities. The projects will promote informed civil society advocacy around accountable governance as it relates to the use of resources. Research partners are drawn from Burundi, Uganda, Namibia, Ghana and Zambia. 

Training Needs Assessment in Angola
Idasa staff have been conducting training needs assessments in the communities of Dombe Grande and Baia Farta in Angola.

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