Although the year 2005 has just started, the SHC team is in the full swing of things once again...
In the first working week of the New Year, we hosted the celebration of the First African Film Festival in Puerto Rico, which enabled a creative & alternative start to the New Year! This film festival took place over the weekend of the 14 to 16 January 2005, in Cuartel de Ballajá, a well-known cultural place in San Juan, where our Puerto Rican offices are situated. The festival kicked off with a cocktail party on the first day, after which the movies were screened for three days. There was some interesting discussion around the importance of African heritage in Puerto Rico, which is still present & observable today. The audience showed immense appreciation for the initiative taken to host such an event! Many thanks & congratulations to Veronika Kohler(our intern in Puerto Rico) & those who assisted her in making this festival a success!
We would also like to say farewell to our intern in Cape Town, Anette Ivsett, who has been a part of our team since June 2004. She now returns to Norway to finish her Masters thesis in Peace & Development. She has also been short-listed for a position as a Junior Researcher at the UNO & is now required to write an exam in February. We, at Southern Hemisphere would like thank her for the contribution she has made to our organisation & wish her good luck in all her future endeavours!
As always, when one person leaves another enters. This time it is our new Administrator in the Cape Town office, Nadia Gain who comes from four years experience in the Retail Industry as an assistant Office Manager! Welcome to the team Nadia! Hope your working experience with us is an exciting one!
Andries Mangokwana, our Junior Partner, is currently one of 8 technical advisors in the Consolidation of Municipal Transformation Programme (CMTP), funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), to promote accountable local government & pro-poor service delivery in South Africa. Because the Local Government is key to service delivery, it is therefore crucial that more efforts are done to capacitate it.
The programme consists of four outputs:
1. Accountable & ethical governance;
2. Integrated municipal service delivery;
3. Improved municipal financial management, &
4. More effective intergovernmental relations.
An assessment of the status quo of the various municipalities has thus far been completed, as well as the development of intervention strategies. This has been implemented at a municipal, provincial (Eastern Cape, Limpopo & Kwazulu-Natal) & National level. It is hoped that the lesson learnt from this programme will be shared with other municipalities in the country.
Projects currently going…
Sport & Recreation Ministry in Puerto Rico - As part of an evaluation of the National Strategy for Conflict Management that was implemented by SHC, a forum has been held in which the Puerto Rican people gave feedback of how this conflict resolution program has helped with issues they are faced with. See our next news issue for more information on this!
The POLICY Project (USAID & the Department of Health)- The evaluation of the POLICY Project HIV & AIDS training that was attended by traditional leaders from the rural areas of South Africa, is now coming to an end. The draft of the Final Report has been submitted with some interesting findings, which will be discussed at a workshop / presentation on the 1st February, after which the Final Report will be submitted.
Stakeholder Relations Strategy (City of Cape Town - To enable City of Cape Town to manage the relations between stakeholders & themselves, a stakeholder management & communication policy & strategy needs to be developed & implemented to ensure that a key fundamental principal of the IDP is in place;
“The existence of strong mechanisms to ensure inter-governmental & stakeholder co-ordination & commitment to a common city development agenda.”
The project deliverables will be:
1. An audit of the Cities current stakeholder engagement practices & documents
2. A stakeholder relations & communications policy & strategy
3. An implementation plan for the strategy
4. Identification of key stakeholders
This project is now in planning phase.
Youth Awards (City of Cape Town) – Southern Hemisphere has been contracted by the City of Cape Town to co-ordinate the Mayoral Youth Awards in honour of the youth of the City of Cape Town for their initiatives to make use of the opportunities presented by democracy. This project will involve fundraising, project management, identification of the winners, events co-ordination, publicity, & the publishing of a Youth Development Directory.
Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence & Torture - Nana Davies, our Senior Consultant in Cape Town, will be facilitating a two-day Advocacy & Lobbying Workshop for the Trauma Centre in order to assist them in strategy for the year 2005.
The year 2004 has brought lots of new opportunities for us and we look forward to a year filled with invigorating challenges that will assist us in our growth as an organisation & also in our capacity to continue to make a valuable contribution to Social Development!
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