Issue 18
Dear Readers,
2006 has already seen the involvement of different organisations, corporate bodies and academic institutions in the socio-economic, political and cultural development of South Africa. Southern Hemisphere continues its work of promoting planning, monitoring and evaluation capacity in development work through various mechanisms such as training, consulting and research. This is based on our belief that planning, monitoring and evaluation is integral to the development of Africa as well as the South-South/South-North exchange of know-how. For this reason we assist different sectors continuously by establishing and helping to improve their systems and performance to make a better impact in our society.
This edition once again presents an exciting range of Southern Hemisphere’s work, and other interesting topics. Our “Talking about Development” article of the month is about the concept of “welfare dependency” and how social values and assumptions inform this concept.
Our team has grown and we have a new senior consultant. Adrian di Lollo has joined our team as a Senior Consultant. Adrian has lived and worked abroad, mainly in the United States of America and Australia. He has been in South Africa for more than five years, where he has completed his Masters in Philosophy and Public Policy from the University of Cape Town. Adrian also holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Fordham (New York). Adrian’s issues of particular focus have included low-cost housing, income-support, social services, mental health, HIV-AIDS, participatory democracy, immigration, local government, NGO issues and social movements. His work has included policy analysis, programme development, evaluation, staff development, community organising and advocacy. Welcome Adrian!!!
As you all know, Hannah has completed her internship with us and is now employed as Projects Officer. As part of our exit strategy for interns, a internship evaluation is done to assess the interns experience with us.
This is what Hannah had to say:
“Working with Southern Hemisphere was a great adventure that created opportunities for me to develop new skills in the research and project management fields, therefore diversifying my career prospects. I was fully involved in projects, office duties and also worked as a project coordinator, which progressively transformed theory into practice for me. It was also an exciting experience for me to learn and interact with people of different culture in South Africa in their daily life while at work”.
See more in the Internship Corner.
FACILITATION
Cape Action for People and the Environment (CAPE) - CAPE hosted its annual conference on the 5th to 6th of June 2006 at Kirstenbosch gardens. Southern Hemisphere was given the very different, but exciting task of facilitating organizations, schools, and private landowners sponsored by CAPE and their partners, in preparing creative presentations for the conference. The presentations had to show case the theme “fynbos fynmense”. This was done by emphasizing the diversity of people involved in the biodiversity projects as well as the interdependency between the projects and the people working on the projects. This short activity was a tremendous and exciting experience, which elicited a lot of enthusiasm for the sponsored organizations and ourselves as consultants, about the work that CAPE does. It generated creativity and genuineness on issues regarding the environment, as portrayed by the diversity and originality of the presentations by the people who work on the ground.
Some of the organizations, schools and partners which shared the facilitation expertise of Southern hemisphere team includes:
WESSA Friends Groups
West and Primary Schools: Yomelela Primary schools West-ville and Levana Primary Scholl and Hoofweg Primary School
The Diepwallae Community Tea Garden (Knysna)
Working for Wetlands Nurseries
Bottom Road Sanctuary, Cape
Self Help Manenberg
Training
Public Training Course in Project Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (P, M & E)
In May 2006, SHC conducted a public course in Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in Tarragona Lodge in Hout Bay, Cape Town. People attended this course from different sectors countrywide. This short course was successful, interesting and highly participatory and it addressed the planning, monitoring and evaluation needs of organisations, academic institutions and government. This 4½ days course provided a participatory setting for people working with programmes in the social and development sectors, to explore and learn the basic concepts of planning (specifically LFA), monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
The use of self-generated case studies facilitated the understanding of the concepts better, and allowed participants to apply what they learnt in the workshop to their work situations. This is what participants had to say about the course:
“I am working in M&E and have enjoyed understanding the context more”.
“Really appreciated learning about M&E as an area that I would like to be more involved in, in the future”
“In my organisation we deal a lot with planning: The course content gave me more skills to do things better in the organisation.”
“Everything needs to be planned: It helps tremendously to have a framework and methodology to obtain the plan”
“Planning: inputs of great value in terms of my work as a lecturer/facilitator”
“The use of case studies is a very powerful tool”
“Good balance between discussion and the subsequent application of input”
Southern Hemisphere plans to host another participatory public course in P, M & E late this year (October/November) – in Johannesburg or Pretoria. If you are interested in attending this course, cease this opportunity and walk an extra mile in planning, monitoring and evaluation capacity building with us. Make every effort to therefore secure a place for yourself soonest possible, as this course is becoming increasingly competitive.
Please email us at info@southernhemisphere.co.za, with “PM&E Course” as the subject or see our training page for more details.
PUBLIC DYNAMIC FACILITATION COURSE
Southern Hemisphere has been conducting this course as part of our in house training to our clients in the development sector and government institutions.
However, considering the growing demand for this course by organisations, government and academic institutions, we have decide to run this course publicly. Southern Hemisphere will thus be running a Dynamic Facilitation Skills Course from 21st – 25th August in Gauteng.
This short participatory course is aimed at equipping people who are working with any form of group to be able to facilitate the group process effectively and ensure that a balance is kept between process and outcomes. The course will provide a space for a wide range of professionals to learn from each other by sharing knowledge and experiences. See our training page for more details.
Talking about development
The concept of Welfare Dependency: Assumptions, Underlying Values and Manifestation in Social Policy, Internationally and in South Africa.
This abstract is taken from Adrian di Lollo’s M.Phil. dissertation.
Concern over "welfare dependency" has featured prominently in the Public discourse around social assistance programmes in numerous countries for many years. The notion that social assistance payments tend to sap the recipient's initiative, independence and propensity for securing paid employment is widespread and is often assumed to be an objective fact (rather than a concept) by public officials, social commentators and the media. Consequently, charges of "welfare dependency" have often been used as the basis for cutting social assistance expenditure, restricting eligibility or preventing new initiatives. In South Africa, for example, the concept has been used in opposition to developing a universal Basic Income Grant (BIG).
With the aid of case studies focusing on recent social welfare Development in South Africa, Australia and Brazil, this thesis attempts to critically analyse the term "welfare dependency" to determine which social values and assumptions inform the concept. In addition, the thesis aims to determine how "welfare dependency" manifests in contemporary social welfare policy and, most importantly, determine if the utilisation of the concept is related to other socio-economic agendas.
For any comments on this abstract or for more information, please email Adrian, adrian@southernhemisphere.co.za or adriand@telkomsa.net
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