By, THANDISIZWE MGUDLWA
- Collaborations, partnerships and support of multi-sectors are key in
this mission
THE Non -Governmental Organisations, which includes Charities,
Co-operatives and all other Community Based or so called Non Profit
Organisations (NPO) , like all other businesses are under great
threat of survival.
In Apartheid South Africa, NGO’s delivered services to communities
that the government didn’t care about. These communities were in
disadvantaged settlements, meaning mostly black townships.
Come the advent of democracy, it was hoped that the NGO’s would be
assimilated into government structures and continued their work of
serving their once neglected communities. Yes, NGOs are still in the
mix in the democracy but are not, even though there is a remarkable
collaboration, not part of government official structures.
The advent of democracy left the NGOs in a lurch as they continued
outside government structures. The work that these NGOs are doing is
still needed in those communities and the challenges are getting
bigger.
Where do we go, as NGOs, from now. That’s the challenge.
THREE Cape Town based Development Agencies are embarking on refining
the model of funding the NGO sector globally.
Phandulwazi Educational & Development Center; Space Academy and
Business Exploration Company (PTY) Ltd and Think Twice organisation
are calling on society to join them on a new venture and journey for
the NGO sector.
The move comes after the groups’ experiences during the Covid-19
global pandemic, when the NGO sector was found wanting when those in
need the most could barely access assistance from many NGOs locally
and abroad.
Of course the funding problem has been around for some decades now and
seems to be a problem going into the future unless drastic changes are
made. Hence the three groups’ commitment to finding alternatives comes
to being.
The three groups believe that the sharing of information, resources
and ideas greatly influences the Collaborative Learning & Development
model. And if the NGO sector was to adopt such measures a lot of
empowerment would come to life as a result.
There is a need to bring new idea, strategies and systems into the
table of how poverty and inequality can be eradicated.
But of the challenge is to get NGOs to work together in their
communities and elsewhere to address the social ills affecting their
communities. The current NGO funding model and system is broken and
unsustainable.
Bringing people, industries, sectors, organizations, institutions etc,
in all communities to bounce idea off each other and plan for
implementing projects and programmes to develop everybody in our
communities is long over due.
At the moment the NGO sector in various communities around the world
lacks a comprehensive plan that all communities should aspired to
achieve. Structures like Community Development Forum are mired in
political squabbles rather funding solutions to the problems facing
their communities.
These forums where they exist done seek to unite, mobilize, organize
everyone in the community to participate and be involved in matter
affecting the community.
Exclusion rather inclusiveness characterizes the state of affairs in
many communities in Africa and the world. To the detriment of our
communities.
The few run the show, while the majority are not even invited.
And that is why we are looking at a number of projects, programmes and
campaigns in addressing the challenges we face in our country; and
especially Cape Town with the special focus being on the under-served
communities, these are clearly areas that suffer the most from
everyday hardships of urban & rural lifestyle due to historical and
current imbalances.
We are investing big on enterprise and skills development and the
transfer of skills, information, knowledge and resources, promoting
networking, participation & involvement and the boosting of capacity
building for the business and the private sector broadly.
Research shows that countries like Germany and the Netherlands retired
people don’t just sit home and do nothing after they retire. They join
Co-Operatives in their communities. That means all the skills,
knowledge and experience will not be lost as they reinvest it back to
their communities.
Imagine this happening in South Africa and the rest of the continent
for that matter.
In Africa and elsewhere in the world, the so-called ‘underdogs’
perform miracles daily be it in business, innovation or the creative
sector.
Most commercial media in Africa is filled with these moving stories of
people who come from humble beginnings and have gone on to beat the
odds in building empires that are impacting millions of people
positively.
At least 400 businesses in Africa make a $1Billion or more in our
great continent.
That should inspire the rest of us to dig deep some more. We can start
small by creating businesses that can uplift society through
Co-operatives in cleaning or providing security services.
A new business model, where businesses can pay you for bringing more
customers to them.
As society we must constantly strive to build our communities everyday
working hand in hand an seeking to support each from all sectors of
our society.
Phandulwazi is one of the early enterprises in South Africa to be
formed on the basis of the Black economic empowerment (BEE) programme.
On this front we call on investors, businesses, industries to partner
with groups like Phandulwazi for mutual benefit and to create jobs for
locals while these enterprises stand to thrive, an example here are
retail giants, Boxer, Shoprite, among others.
And community ownership should be around 49 – 51% agreement, subject
to negotiations.
We strongly believe that every human being matters, everybody has a
story to tell and everybody must be supported to fulfill their God
given purposes.
That is why we encourage people, organisations, institutions,
industries, sectors to engage and interact with us through advice,
suggestions, partnerships, donations, proposals, business plans etc,
on how to rebuild our society for the benefit of everybody. You can
connect with Phandulwazi through our page Phandulwazi KwaLanga on
Facebook.
We are reaching out to the public to join us on this journey of
re-eventing the NGO Business Model.
Thandisizwe Mgudlwa is Director at Phandulwazi, an award-winning
journalist, bestselling author of the children’s book, Kiddies World.
He holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Regenesys Business
School.
About The Author
