contents Executive Summary
3
background
6
Introduction
6
Program Overview
7
Collaborations
9
Capacity Building and Documentation
12
Trading Support
16
the no longer vulnerable program july to december 2014
17
Program Context Analysis
17
Program Achievements
18
Program Challenges
22
Lessons Learnt
22
Program Output Summary Analysis
23
Concluding Remarks
31
Annexure 1 Program Closure Q&A
32
executive
summary The No Longer Vulnerable program has now entered its final year. This has brought with it a number of unique internal and external challenges. The office shut down and its consequences are one such example. Although very difficult, the Durban office has begun to set its sights on being a best practice example of exiting. In the broader South African context a number of stresses persist, such as unemployment, poverty, rising food prices, and violence. Most recently, the flare up of xenophobic attacks in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal give some indication of the vulnerabilities and tensions being experienced in South Africa. Oxfam remains abreast of these issues and will continue to work with partners in efforts to reduce vulnerability. This is also the first period after the close of the Disaster Risk Reduction program in June 2014 and it is encouraging to note that partners have continued with this work. Outside of the Oxfam programming work done through partners, a number of initiatives have taken place over the last 6 months (July to December 2014) around collaboration, capacity building, and trading support.
the voice of, and provide support to, sexual minorities. Already, there are plans for a joint website, database sharing, and shared engagements. Oxfam also encourages collaboration with external partners. In this reporting period, we have seen the continuation of our work with the National Disaster Management Centre on building local government capacity, as well as the release of the Program of Action from the Gender Summit held earlier in the 2014 year. This was convened by a number of stakeholders including Oxfam, the Commission for Gender Equality, the South African government, the United Nations, and Alexander Forbes. Oxfam Great Britain’s collaboration with the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) around budget justice has built on the work around influencing the national and local budgets, and continues their engagement at community level particularly with unemployed youth and women. The different Oxfam affiliates also work together. Oxfam Australia has funded Oxfam Italia’s offgrid pilot centre in the Eastern Cape, which has seen the installation of innovative renewable energy and water efficiency systems. An exchange visit to Bangladesh for our partners, Justice and Women (JAW) and Women on Farms Project (WFP), took place in November 2014 and enabled them to take part in a cross learning and sharing initiative. This was funded by Oxfam Great Britain. Further, WFP planned and executed a World Food Day event which was supported by Oxfam Great Britain. Lastly, Oxfam staff and partners continued to engage in the multi-stakeholder Southern Africa Food LAB project which facilitated the development of food system scenarios for South Africa. Capacity building and documentation is another central pillar to the way that Oxfam works. Over this last reporting period, we have seen a number of critical initiatives supporting partners and their work. This work is often difficult due to the complexities of learning at individual and organisational levels; nevertheless these interventions have enabled positive changes in our partners, us as Oxfam, and our collective work. Capacity building happens in a number of ways within the Oxfam partnership. Arguably, this has been one of the greatest strengths of this part of the program – the adaptability and targeting of the support given to community based organisations. The
The partnership has encouraged more collaboration which has started to yield innovative and positive results. These collaborations vary significantly in their scope and set up. Across the partnership, organisations are encouraged to work together. The start of the ‘Promoting and Protecting Human Rights of Sexual Minorities in Pakistan, Zimbabwe and South Africa’ project being implemented in South Africa by the Triangle Project and The Inner Circle is one such case. These organisations will work together during the course of the program to raise
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examples over the July to December 2014 period include preparation and participation in the 20th International AIDS Conference by the AIDS Legal Network and the HIV/AIDS Prevention Group (HAPG). HAPG profiled their work at the conference and went through an extensive documentation and packaging process including a case study, videos and organisational branding. All of this work was also shared with the community where they work in Bela Bela, Limpopo with much pride and excitement.
Turning to the No Longer Vulnerable Program work itself, the context over the last 6 months has been trying. As emphasised above, the situation in South Africa remains difficult, and coupled with this are the difficulties being faced by the development sector in the country. Many civil society organisations face funding crises with a shifting global and local market making the future very uncertain. The response to this has been for organisations to work more closely together and ‘do more with less’. The trends of decreasing food security, persistent gender disparities, and poor and inequitable health services remain key focus areas of the partnership and the program. Within this context, the program has experienced a number of achievements and challenges from July to December 2014. From these, a number of lessons have emerged.
Both organisational and leadership development processes occurred during this time with multiple partners. These are key risk and sustainability issues for partners generally, but most especially in this final phase of OAU’s work in South Africa. Some of this technical support has resulted in great success, for example the organisational strides made by Sophakama in the Eastern Cape. Sophakama was able to complete a revised strategy and draft fundraising strategy. However, with other partners there have been challenges with buy in when participating in these processes as their management did not fully adopt and drive the various recommendations and action plans.
In terms of program achievements, one of the greatest shifts in the last 6 months has been the focus on building solidarity and active citizenship for many of the partners. Furthermore, the increase in partners working together successfully within the partnership and with external stakeholders is an encouraging trend. Networking continues to be encouraged and strategic links have been established between a number of partners. Specific program areas have also shown incredibly positive changes. Such is the case with the food security and livelihoods work where indicators have shown increases in productivity for farmers, especially women. Other projects have also focused on the development of young women, for example a new area of work by Umzi Wethu around introducing young women to career paths in science, technology, mathematics and engineering. Advances have also been made in the last reporting period in terms of sexuality and spirituality. A meaningful interfaith dialogue was held in Cape Town in November 2014 by Oxfam, The Triangle Project and The Inner Circle. The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) element of the No Longer Vulnerable program continues to be effectively rolled out in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres and schools in KwaZuluNatal, with a number of key learnings emerging.
As part of the effort to learn more about how our capacity building work is impacting partners, an evaluation of Oxfam’s video storytelling project was also started in order to try and understand the value and difficulties of this 3 year project. In the digital space, there have been two critical interventions implemented during this reporting period. One of these was the website support process which began with our interested partners Tholulwazi Uzivikele (TU), KwaMakhutha Community Resources Centre (KMCRC), HIV/AIDS Prevention Group (HAPG), KwaZulu Regional Christian Council (KRCC) and Woza Moya. The second intervention was a unique ‘ACCESS Digital Influencing’ learning event which was held in November 2014 aimed at developing capacity and critical thought around social media and digital platforms. Numerous other documenting and learning initiatives are underway, such as a second case study on Umzi Wethu focusing on the replication of the way they support unemployed youth, as well as the production of human interest stories, vignettes, slideshows and research across the partnership.
Along with these achievements, there have been numerous program challenges experienced over this last reporting period (July to December 2014). The three key challenges discussed, which have been alluded to earlier, are the lack of implementation and accountability within government, Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) funding, and difficulties associated with partnerships. In particular, partners have found the lack of accountability in the provincial departments of health difficult, and the delayed response to Drug-resistant TB alarming. In the NGO space, funding is always a key challenge, but becomes even more so in these final stages of the program. Furthermore, developing and maintaining meaningful and useful partnerships with a variety of stakeholders has emerged as a key challenge. It is acknowledged that, although often beneficial, partnerships do take a lot of time and resources from organisations and need to be managed carefully.
Lastly, a new body of work that has emerged outside of the strict programming has been Oxfam’s support to partners’ trading initiatives. Many partners include income generating activities within their programs and support for these is being seen as an important element to reducing vulnerability. Over this last reporting period, the work has specifically focused on access to markets and capacity development for three organisations that produce crafts, and it has been a great success. The crafting projects supported by Fancy Stitch (who is a previous partner) and Woza Moya and Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust (who are currently part of the Oxfam partnership) were connected with the Oxfam Australia trading team and shops, and now have stock in 11 shops in Australia and online. Video story telling on some of the crafters has also been done. It is hoped that during this final phase more of these kinds of positive linkages can be found for partners’ livelihoods work.
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Lessons continue to surface during the life of the No Longer Vulnerable program and the last 6 months are no exception to this. Various critical themes emerged during this time. The different strategies for public participation employed by partners became evident. While some partners have strategised how to stay engaged in the platforms set up by government, for example the ‘War rooms1’, others have found those spaces too politicized and have opted for creating separate ones for dialogue and learning. It is interesting to note that both strategies appear to be successful. This points to the need for partners to be flexible and adaptable enough to use the best strategy given their current context. The up-scaling of the advocacy element to the WASH work has also led to a number of lessons around how to develop communities’ capacity to demand their right to access clean water and appropriate sanitation.
certain indicators for each of the outcomes. More specifically in supporting health outcomes there was an increase in HIV Prevention programs. With the WASH indicators, there was a rise in the number of beneficiaries with knowledge of hygiene practices, as well as an increase in persons with disabilities accessing WASH services. In terms of livelihoods and food security, there were very encouraging trends pointing to high productivity, and it was heartening to note that although the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) funding ended in June 2014, many of the partners are still making strides in this space. A larger focus on engagement through information and awareness raising meetings was also evident in the steep climb between these results and the January to June 2014 period. In summary, the No Longer Vulnerable program is moving forward despite considerable difficulties. Partners’ program reports, combined with the quantitative data from the output summary, indicate that there have been a number of successes and challenges during the July to December 2014 period. The lessons from this period will be taken forward into this final phase of the No Longer Vulnerable program and Oxfam Australia’s work in South Africa.
Lastly, the numbers and trends reflected in the output summary report reinforce many of the findings in the program narrative. They speak to the final consolidation phase of the program with a number of indicators decreasing. On the other hand, there were notable increases in
1
The “war rooms” were established through a nationwide campaign introduced by the President’s office in 2008 to reduce poverty among the country’s poorest citizens. Through this system, the poorest wards/communities are visited periodically by a team of professionals, inter-departmental task teams, and community workers to identify their specific needs, accelerate their access to government services, and provide safety nets. The long term goal for the war rooms is for the poorest households to receive assistance and support in a coordinated and sustained way. Through the war rooms, communities can become involved in drafting their own development agendas.
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background introduction
On the 5th January 2015 the office was unsettled by the redundancy announcement of the Country Director post held by Allan Moolman, effective from 30th January 2015. This was upsetting news for a team that is already going through so much change and uncertainty. All of these years, our work has been based on a strong relational partnership model. Thus, it was imperative that individual and collective engagements between Oxfam and partners on the exit were done in the four provinces of operation. Partners were shocked, but also very appreciative of the fact that Allan Moolman, together with two members of the team, took time out to engage with them face-to-face to deliver the message. The Q&A in Annexure 3.2, which was sent to all partners, provides a glimpse of the conversations which took place during the two week road show in January 2015. Out of this, we have also developed a program exit plan for partners which will be shared as we present our next operational plan for the remaining nine months, starting in July 2015.
This report has been written during difficult moments both internally and externally. The work that will be presented in the report has been implemented during some of the more trying episodes of the program and with the Durban office closure by end of March 2016. Other external moments were the sporadic events of Xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals, the electricity crisis as the country experiences load shedding from Eskom (national energy provider); food prices have increased as stated by the PACSA Food Price Barometer report of 2014; and a weak health care system; all these hitting the ordinary South African hard. The report will try to reflect on all of this, as these external events do impact on reducing vulnerabilities of people residing in South Africa and in the communities where our partners are operating. Internally, the changes within Oxfam and the establishment of Oxfam South Africa have not been easy and reality has hit home that the livelihoods of Oxfam staff in South Africa will be threatened. This naturally will cause anxiety knowing the nature of South Africa’s labour market at the moment. South Africa’s narrow unemployment rate persists at around 25% making job losses particularly difficult; therefore it is not going to be easy for Oxfam staff to source employment in such a volatile and unsteady economy. Loss of jobs could even spill-over to partners having to remove some positions because they can not find donors to replace the gap caused by Oxfam. Mechanisms have been put in place to monitor the feelings of the partners during this complicated time and provide support focusing on some sustainability areas which will be addressed later in the report.
Since the announcement of Oxfam South Africa’s formation, we have lost two key positions. In the period of July 2014 to December 2014 Busi Ndlovu, a Senior Program Coordinator, and Eva Jackson, Country Coordinator: Internal Learning and Reporting, resigned to take up positions in government and the private sector respectively. In response to Busi Ndlovu’s resignation, an internal promotion was done and Nicholas Molver moved to fill the Program Coordinator position. The post of Country Coordinator was advertised externally, and Caili Forrest was employed as Coordinator: Learning, Sharing and Reporting. With the post of Country Director being made redundant, the following management changes have occurred: Wendy Lubbee is now an Associate Country Director and Blessing Zama now holds the position of Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary. Glenise Levendal and Pumla Mabizela are sharing the load of implementing the program until its closing. Gina Blackburn will focus on human resource management and ensuring that staff members are well supported during this period. The management team is required to work more closely together now more than ever before, to ensure that all goes well under these difficult conditions which involve less motivated staff, and the anticipation of more resignations.
In November 2014, both management in the South African, Durban office and Melbourne came together for a two day process to start mapping-out what needs to be done until the closure of the Oxfam Australia, Durban office. A draft document was developed and has been themed ‘Oxfam in South Africa change management plan – Salani Kahle Bangane2’. Though the document is still in draft form, it is considered the guiding document for us during this change period, until the office closes in March 2016.
2
‘Salani kahle bangane’ means ‘stay well friends’ in IsiZulu.
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Over and above the dynamic space that Oxfam Australia finds itself in, is the complex and volatile South African context. Xenophobic violence is threatening the peace in South Africa as incidents have occurred in some parts of the country, including Durban. The intolerance and stresses that are being experienced by the majority of the South Africans and foreign nationals are worrisome and are putting more strain on some of our partners, like Refugee Social Services (RSS), who now have to respond to such incidents. It is a tense and scary time. In early 2015, unrest and looting started in Soweto when a 14 year old was allegedly shot by a shop owner who is a foreign national. The unrest quickly spread with xenophobic fuelled attacks occurring throughout Soweto (including in Naledi, Emdeni, Zola and Protea) and later in Mamelodi (in Pretoria), Krugersdorp and Alexandra. By mid March, 360 shops owned by foreign nationals in Soweto had been looted with 178 suspects (including school students) arrested. A controversial statement, by senior officials of the Gauteng Government, that the attacks were ‘criminal rather than xenophobic’ sparked a discussion about community members using service delivery and unemployment protests as an excuse to loot shops owned by foreign nationals. Regardless of the causes, it is disturbing that violence against foreign nationals appears to be becoming institutionalised. The South African Government has received criticism of their existing work on preventing and reducing xenophobia including a letter from the Africa Diaspora Forum asking President Zuma to reconsider the migration policy of South Africa. Given the recent history of xenophobic violence in South Africa since 2008, there is the need for a critical review of research conducted and actions taken in the last seven years to reduce xenophobia and a reflection on why some actions were not taken.
and change in partnerships. Furthermore, the report will illustrate the work done under the theme of ‘partnerships’ within the program section in order to engage readers with this crucial area of our approach. The program achievement section will focus on how the collaborations, partnerships and networking made by partners either with government departments, other civil society organisations, other stakeholders or amongst themselves, were done and results yielded. The program section will also highlight challenges experienced and lessons learned in this reporting period and the output summary presents the quantitative data analysis. The work continued to be implemented through 42 partners coming from 4 provinces of South Africa – Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape – as indicated in the map below.
Oxfam continues to liaise and work with organisations including Refugee Social Services (RSS), The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), The Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA), Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), and the South African Government (including Disaster Management officials) through bodies such as the Protection Working Group. Oxfam is also a member of the task team assembled for long-term strategies to address violence against foreign nationals with a specific focus on advocacy, campaigns and engagement with government. It will be essential to scrutinise and engage with incoming legislation about foreign nationals, including monitoring the consolidation of the South African Human Rights 2010 recommendations and commitment by the South African Government. We will stay alert on this and other issues, in case we have to respond together with our partners.
Program Overview Moving away from internal and external stresses, this report will provide an overview of the work undertaken by Oxfam and its partners in the last six months from July 2014 to December 2014. This report will introduce work done that includes: progress on the annual plan; capacity building and documenting work; collaboration work through other affiliates; progress
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In this period the program managed to reach 606 529 men, woman and children. 91 628 people benefitted directly from the program of which the majority were female (just over 59 000). 23 896 of these direct beneficiaries were young people from the ages of 19 to 35 years old. 793 people with disabilities directly benefitted, the majority of whom were between the ages of 13 and 35 (exactly 468). 514 901 people were indirect beneficiaries, and once again the majority of these (just over 280 000) were female. There were 1075 persons with disabilities who indirectly benefitted throughout this six month period. Oxfam Australia in South Africa will continue with program work, but the team is also committed to close the program and office well. As individuals, and as an organisation, this is an opportunity to provide a best practice example of a careful, dignified and responsible exit to the rest of the development community. The approach is to radically shift spent energies on to the most logical and valuable activities in the remaining period. The annual plan for the period July 2014 to June 2015 had to be redirected and now focuses on areas of sustainability which will hopefully give partners the necessary support to continue with the programs and operations. One of the areas that we wanted to explore with the original plan was the different engagements around the government agenda based on the ‘National Development Plan’ – unfortunately with all that is happening this is too ambitious and we have had to abandon this area of work. Another area that has been affected is based in ‘active citizenship’. We were hoping to work through social platforms like AWETHU, to engage more with issues of solidarity and take a more instrumental role in developing a multi-directional relationship between donors and other organisations, rather than just one-way funding. However, we had to also let go of this work as it would have required a substantial amount of time, energy, different skill sets, and new ways of thinking and working. To summarise, the plan until office closure in March 2016 will focus on sustainability areas, documenting the learnings, and the support and monitoring of partners. While the funding for the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Program from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) came to an end in June 2014, some partners have continued to include DRR in their operational plans for the 2014-2015 year. Project Empower has raised key risk reduction opportunities in community forums, including simple tips for avoiding heat exhaustion. As the season changes in the next 6 months, the information will shift to winter issues. Women who are part of the conscious raising groups have utilised DRR information to reduce the impact of rains during the summer season, including digging swales and patching leaks. Refugee Social Services is continuing to include DRR in training for those creating and running Home Based Child Care (HBCC) Centres. By December 2014, 32 HBCC Centres had been
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surveyed for potential hazards with hazard reduction action plans and training for carers developed. Individual household DRR awareness has been made available to approximately 150 households by Community Wellness Workers who have completed 360 home visits. Training for residents (including supervisors, tenants, cleaners etc) on identifying and mitigating risks and hazards will be conducted in the upcoming months. Lack of access to affordable, safe and maintained services (especially electricity and refuse collection) continues to pose a serious threat to the safety of people living in South Africa.
the 2015 year. In South Africa, over 55 members from Safe Spaces are now able to defend their rights and assist others whose rights have been violated thanks to training by the Triangle Project. In Zimbabwe and South Africa, the databases of the implementing partners now allow for proper follow-up of cases of human rights violations that are reported and recorded. In South Africa, a national lobby and advocacy campaign ‘to make sexual and gender diversity a reality within religion’ took off on the International Day of Tolerance (16th November 2014). Like any development initiative, challenges are part of the package. One of the major issues that come with such an initiative is the safety and security risk. An example is a recent experience by TIC. According to reports,
Collaborations Our program does not operate in isolation; it works through different initiatives, programs, and events to network and collaborate with different stakeholders. These collaborations have happened between the Oxfam affiliates in the country. However, we also foster collaboration with other stakeholders, particularly with various levels of the South African Government and civil society organisations in the country. Updates for this work are indicated below.
Partnership on the Rights of Sexual Minorities In January of 2014, a partnership through the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oxfam Novib (ONL), Oxfam Canada (OCA) and Oxfam Australia (OAU) was formed to implement a four-year program entitled ‘Promoting and Protecting Human Rights of Sexual Minorities in Pakistan, Zimbabwe and South Africa’. In South Africa, the program is being implemented in partnership with two organisations based in the Western Cape: the Triangle Project (TP) and The Inner Circle (TIC). An annual report of the first year of implementation has been produced tracking the achievements, challenges and lessons learned. The three countries implementing this project are at different levels due to various risks and hindering factors related to local contexts. In terms of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), the South African context is somewhat less challenging compared to the two other countries. One of the major activities of the South African program has been for the creation of Safe Spaces for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) persons and the establishment of Solidarity Circles. The Solidarity Circles and Safe Spaces are designed to enable the LGBTI community in urban areas to engage, dialogue, share information, and strategise freely. South Africa has also made good progress on networking and raising awareness with religious groups. Strong network structures in South Africa have been set up and there were increases in the visibility and voice of LGBTI people through the use of social and print media. One of the interesting pieces of work that happened between the three countries was the analysis on the opportunities and risks of the development of a joint website. This joint work will continue and take shape in
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“A new ‘Open Mosque’ was opened next to TIC’s offices in September 2014. This created uproar in the Muslim community who felt it was blasphemous as the mosque was open to all religions, cultures, genders and sexual orientations. TIC was associated with the mosque due to its proximity. As a consequence, TIC has received hate mail and death threats. The ‘Open Mosque’ itself was firebombed twice1. TIC had to increase its own security measures by amongst other activities, installing a CCTV system and mounting panic buttons in their office”.
Adding to the achievements and challenges, there were also lessons learned. One of those lessons was around the sharing of resources between organisations. An example of this is the sharing of databases amongst the two partners, TIC and TP, evidenced in the programs report:
“It would be valuable for TIC to know TPs standardized format of collecting and capturing data so that their results can be included in the Hate Crime working group database. This has potential to inform their strategies in programming and advocacy efforts. South Africa will be tabling Hate Crime Legislation in Parliament in 2015 and the accumulated data from the database would be beneficial for influencing the Parliament”2.
National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) Project Oxfam continues to grow their understanding of resilience and disaster management in urban contexts. The African Centre for Disaster Studies has drafted guidelines on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in urban spaces and Oxfam is regularly engaging with them about the progress of this work. As part of this, Oxfam is supporting officials from urban municipalities to participate in a consultation session on risk assessment guidelines in urban spaces in an upcoming conference. 110 government officials have also received training on the role of municipal councilors in Disaster Risk Management. As part of the sharing of lessons and
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/arson-attack-on-wynberg-s-open-mosque-1.1760216 January to December 2014 Report for: Promoting and protecting human rights of sexual minorities in Pakistan, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
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information, Oxfam was invited to participate in a Disaster Management Conference at the University of Venda in March 2015. The Oxfam Great Britain Regional Centre has agreed to continue to support the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) beyond March 2015.
Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) In the January to June 2014 six month program report, it was reported that Oxfam together with the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), UN Population Fund, two government departments, the SABC and Alexander Forbes, convened a national gender summit. We also reported that 16 Oxfam partners were part of this summit. A report is now available, and out of the summit a 5-year plan was developed. It is considered a Program of Action (POA), and is described as follows:
“The POA has identified actions and strategies to be implemented by relevant structures to address the challenges that continue to face the gender sector in the fight for gender equality and transformation. The delegates and stakeholders further committed themselves to ensuring that the Program of Action is implemented and that the structures responsible for implementation are monitored to ensure accountability. The CGE was tasked overall with ensuring the full implementation of this Program of Action, and for engaging with the National Gender Machinery and the identified critical stakeholders5”.
A detailed plan can be accessed from the main report. This report has been shared with all of the Oxfam partners to work towards aligning their gender programs to the plan so that they can contribute to the national response on gender issues. The Oxfam program team will work hand in hand with partners to ensure that they understand the plan and that they are contributing to the bigger picture.
Oxfam Italia has ensured that maintenance was part of the process. Maintenance of the photovoltaic and Off Grid system has been accompanied by training activities addressed to the local population and the managers of the centre. This was aimed at ensuring that users are aware of the potential as well as problems of the installed systems, and enables trainees to do routine maintenance. Additionally, lessons on good management and energy saving practices were given, in order to make better use of renewable resources.
Sustainability pilot centre in Buffalo City Municipality Oxfam Australia (OAU) provided funds to some of the work that Oxfam Italia has done in the Eastern Cape, through its Early Childhood Development program. This project was co-funded by The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a focus on ‘Integrated action for a sustainable community empowerment process in the informal settlements of Buffalo City Municipality’. OAU funds specifically contributed to the finalisation of the infrastructure component as detailed below:
There were also other contributors to this project. For example, construction materials were donated by FDS. A multi-stakeholder group supports the project; namely a technical team from the department of engineering and architecture of the municipality, an expert in off-grid technology from FDS, an architect from the local architecture centre BARTSCH, and an engineer to supervise the work of the local consulting company Sinakho Consulting. In addition, the centre will be managed by two local Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs). One will manage the day care centre, while the other will be in charge of the multipurpose area.
• Construction of an off-grid pilot centre in a rural area of Chalumna about 50km from the main town of East London. The centre hosts 40 kindergarten children and will also be used as a multiple service centre for the community. A few technologies were installed:
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• The Off- Grid box has been donated to Oxfam Italia from La Fabbrica del Sole (FDS) to be installed in the multipurpose centre of Chalumna. This was to make the building completely independent from the power supply. A 1 kWp windmill has been installed to support the ‘photovoltaic system’. • Solar panel for hot water: The solar panel in the off Grid Box also provides enough hot water for the centre. It includes a system to recycle the excess energy produced. The Off Grid Box also contains an emergency pressurization system (to be used with a hand pump). • Collection of rainwater: Several tanks with a total capacity of 25.000l were installed around the centre in order to collect and store rainwater and they are connected directly to the Off Grid Box. After being pumped and filtered, water is sterilized using a UV lamp which makes clean water available (with a very low bacterial presence). • Toilet: The bathrooms have a water system (flush toilets) that doesn’t require an electrical pressurisation system, but acts using gravity due to the careful and strategic positioning of the tanks installed around the centre. • Wastewater treatment system: The water coming from the bathrooms is not connected to the sewer system, which is not available in this area, but is treated by a special purification Bio-rock system that neutralizes the organic presence in the water using microorganisms and rocks installed underground. At the end of the process, water can be used for irrigating the school garden and in the school toilets. • School garden: The abundance of tanks to collect rainwater will also allow for the irrigation of a large vegetable garden managed by the staff of the centre. It will mainly be dedicated to the nutritional sustenance of children and their families.
National Gender Summit 2014 Summit Report
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Lastly within this collaboration, the OAU supported construction of two centres (Nomzamo and Inkazimlo) and one rehabilitated centre called the Isibane ECD centre. A full report is available of what was done in these three centres.
banners and posters demanding land, food and jobs in rural areas. Some of the slogans were: “We have the right to food”; “Farm women feed the nation”; “A hungry kid cannot learn”. A petition was handed over to the representatives of the Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture. The Memorandum included the following demands, among others:
Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC)
• • • • •
In the last six months report (January to June 2014), it was noted that AIDC undertook work under the leadership of Oxfam GB. The Budget Justice Advocacy Project continues to build on the critical initiatives started in the first half of 2014, such as the first People’s Alternative Budget Speech outside Parliament, and presentations at Parliamentary committees. From July to December 2014, AIDC also focused efforts at the grassroots community level, working with unemployed women, miners and unemployed youth. This predominantly involved working with local communities organising in the informal settlements in the North West Province, around Rustenburg’s platinum belt. A joint march of community members and workers was organised on 14 November 2014 where people were able to take forward their demands for decent basic services. AIDC also ran workshops on where the money could come from for funding climate job creation and the provision of decent essential services. These were important in giving communities the confidence to pursue their demands against the local and provincial government. AIDC noted that, “this work at a grassroots level is vital to compliment the main advocacy and lobbying activities of the Budget Justice Campaign and provide the political legitimacy and weight for its advocacy efforts to be taken seriously by key government decision makers.”
Realisation of the constitutional right to food Faster land redistribution that will benefit women Expropriation of unproductive farms An end to farm worker evictions Regulation of food corporations to stop their profiteering off basic food stuffs
The event was well covered in local print media and on national television stations. There is still a long way to go before farm workers are able to enjoy their human rights and dignity as evictions and violations of human rights in South Africa are still rife. Much work still needs to be done, and support to organisations like WFP and Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) still needs to be provided.
Exchange visits – transformational womens leadership (TWL) Bangladesh visits In November of 2014, two representatives Roseline Engelbrecht from Women on Farms and Jennifer Bell from Justice and Women (JAW) participated in a cross sharing and learning initiative through Bangladesh Women’s Narratives. This learning opportunity was hosted by Oxfam Great Britain in Bangladesh.
During this time, many lessons continue to be learnt; for example, the need to build capacity in community on engaging with local government budgetary and the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) processes. AIDC also acknowledged the need to integrate a more gender sensitive understanding of budgets into various activities which will form a key component of AIDC’s Budget Justice work going forward.
Our partners were able to engage with ongoing work in rural Sri Lanka. In particular they met with organisations like Bantshe Sekha and the Jessore Press Club. Bantshe Sekha is an NGO that works primarily with rural women and girls on gender and women’s rights issues, and operates similarly to the Women on Farms Project. The Jessore Press Club, on the other hand, works closely with media on issues of gender based violence. They were also able to share this experience with stakeholders working on gender and women’s rights from around the world. During the exchange visits a lot was learnt and rich discussions were held. Partners also took part in a mediation process, where members of the community, police, representatives of the justice department and NGO representatives formed part of the committee. Furthermore, they engaged with the ‘We Can Campaign’ which is about restoring women’s dignity and giving recognition for women and women’s role in society. In meeting with Enayetpur Women’s Adda Groups they also learnt about women’s leadership and creating spaces for women to focus on themselves.
World Food Day In October of 2014, the Women on Farms Project (WFP) received support from Oxfam Great Britain (OGB) to coordinate a provincial World Food Day event in Cape Town. WFP collaborated with different organisations in the buildup activities and organising; these organisations were: Mayebuwe Land Rights Forum, Citrusdal Farmworkers Forum, Surplus Peoples Project, and Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE). The purpose of the event was to expose stakeholders to the nature and extent of hunger, and to raise awareness of the constitutional right to food in the wider community. More than 350 people, mostly women from rural towns in the Western Cape, participated in the big event in Cape Town. After the gathering in Community Hall, participants congregated in Cape Town and marched to Parliament. Women carried
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Capacity Building and Documentation
Our partners took a lot away from this experience and shared a number of insights with us. WFP were encouraged by the social transformations they experienced in Sri Lanka that have allowed for the promotion of women leaders in rural areas, allowing them to be become members of different committees in schools, markets etc. This is despite the restrictions they face from some religious leaders and fundamentalists. The need for men and women to engage on structural issues and to build the leadership and confidence of women was also highlighted. The discussions held confirmed JAW’s views that when working with women, one needs to start by increasing women’s personal agency and support them to apply the knowledge gained to relationships within their family. Women are aware of the dynamics within this environment and know where and how to push for change, and where and how to secure allies in the process. Through this process, women are able to gain confidence and self esteem. Furthermore, the trip reinforced the value of working with a range of stakeholders with a range of stakeholders, for example the press, health organisations, the police, and not in silos in order to create a broad base of platforms where one works with the community system as a whole.
The support Oxfam provides is intended to strengthen civil society organisations through technical capacity building as one of the main objectives. This work is done through various forms either one-on-one support through a consultant; attending of conferences locally and internationally; workshops; exchange visits; and through webinars using various ICT technology. Documenting and sharing Oxfam and partners learning has been a central tenant to our way of working. Many lessons around how and why we gather, package and share partner and program learning have emerged. One key question has revolved around how we represent people within communities; and linked to this whether we are being authentic in our approach to telling the stories of ourselves as a donor agency and others like our partners, communities and individuals. Ethics around the use of stories is an important consideration and one we place much thought into. We constantly learn from partners’ reflections back to us on the various capacity building and documenting processes. A range of activities, capacity building processes, and documenting work have taken place over the period July to December 2014. It is not always easy and does not always go according to plan. Finding the right people to work with can be a challenge and we are constantly on the lookout for organisations and individuals who follow our ethos and approach. Some of the highlights from the period are:
The experience also raised some critical issues, such as men’s investment in women’s empowerment being secured only when they perceive that there will be economic gains for the family. The question remains of whether, in these instances, there really has been a shift in power when men support women on this basis as often ownership of key resources, such as land, remain within men’s hands. On the other hand, men’s support adds to women’s confidence and once this is increased, women start challenging other sources of power. Additionally, the importance of focusing on domestic violence as a symptom of patriarchal beliefs and practices was emphasised. Treating symptoms enables communities to engage with the words/ knowledge gained and feel that they are addressing power relations creating an impression that they are addressing patriarchy. Meanwhile power realigns and uses the space to ‘re-clothe itself’ in a new way. These, and other, issues are essential to keep at the forefront of women’s empowerment and gender based work.
20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne Oxfam supported two of the partners, AIDS Legal Network (ALN) and the HIV/AIDS Prevention Group from Bela Bela (HAPG), to attend the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne in July 2014. HAPG was able to share and profile their work at the conference. With content gathered through interviews, images and video, the history and approach of the HAPG was documented, and a package of products were produced including: • • • • •
Southern African FOOD LAB During the year 2014 Oxfam staff, Allan Moolman, Rashmi Mistry and some of our partners (Biowatch, Women on Farms and PACSA) participated and contributed with their knowledge, time, ideas and experience towards the development of ‘Four scenarios examining possible futures of the food system in South Africa’. This was in collaboration with the convening team – Scott Drimie together with the University of Stellenbosch. A full report is available at www.southernafricafoodlab.org. In our big closing event this year in November 2015, we would like this report and conversation to form part of the agenda for future thinking amongst our partners and also to make those who were not part of these deliberations aware of this for future programming.
A new logo, branding and updated website http://www.hapg.org.za A Case Study: A Community Making Change (published on the Oxfam Policy and Practice Website http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/a-community-making-changehivaids-prevention-group-bela-bela-322498) A printed postcard and 9 posters developed 8 minute video and 3 short vignettes telling the story of the original support group members Sophy, Elias and Caroline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lksSmVjk9s All the electronic content is available via HAPG’s website and distributed on a DVD
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The package of products was profiled at various events in Melbourne and the video premiere was hosted before the conference in the community of Bela Bela. The website is a valuable repository of many research papers HAPG has been part of over the years. This sends the important message that community based organisations have much to contribute to local and international research. The partnerships with various universities and research institutions bring opportunities for partners to place trends and innovations around their work in the academic arena.
A reflection and feedback from HIV/AIDS Prevention Group Bela Bela by Cecile Manhaeve The documenting process that was set up in November 2013 has been a long and challenging process. However, we learnt a lot from it and it made so many people in the BelaBela Community happy and feeling rewarded for what they had done in the past years to make the community less vulnerable. The long winding process to re-call and re-think out history was also joyful because it brought so many good memories back into the open. Although building the community to how it is today was no easy walk too…. But the good memories outshine the issues that hurt and healed over time. Bringing the booklets and the videos to the people who had worked and featured in it was like bringing an immense treasure to all of them. No one had ever hoped or dreamed that this could be done. But all were extremely proud of all the undertakings and the end product. Each person regards it is his/her own… “Look what we did”, “did we really do all this?” Happiness, awe, inspiration in reverse was found by several contributors….. Everyone is extremely grateful for the documentation produced and everyone is treasuring this close to their hearts.
Distribution of the materials Distributing the document to the broader community and sharing the materials with people outside BelaBela was equally challenging and daring! No one knew how people would welcome or react to it. The first people outside BelaBela to receive the materials were people attending the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne. However, before we left for Australia a preview of the documents was done for the BelaBela community. Community members attending were very happy, proud and grateful for the occasion. The MEC of Health from Limpopo and Dr Shilumani, CCMT directorate Limpopo, were very upbeat about the document and were congratulating all the people who worked on it, either from BelaBela or the writers, photographers, video men and women. Dr Yogan Pillay, the DDG of the National Department of Health was encouraged on seeing that some doctors working in the Department are willing to serve the community in their free time. He mentioned that he now knows where to bring visitors if such occasions come up. He would also show it to the DG and the Minister of Health, Dr Motswaledi who also received a copy in Melbourne. The sharing with the staff in Oxfam Melbourne offices and at the Sydney offices was great. People and other partners were really interested in learning about the work done and were all grateful for the beautiful package they received. A special occasion was at the Oxfam offices in Sydney where the staff had brought some of their most
important sponsors together to come and listen to the presentation. All these people were very delighted and asked many questions. Not to forget, on our return what happened at the airport. We brought the left over materials back, one of the officials at the check-in asked what was in the bag. As we opened it and showed her, she immediately wanted a copy of the materials. It was a real surprise to us, to find an Oxfam supporter at the check in point who was keen to have a copy and gave us a good rebate … for the cause. The next distribution was to my relatives when they visited South Africa in November and all wanted to take materials home to share with their local friends. This even gathered some extra donations from people in Belgium, the Catholic Diocese of Bruges, which was very enthusiastic and made two serious donations to the work in the past few months. The whole documentation process has also inspired Dr Ndjeka to document the work he is doing at National Level on TB and MDR-TB in the country. He recently took some samples along from the previous documentation about HAPG to lobby support at the National Department of Health to start documenting their own work.
Conclusion As a small local organisation, one would never venture into such undertakings due to lack of resources, lack of knowledge, lack of experience but to document a cause which is found to be worthwhile fills us only with deep gratitude and is a reminder to keep going even in difficult times.
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Organisational Development
Leadership Support
Technical support through one-on-one training by consultants was also provided to some of the partners. Two of the Eastern Cape partners, Sophakama and Haven Wellness Centre (Haven), were provided with intensive organisational development support. For Sophakama, this was the continuation of the support and for Haven this was the first initiative.
In continuing with the technical support to partners, our office embarked on a new process of conversations around leadership. This was prompted by a number of potential risks identified in the organisational governance of partner organisations, particularly around leadership and succession strategies. These risks were either identified during monitoring visits, informal discussions, or during partner capacity assessments. Ten partners (HAPG, CHOiCe Trust, CATCH Projects, KwaZulu Regional Christian Council, Palabora Foundation, RSS, Sophakama, Thusanang, Woza Moya and Siyavuna) were selected. These partners vary widely and have different contexts, programming, experience, types of governance structures, and leadership styles. In November of 2014, a 1 and ½ day conversation covering organisational sustainability, succession planning, and leadership styles, was held. This was followed by individual visits to the organisations with each being assessed for their specific needs. The process is continuing with 7 out of the 10 partners. This also includes a mentorship aspect, which aims to ensure that there is some continuity and long term sustainability. It is hoped that by the end of December 2015 the process would have supported the Director of the organisation in building a sustainable board and middle management structure. We will provide a full report on this process in January 2016, as we would have documented the experiences and changes as a result of this support.
There were a number of achievements for Sophakama through this support: a revised strategy was completed with a draft fundraising strategy also being developed. Sophakama worked tirelessly on writing and submitting proposals to several donors. They got rejections from some and are waiting for outcomes from others. It is good to note that the partnerships which they have formed have started to pay off; for example, with the African Unity Foundation they were nominated to receive support for Mandela Day through SAB whereby 50 beneficiaries were provided with food parcels. They have also formed a relationship, and have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with St Francis Hospice. In addition, Sophakama has spent some energy in working on their Human Resource policies with a focus on their Child Protection Policy. Sophakama has been developing these policies with staff input and support from RAPCAN. It is encouraging to note that 90% of their policies and procedures have been reviewed and finalised. Good news in this period was that Sophakama was awarded first place in the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber Health and Wellness Award for 2014 for the NGO category. At the same Awards, this partner came first in the category for ‘Wellness Team’ which was won by Sanele and Buyelwa for the Wellness Program. Interestingly, the Sophakama OVC Carers also came third in the ‘Wellness team’ category. It is a great moment to see one of our partners together with their staff members being recognized and awarded for their contributions towards community change.
Video Storytelling Evaluation Twelve partners in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have participated over the last 3 years in the ‘Video Storytelling’ capacity building processes. An evaluation of the process by an independent consultant is underway to guide the work going forward, to document the support and partner experiences, and to assess the value of this process for partners. Partners have used the videos produced for various purposes; such as marketing their organisation on their websites and social media platforms, profiling their work in meetings with funders, using them as advocacy tools to bring community and civil society voices into policy platforms, raising awareness with community members around issues, and aggregating voices to different platforms. A gap identified through the evaluation is for further support around editing as there are great stories out there, but if not well edited the stories can be lost.
On the other hand, Haven was also provided with a full organisational development package, including SWOT analysis, strategy planning process, and review of administration and computer systems. Unfortunately, this process did not yield the desired results. Our capacity building processes are voluntary for partners and we believe that our partners must own these processes.
Web Support Learning Having an up-to-date and engaging website is part of the public profile of an organisation, and is a vital tool to share programs with a wider audience. It also adds to an organisation’s credibility and sustainability. The web support learning process is working with a cluster of 5 partners (Tholulwazi Uzivikele, KwaMakhutha Community Resources Centre, HAPG, KRCC and
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Woza Moya) who requested support around increasing their public profile through updated websites and/or social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Oxfam hosted an Information day in July 2014 to bring some ideas and thoughts together about how civil society organisations can tell their stories and profile their programs in the public domain. This was followed by individual support to each partner. The process of developing a website started with looking at what the organisations want to say, and required some thought on the target audiences and purpose of a website. Before the technical element of building the website, partners started to gather their content, such as the history of the organisation, aims and programs as well as accounts, images and videos telling the story of their work. This can be a challenge as many partners have limited capacity and their focus is on delivering programs; content gathering is therefore often secondary. Bringing in support for gathering and packaging content has come as an additional focus area in order to make the most of a website and various social media platforms. Websites also get old and content needs to be fresh and up-to-date to keep people coming back, so further support around how partners maintain and update their sites is essential.
Many participants’ quotes from the post event survey demonstrated some of the value added through this engagement, for example:
“I loved the space and opportunity to critically reflect on how we can use digital influence to challenge power, it was amazing hearing the experiences of other organisations to determine what we’re doing well, and not doing well”
“The exposure, the possibilities that were presented - I now have more of a feeling for and understanding of the power of social media and what an important tool it can be in our work... but this was just a taste - I realize that we have a long way to go, much to learn in this area…”
Plans for taking this forward include a webinar series around topics participants requested further support on, various exchange visits, and support for online campaigns.
Documenting Work in Progress
Digital Influencing Partner Event
Each year, ideas are discussed with the Oxfam Programs team around emerging issues, and interesting work coming from partners and the program. Various topics and partners are put forward to follow documenting processes. Below are the current documenting pieces in progress. All publications are distributed to partners via email, in printed copies, and uploaded onto the open repository Oxfam’s Policy and Practice website (http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk).
Given that social media and digital platforms present many opportunities for civil society to influence stakeholders such as local communities, the general public, other civil society organisations and government, it was an opportune time to develop our capacity and learning around digital influencing. The ‘ACCESS Digital Influencing’ Event firstly provided a space for thinking through the benefits and challenges emerging from our use of digital technology for influencing. It also gave partners an opportunity to practice using these tools, and encouraged them look at ways in which they could actively engage in digital influencing work in the future. The learning event was practical and challenging to participants. This ensured that we provided a critical analysis of the potential for the use of the technology, as well as came up with implementable ideas to take forward.
1.
The event used various forms of social media and had good participation on the various platforms, with percentage participation on these platforms used listed below:
#ACCESSDBN on Twitter
blog - http://oxfaminsaaccess.wordpress.com
Documenting the model and replication of Umzi Wethu. The first case study for Umzi Wethu titled ‘An Extra Ordinary Journey: Umzi Wethu Training Academy for Vulnerable Youth’ (http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/an-extraordinary-journey-umziwethu-training-academy-for-vulnerable-youth-322346) has been published and the follow-on case study looking at the replication of the Umzi model for supporting unemployed young people is close to completion and should be published and distributed in May 2015. The launch of the Umzi Wethu ‘An Extra Ordinary Journey’ case study was held in Port Elizabeth in July 2014. The event was embraced by their business partners, stakeholders, private sector and cooperates, learners and graduates of Umzi. It was a wonderful event which again emphasized the importance of partnerships and networking. The graduates shared their memories and challenges, but most of all their achievements and aspirations that they received through the Umzi Wethu experience. Oxfam has developed a valuable practice of taking these stories back to their owners and sharing them widely, so that the memories are shared and treasured by as many as possible.
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2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Trading Support
The team felt many aspects of the partners work had not been captured and a process of documenting vignettes was initiated. These vignettes are being written around interesting and innovative aspects of partners work. These will be compiled through interviews with partners around the topic selected. These will be short articles around a diverse set of topics across the partnership. Slideshows are being completed around the Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES) program and topics such as the right to clean water, hygiene and sanitation within ECD centres in KZN, and innovations in sanitation infrastructure are being explored. Human interest stories from the AACES partners are also being developed and should be completed by mid 2015. These will focus on the stories of the programs being implemented by the five AACES partners. Through AACES support, menstrual management in schools is being researched. The research began in the latter part of the 2014 year, and preliminary results are fascinating. This will be finalised and shared in the next report in September 2015. Some of the planned documenting and writing work for the coming year comprises of learning papers from the No Longer Vulnerable Mid Term Review process. These are currently underway and include pieces around integration, health, contestation, gender, the partnership model, and the integral framework. These learning papers will deepen the discussions from the reflections around the program. They will also feed into the planned partner ‘Link and Learn’ in November 2015, and they may be refined for potential peer review and publishing within development sector circles to further debate and research into areas of interest. Plans for a final Oxfam publication in the form of a ‘coffee table book’ are being discussed at present. This will aim to bring together all of the program and partners work over the years, and provide a comprehensive collection of the lessons, contributions and challenges during Oxfam Australia’s journey in South Africa.
In the operational plan, it was stated that we will be looking at access to markets with some of our partners. This is a new space for the Durban team but we hope that with the little time remaining we will be able to enhance some of the partners’ income generating activities; fortunately the work has begun in earnest. Many of the partners have various income generation projects and livelihoods components to their programs. In partnership with the Oxfam Trading team in Adelaide, the Oxfam program in South Africa had an opportunity to support partners involved in crafts to develop links and networks with the trading team in Australia and the Oxfam shop network. We also provided direct support around access to markets and capacity development on approaches to increase production and markets for products. Three partner organisations (Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, Fancy Stitch and Woza Moya) now have stock in the 11 shops around Australia and online (see these products and producers profiles on the Oxfam Shop site http://www.oxfamshop.org.au/producer-partners). Additionally, Woza Moya crafters have been featured in a video telling the story of two of the sock monkey crafters Sindi Mtolo and Mpume Dlamini. Sales of the partners’ products are going well and will be promoted through various activities such as webinars, partner and country profiles, and media including the videos and stories of the crafters and producer partners.
From this brief introduction to the last 6 months of Oxfam Australia’s work in South Africa, it is clear that there is a lot underway at the start of the final year of the No Longer Vulnerable program. Despite difficult internal and external circumstances, the Oxfam team and partners have continued to forge new collaborations and strengthen existing ones, build capacity and enhance our learning, and provide support in new areas such as trade - all of this outside the strict programming itself. With a focus on closing well and ensuring sustainability, it is important to now turn our attention to the program work examining the context, achievements, challenges and lessons from the July to December 2014 period.
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no longer vulnerable program
july to december 2014 Program Context Analysis
working together to drive change at all levels. There is much evidence from an analysis of partners’ ways of working over several reporting periods that the collective efforts of various stakeholders who forge strategic partnerships makes change possible and sustainable. Despite the enormous benefits of forging these partnerships, it is by no means an easy task. Partners have indicated that investing in these partnerships demands time, resources and commitment, which appear to be diminishing.
2014 was a particularly hard year for most people living in South Africa as unemployment, our inability to grow our economy, a perceived weakening of leadership under the Zuma administration, and South Africa’s power crisis had a devastating impact on lives. Each New Year in a person’s life brings with it expectations of a better life, more opportunities, new promises and a general sense of hopefulness. The same can be said about ‘citizens’ expectations for what lay ahead for South Africa’s socio- economic and political landscape. However, poor service delivery and dilapidated infrastructure continues to affect the majority of people’s access to resources and services thereby increasing their vulnerability.
The South African 2014 Food Price Barometer8, as revealed by the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA), showed that economic pressure increased on households and certain foods became unaffordable. This resulted in households’ substituting nutritious foods for cheaper products. The Food Price Barometer further states that the Consumer Price Index stood at 6.4% in August 2014, which proves that the measure for inflation in South Africa, is skewed as it tracks the impact of food price inflation on the middle class. Over and above global trends, the rising food and fuel prices have been linked to the frequent protests that are mushrooming across the country, as well as the increasingly violent wage strikes.
The correlation between unemployment and poverty still persists in South Africa. At 41%, the country has one of the lowest labour force participation rates in the world, and unemployment is currently at 24.7% (or 34% including ‘discouraged workers’ who are unemployed but not actively seeking work), with youth unemployment (18-35 year olds) at 65%. Unemployment is clearly South Africa’s largest social challenge6. The disparity between the skills provided by education and job requirements continues to be a primary driver of unemployment. Young people make up the largest proportion of unemployed people in South Africa resulting in increased vulnerability and poverty.
Given the South African economic background, partners working with grass-root communities were compelled to intensify the work they are doing in support of small scale farming. Small scale farmers still constitute the bulk of food supply in the world, with the industrialised system feeding only 30% of the world’s population. It was with great effort that the partners realised their strengths and capitalised on them to produce excellent results in an effort to develop the communities they are working with. The partners that showed very good food security work on-the-ground include Biowatch, Farmer Support Group, Siyavuna and Lima. These organisations have gone beyond just producing food for household consumption to producing enough for local and community markets. Thus the long term plans of production for income generation have been achieved and capacity building strategies are shifting from
Non-profit organisations (NPOs), who depend on public and private donations to fund their work, will need to be innovative and creative in order to survive in an increasingly challenging economic environment. As development challenges increase for NPOs and socio economic issues faced become more complex, the benefit of strategic partnerships7 can hold much promise. It is envisaged that through local and regional partnerships, NPOs can accelerate their learning, distribute skills, and transfer knowledge to harness the power of
6 7 8
http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/presentation/Stats%20SA%20presentation%20on%20skills%20and%20unemployment_16%20September.pdf “Oxfam understands partnerships as mutually empowering relationships, which are aware of power imbalances and focused on mutual growth, organisational development, institutional strengthening and above all, on achieving impact”. OI, February 2012 The PACSA Food Price Barometer tracks the prices of a basket of 32 basic food stuffs from four different retail stores that serve the low income market in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa.
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Program Achievements
agriculture production to marketing. Other organisations such as Operation Upgrade, Woza Moya, Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, PACSA, and Wilderness Foundation South Africa through the Umzi Wethu program also focus on the promotion of livelihoods activities that generate income for households in need.
OAU and its partners have continued to meet their objectives over the past six months. During this reporting period, most partners responded to sustainability issues by strengthening their work in partnership rather than only working in isolation. There has also been an increased interest in working with both local and national government departments either for learning and sharing purposes or lobbying for improved policies and strategies. Partners’ strategies for working with Government aim to promote a bottom-up approach to formulating strategies and policies where the affected people contribute to policies that address their needs and problems. From July to December 2014, it is encouraging that partners reported an increase in coordination, collaboration and engagement with governmental bodies. Key achievements have centered on building solidarity/active citizenship, partners working together successfully both within the partnership and externally, successes in livelihoods interventions, advances in sexuality and spirituality dialogue, and WASH in ECD centres and schools.
South Africa continues to push for progress in addressing gender disparities in health and education. Perhaps the most visible facet of the country’s success in improving gender equality is that of politics. Female representation currently stands at 42.4% in provincial legislatures and 40% in local government. However, more needs to be done to improve the lives of rural black women, and violence against women remains very high. This was evidenced when South Africa commemorated the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children under the theme ‘Peace Begins at Home: End Violence! Empower!’ from 25 November to 10 December 2014. Following the release of crime statistics by the South African Police Service in September 20149, it is obvious that South Africa has a long way to go in ending all forms of violence. Hence, partners like AIDS Legal Network, Justice and Women, Women on Farms, and the Triangle Project have shown a significant increase in reporting and deepening their analysis of their women’s empowerment and gender-related work.
Given the perilous start to 2014 in South Africa’s political landscape, an analysis of active citizenship within the Oxfam partnership has illustrated the following shifts and trends. While social cohesion appears to be threatened at a National level due to, among others, political intolerance, the same does not hold true for some partners experience in this reporting period. From partner reports, it is clear that whilst individual consciousness is still a major component of their work, joint consciousness and building solidarity is making change happen. This is clearly evidenced by the work of PACSA who founded a Food Justice Collective in July 2014:
The inequitable distribution of health services and health providers among the resourced and under-resourced vulnerable rural areas still remains a challenge faced by most of the partners. Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) continued to monitor the key document that guides South Africa’s AIDS response, the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on HIV, STIs and TB 2012 -2016. In the next reporting period TAC will also advocate for effective implementation of this plan with the hope of publishing the findings in the NSP Review – a joint publication with SECTION2710. Monitoring of the NSP 2012-2016 and wide consultations facilitated by TAC in communities will hopefully contribute to the current NSP as it draws to an end and provide feedback to advocate for an even better NSP to follow.
All of the above mentioned challenges in South Africa call for a collective, sophisticated, evidence and human rights-based response to the governance failure that is leading to the breakdown of the public service.
9 10
“this collective includes 7 community based organisations (5 livelihoods groups plus 2 other groups) who come together to not only talk and reflect seriously about what it means to produce good quality and healthy food but to actually act – to produce the food; how the production of this food can be a collective action drawing on the resources, skills, time and knowledge of an expanding number of people; and how taking control of food and the decisions made around food are of themselves a political act.”
Similarly JAW, Project Empower and Woza Moya appear to be using similar strategies in achieving joint consciousness; namely, allowing women to share their stories and experiences. Not only has this strategy resulted in building solidarity among the women, but it has also allowed them to harness this solidarity when accessing services at health facilities or the Police station. It appears as though the common thread among these strategies is ‘making the personal political’.
http://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-south-africas-official-crime-statistics-for-201314/ SECTION27 is a public interest law centre that seeks to influence, develop and use the law to protect, promote and advance human rights.
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Nelson Mandela said, “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” People organise around what is important to them. This is becoming more evident as partners such as PACSA and Project Empower are noticing the shifts at a community level. “The Hilton Valley group (the community group that PACSA are mentoring) met with the clinic leadership and was able to convince them to make space for a suggestion box so that clients can provide their views on the health care they receive from the clinic. Through this process, minor adjustments were made and patients waiting time has been shortened.”
Vignette: Early Childhood Development (ECD) Outreach Program In 2012, a survey was conducted by the National Development Agency (NDA) in South Africa to determine the challenges faced by the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector in the country. According to the survey, of the 54 503 educators/practitioners working with the children in these early development sites, 12% were qualified, 88% required additional training of some kind, and 23% had no training at all.
Similarly, young women through Project Empower’s interventions are now receiving better treatment from clinics, and the relationship between clinic staff and the young women has been strengthened.
In 2010 Woza Moya, an NGO which focuses on health and poverty concerns in the Ufafa Valley of rural KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), established a crèche which now boasts 50 registered children. The organization is situated in the Buddhist Retreat Centre and receives funding and resources from various donors.
Stronger collaborations have been observed between partners sharing mutual resources, knowledge, and skills. Consequently, we can argue that the Oxfam partnership has gone beyond financial support. Through sharing of lessons and experiences amongst partners as highlighted in the vignette11 on the following page, partners such as Woza Moya and Save the Children have worked together to maximize each others’ strengths and opportunities; and to address weaknesses and barriers in responding to vulnerability. Save the Children partnered with Woza Moya in strengthening the early childhood response in the Ufafa Valley12 where initially only children relatively close to the Woza Moya offices were able to attend the crèche. As there were no resources to recruit more crèche teachers to cover the rest of the Ufafa Valley and surrounding areas, Save the Children trained the care givers from Woza Moya and other surrounding areas on accredited early childhood development training (a crèche teacher course). As a result, both partners widened and sustained the impact of their work in early childhood development because the training support was not only offered to the Woza Moya team but also to other neighbouring organisations and crèches that needed the support. Through this partnership there was a wider response from other stakeholders, such as government departments, thus increasing access and providing stronger services for vulnerable communities. This has also has benefits for their other programs, like the Home Based Care childhood health assessments.
A partnership was formed with Save the Children KZN (STC KZN), an organization that aims to improve the basic needs of children living in the province, which meant added support in ECD teaching, training and resources. “Initially we had thought that only the kids that are relatively close to the Woza Moya organization would attend the crèche but due to the partnership with STC KZN we realized that the area of operation was far bigger and there were four outlying crèches in Ufafa’’, said Sue Hedden, the director at Woza Moya. “About a year ago we became aware of how the other crèches didn’t have much in terms of resources, teaching and training and support “, added Hedden. The team at Woza Moya then requested some assistance from STC KZN who offered a solution in training care givers. Once a month, about forty crèche teachers would go to Woza Moya for training to acquire a year’s accredited teacher course. The teachers were from crèches in Ufafa and some surrounding areas of Umzumkhulu, Ixopo and Jollyfet. “There is a wide area that is receiving this amazing support and training from STC KZN,” said Hedden.
Through building partnerships, some partners have been able to respond directly to local needs and priorities for action with less financial resources.
11 12
This vignette is part of a series of brief impactful case studies on interesting work and significant changes that occur during the delivery of partners’ programs. This is an ongoing project of the Oxfam office which will be completed in 2015. Rural area in KwaZulu-Natal
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 19
Organisations have also formed relationships with external stakeholders. Biowatch partnered with two non Oxfam funded NPOs to access funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for seed and knowledge systems known as the Seed Knowledge Initiative (SKI).
The staff at Woza Moya discovered how relatively well off their crèche is compared to the neighbouring rural crèches. “Our ECD practitioners are readily cleaning out excess materials and toys. Anything they don’t use must go to the outlying crèches. Also, every Friday is ECD Outreach Day. We close our play school and spend a day at each of the other crèches handing over goods and teaching them how to play with, use and store away each material,” said Hedden.
This development has prompted many practitioners to change their outlook and behaviour towards other crèches. Hedden explains there was one ECD practitioner in particular “who was reluctant to let go of some of the crèches resources but after visiting the other schools, she is gladly sorting out stuff that can go to them when new goods come in”.
The SKI will hopefully have a positive impact by increasing food security and income; thus improving the quality of life of vulnerable people and children’s ability to learn at school. The SKI work has shown clearly that there is a need for the recognition of farmers’ varieties by supporting the repatriation of lost agricultural biodiversity from the national gene-bank to communities. Rather than competing for resources, Biowatch used this partnership beyond Oxfam to make changes happen in practice through structured approaches and to work together to make resources have far greater impact.
This movement has also generated an easier method of monitoring growth and assessment of children in the area. Jane Nxasana, who is a Home Base Care Manager at Woza Moya, runs a number of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) programs for children between 0-5 years in partnership with the Department of Health in South Africa. Along with the care workers of the valley, Nxasana does a monthly child growth monitoring and assessment of the kids. “This has been such a good and organic development. Instead of going from door to door, the care workers can go to each crèche and monitor and assess about fifty kids at once,” said Hedden.
In this reporting period, it is evident that the network culture introduced by Oxfam has been adopted, and partner organisations are able to network on their own for purposes of sharing information, best practice, linking and learning. Ongoing key strategic links that have been established from 2013 among Woza Moya and Tholulwazi Uzivikele (TU) resulted in the exchanging of ideas and discussions around leadership and governance. This networking culture needs to be promoted for collective lobbying and advocacy for improved policies and strategies that best develop communities. Further, it is clear that the work of most partners has up-scaled. Skills building and exposure visits have contributed greatly to the transformation of community minds. For instance, partner meetings, workshops and exchange visits provided opportunities for partner learning around best practice. Two Oxfam representatives and two partner representatives from CREATE and TU attended partner exchange visits in Uganda and DFAT sessions on the AACES Mid Term Review and Value for Money. The opportunity allowed representatives to experience different development contexts and approaches to bringing about change in different AACES target areas.
Through Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) programs, Woza Moya and STC KZN have also installed tippy taps in the crèches and are teaching children about washing their hands after using the toilet and fly drying hands instead of using a towel. This linkage has impacted positively on communities in the Ufafa Valley and the team at Woza Moya is hoping to implement many other programs in the future through this valued partnership. Source: http://www.nda.org.za/docs/Challenges-facing-ECD-Sector-in-SAProf-Atmore.pdf
13
“The primary aim of the Seed and Knowledge Initiative (SKI) is to revive and enhance traditional seeds and knowledge systems and to deepen understanding about their functioning, within the context of supportive agricultural, cultural and ecological practices. The initiative’s long-term vision is to collaborate with communities, national and regional partners towards a future where small-holder farmers, and women in particular, are empowered to secure seed and food sovereignty on all levels13.”
www.biowatch.org.za (Biowatch finally launched their new website in October 2014 partly funded by Oxfam)
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 20
Farmer Support Group (FSG) has also forged partnerships with other NPO’s, Governmental institutions, the private sector, and academic institutions whose collective efforts are driving change. The organisation has established good working relationships with seed companies, such as Starke Ayres, that offers free training on seed planting and management. In addition to skills building, exposure visits and experience gained by farmers through training and participation in multi-stakeholder meetings transformed the smallholder farmers into confident skilled individuals who are able to approach relevant stakeholders and government. By building farmers’ confidence, for example, they were able to lobby for improved policies and strategies from the government. The skills obtained also empowered communities to engage in policy making processes, and contribute ideas and strategies that will best develop their communities and solve their own problems.
spirituality and sexuality’ dialogue was held in Cape Town, organised by Triangle Project, The Inner Circle and Oxfam to commemorate the International Day for Tolerance in November 2014. Monotheistic faiths such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all teach the values of love, mercy and compassion. However, religious institutions are often intolerant and discriminatory towards sexual and gender minorities on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. This dialogue was intended to allow the voices and experiences LGBTI persons to be heard. This was also an opportunity for The Triangle Project and The Inner Circle to collaborate more closely as they are trying to achieve similar objectives in changing the perceptions and attitudes of religious leaders towards LGBTI persons and encouraging them to preach about inclusivity, irrespective of gender orientation and sexual identity. On a different note, partners continued to work with stakeholders to ensure improved WASH service delivery, and a number of successes are evident. Save the Children (SC) have engaged with eight different local government departments, international stakeholders, the private sector, and the local media around ECD centre management to improve the ECD centers in the Umzinto and the Wentworth communities. Stakeholders provided training and resources as well as supported various WASH activities. SC, UNICEF and the Department of Health joined the Wentworth ECD Forum to commemorate the 2014 Global Hand Washing Day event. In Umzinto, constant interaction with key stakeholders resulted in WASH issues in the ECD sector receiving increased recognition and support. Accountability of the duty bearers continues to be addressed through different forums, such as the local ‘War Rooms14’.
Underpinning these innovative partnerships, partners like FSG have also excelled in their core area of work during this reporting period. FSG has continued its work of enhancing food security and sustainable livelihoods amongst small-holder farmers targeting mostly women. Through training conducted using different methods, FSG has developed the capacity of farmers to produce more food for household consumption, as well as for sale. Some methods used by the FSG include the Farmer Field School (FFS), multi-stakeholder meetings, exposure and cross visits, farmer forums, farmer field days, and demonstrations. A substantial number of farmers (180) are able to harvest crops more than twice per year. As a result of income earned, positive significant changes in farmer’s livelihoods have been noted. These changes are attracting youth to become farmers as youth groups were formed during this reporting period. The total number of training workshops conducted by FSG during this time was 21 where 220 people participated. Through increased capacity in leadership skills, women in leadership positions are able to network with different stakeholders and increase access to resources that in turn boosts crop production levels and increases the income earned. The integration approach to development practiced by FSG has resulted in addressing development issues holistically.
Other WASH achievements were demonstrated in schools during this last reporting period. One Voice South Africa educators and staff, for example, attended meetings with learners to address the school executive committees and the Municipality on various school challenges. The schools have established WASH committees or information points to drive the minimum WASH standards in schools. CREATE also worked with Umfolozi local municipality and key stakeholders to lobby on disability rights. Local municipalities, government departments, traditional leaders and partners receiving support through the AACES funds now have greater knowledge about disability rights, inclusiveness, and acceptance. This has been evidenced by the social change illustrated where CREATE has implemented their projects. We have witnessed the removal of barriers thus opening up opportunities that were limited due to direct or indirect discrimination against persons with disabilities.
Further to the above mentioned capacity and skills building on livelihoods that included youth beneficiaries, Umzi Wethu reached 50 women through their women’s agency program and their specific girl’s empowerment project. It aims to support young women by introducing them to a wider range of career paths in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which are traditionally male dominated. The young women reported realising that they could be anything they wanted to be and need not limit themselves when choosing a career.
It is encouraging to take note of the many program achievements during the July to December 2014 reporting period. It is becoming evident that more people are making the connections between the political landscape and their lived experiences. It is envisaged that such joint
Another key achievement for the program during July to December 2014 has been the steps made in enhancing the dialogue on sexuality and spirituality. An interfaith ‘experiences of
14
The “war rooms” were established through a nationwide campaign introduced by the President’s office in 2008 to reduce poverty among the country’s poorest citizens. Through this system, the poorest wards/communities are visited periodically by a team of professionals, interdepartmental task teams, and community workers to identify their specific needs, accelerate their access to government services, and provide safety nets. The long term goal for the war rooms is for the poorest households to receive assistance and support in a coordinated and sustained way. Through the war rooms, communities can become involved in drafting their own development agendas.
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 21
consciousness raising and solidarity building will give greater meaning to the South African democracy envisaged in the Constitution. Moreover, partnerships and collaborations are allowing partners to synergise efforts and be innovative in their programming. Partners’ work in a number of areas is also advancing; notably in the livelihoods programs, interventions run to support rights for sexual minorities, and in the WASH work with children and school learners. Although these achievements are noteworthy, it is also important for us to understand the difficulties experienced during this time.
both local and national. For some NPOs, especially the smaller organisations, the impact is immediate. The emergence of new South African affiliates of international Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), such as Actionaid, Save the Children and Oxfam, is another trend which will influence the South African funding space. The funding crisis is further having an effect on limited human resources within these organisations overburdening them with more work. This in turn has a negative impact on staff well being, productivity and ultimately implementation. This is a particularly critical challenge for the No Longer Vulnerable program as it enters its final year, and with the OAU office closure announced during the compiling of this report in January 2015. Partner organisations are more anxious about their long term sustainability. We may see the termination of good programs because of these funding gaps. What this calls for, is for NPOs to strengthen their capacities around fundraising and review their sustainability models.
Program Challenges There are a number of challenges being faced within the No Longer Vulnerable program which mirror those being experienced in the wider civil society space. Two key challenges highlighted in this last reporting period include accountability and the lack of implementation by spheres of government, and the difficult financial environment in the civil society sector. The difficulty experienced in setting up and maintaining healthy partnerships is also critical.
While partnerships are generally a positive force in promoting development, they also present some difficulties. Although we are reporting improved partnerships among funded NPOs, it is important to recognise that effective partnerships take time to build. NPOs often see each other as rivals, competing for resources, support, visibility and even public praise. Trust has to build in order for organisations to begin to see each other as allies, which is still a long way for some of our partners.
In recent years, South Africa has witnessed the collapse of healthcare systems in the Free State, the Eastern Cape (one of the funded provinces), and Mpumalanga. Even wealthy provinces like Gauteng are struggling to cope. No matter how good the policy direction provided by the national Minister of Health may be, it is of little value if provinces do not implement it. However, some partners are facing situations where underperforming provincial leadership, especially within the Health Department, cannot be addressed due to political reasons and poor accountability mechanisms. The lack of policy implementation in the health sector has far reaching consequences, for example in TB treatment. The overwhelming majority of delegates at the 2014 South African TB conference agreed that drug-resistant TB should be declared a public health emergency in South Africa. The current response to DR-TB falls exceedingly short of what is needed to stop it. A key 2011 national policy that outlines how treatment should be taken closer to where people live remains unimplemented in most provinces. As a result, many patients do not get diagnosed or drop out of care after diagnosis. Partners like ALN, TAC, CATCH and JAW continue to push for accountability in such situations through working in partnership with other NPOs facing the same issue locally, nationally, and internationally. This is one example of the challenges faced in holding office bearers, politicians, and departments to account, and trying to ensure effective implementation.
The above challenges contribute to an uncertain future for many NPOs in South Africa. These organisations will need to adapt carefully to the constant shifts of international and local donors if they are to be effective and efficient. Some NPOs, including Oxfam partners, have already started to work on self-reflective processes as a response; asking themselves: What can we not afford to stop doing? What is the systemic impact of our work? And what can we become more creative about?”. How these organisations interact with government on key issues, such as health, will also heavily impact on their relevance and impact within communities. The building of partnerships, although complicated, will be an essential practice going forward. Given these and other challenges, the ability of these organisations to reflect, learn, and change will become increasingly important in the South African development space. In this light, there were a number of lessons learnt over the last reporting period which need to be highlighted.
Lessons Learnt Learning is a continuous and key part to Oxfam’s approach to programming. Over the July to December 2014 period Oxfam and our partners have learnt a significant amount in a range of spaces. However, in light of our focus on partnerships during this report, two key areas that are going to be briefly highlighted are public participation strategies and WASH advocacy.
This shows that NPOs are still instrumental for development in South Africa; however, the challenge that most NPOs continue to face is that of generally diminishing resources to carry out their programs and projects effectively. This is evidenced by the financial crises being faced by both small and larger NPOs, within a range of contexts - urban and rural, and
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 22
South Africa’s legislative framework makes provision for public participation platforms at various levels especially those located at community level, such as war rooms and clinic committees. These invited spaces are intended to provide people with a platform to amplify their voice and exercise their agency. However, there is growing evidence from partners’ reports and experiences that these spaces are becoming highly politicised, dysfunctional and polarised. Some partners, such as CATCH and Woza Moya, have chosen to still use these spaces and have devised strategies on how to engage effectively. CATCH does so through the facilitation of the clinic committees to “strictly protect the process from sabotage by those who would preserve the status quo for their own benefit, and nurture the process by ensuring it is well managed through constant monitoring, evaluating and keeping it going by all means.” Likewise, Woza Moya continues to engage in the war rooms despite administrative challenges. However, other partners such as PACSA, JAW and Project Empower have created their own spaces that are fulfilling various purposes; for example PACSA’s “reflection forum which brought together various health groups and provided a space to share local issues, which through dialogue resulted in a joint consciousness of the structural causes, thereby providing greater understanding of the nature of the state and health care in the district”. With JAW and Project Empower they have created safe spaces that are “non defensive, non positional, where people do not revert to positions of power and ideology”. It is important to note that each of these strategies appear to be successful. What is a critical lesson here is that partners need to be flexible and adaptable enough to use the best public participation strategy given their dynamic local context.
This provides further insight into the program by articulating what the numbers are telling us. In almost all of the indicators, the numbers reflect the story told above about where partners have succeeded and where they have experienced difficulties over the last 6 months.
Program Output Summary Analysis The No Longer Vulnerable Program has now entered its third and final year running from July 2014 until June 2015. As articulated in previous reports, the integrated approach supported by this program focuses on three core objectives: 1. 2. 3.
to improve health outcomes relating to HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and water related infections and diseases; to increase and sustain food security and livelihoods options available to households; and to increase and uphold access to social protection.
From these, emerge the distinct but interrelated themes of: health, WASH, social protection, food security, and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). As we enter this final phase, the results from the various interventions become even more important in helping us understand whether we have made meaningful progress. This analysis will focus on the last two reporting periods while highlighting some of the key trends. However, as part of this final program year, a more detailed quantitative data review will be conducted, as well as a formal program evaluation. Both of these processes will form a more comprehensive understanding of the reach and impact of the NLV program in its entirety.
Oxfam has continued to support partners and communities to develop their capacity in ‘demanding’ their WASH rights as well as building the capacity of duty bearers to deliver on their responsibilities in conjunction with other stakeholders. Partners have been successful in scaling up their advocacy activities in this period. Oxfam will contract the services of Equal Education to support partners in their school sanitation programs by providing training, and mentoring on the norms and standards as well as advocacy skills. Partners will also have the opportunity to join a national sanitation campaign that seeks to ensure that the government works towards the implementation of norms and standards in all schools across the country. The up-scaling of the advocacy element to the WASH work has also lead to a number of lessons around how to development communities’ capacity to demand their right to access clean water and appropriate sanitation.
Overall, the results below reflect a ‘slowing down’ of the NLV Program which is perhaps indicative of the start of a final year where partners are consolidating their work and making preparations for sustainability. Although, this would need to be investigated further. Moreover, the bulk of the beneficiaries involved in the various interventions across the partnership continue to be female. Most health indicators, such as condom distribution and VCT sessions, experienced a decline since the January to June 2014 reporting period. The main exception to this was the HIV prevention programs and participants which saw a sharp increase. Access to WASH services continues to increase, but for most indicators this is at a slightly slower rate than the first half of 2014. However, the number of additional people with an increased knowledge of hygiene practices has almost doubled. There were also substantially more people with disabilities accessing WASH services in this period. In terms of the Food Security indicators, this period was a very positive one. It was particularly encouraging to note the significant increase in the
These lessons, together with the program challenges and achievements tell the story of our journey over the last 6 months. This has been underpinned by our work outside the program in fostering collaborations, building capacity, documenting the processes and supporting some of our partners who trade. In short, it has been a difficult but eventful time. The program narrative described above is further underpinned by the output summary report which follows.
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 23
Total number of male condoms distributed
number of households harvesting more than once a year, as well as projects selling surplus. Although most of the DRR indicators have decreased or remained relatively constant during the July to December 2014 period, it is heartening that the program work is continuing given the fact that the specific program funding ended in June 2014. It is also interesting to note that the number of community plans created with the community and by government increased during this period.
20
millions
15
Lastly, stakeholder engagement appeared to be a key focus of this period with, for example, over 5000 education and awareness raising meetings taking place across the partnership. This is substantially higher than the previous reporting periods.
14.8 mil
10 5
Supporting Health Outcomes
0.8 mil
0 jul-dec 2012
Improving health outcomes is a major focus for Oxfam in South Africa, and has been an integral part of its work for many years. In the No Longer Vulnerable program, access to quality treatment and healthcare is a crucial element to decreasing vulnerability. The majority of partners (72%) report on this objective further reinforcing its importance. The kind of interventions that Oxfam supports varies significantly across the partnership, from the delivery of health services particularly in relation to HIV and AIDS and TB, to public engagement on key health issues affecting communities. This diversity is reflected in the multiple indicators used. Overall, there seems to be a continued slowing of certain access/services based indicators (such as condom distribution), but an increase in community engagement (such as training workshops and meetings).
jan-jul 2013
jul-dec 2013
jan-jul 2014
jul-dec 2014
Total number of female condoms distributed
thousands
300
Condom Distribution
240,000
200 100
15,000
0
Both female and male condom distribution experienced a drop in the latter half of the 2014 year with female condom distribution having a more substantial decrease of 38%. This continues a decreasing trend over the program evidenced in the graphs below. This is an example of the trends over the life of the program that will be furthered explored in the quantitative review and NLV evaluation. The focus of this report, and this will be seen with subsequent indicators, is the last two reporting periods in order to align with previous reports.
jul-dec 2012
jan-jul 2013
jul-dec 2013
jan-jul 2014
jul-dec 2014
It seems that this decreasing trend is being driven by a few of the partners. Many partners in fact reported an increase in male and female condom distribution, for example Project Empower, Sophakama and TAC, while others, like PACSA, reported on condom distribution for the first time. However, Palabora, who distributes more than half of the condoms across the entire partnership, experienced a decrease in distribution of approximately 200 000 male condoms and 4000 female condoms, and this has led to the drop experienced. As per previous reports, the vast majority (98%) of condoms distributed by partners continue to be male condoms.
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 24
Home Based Care and VCT Sessions
conducted (by about 5000), but an increase in the number of beneficiaries receiving visits of roughly 2000. These gains by other partners were minor, however, when compared to the high figures not reported by Vhutshilo and KMCRC. Therefore, overall the number of home based care visits and beneficiaries decreased during the July to December 2014 period.
Both home based care and VCT/HCT sessions are critical healthcare services provided by 19 of Oxfam’s partners. Ten of these partners conduct both home based care and VCT/HCT sessions, while the remaining 9 either conduct home based care visits (5 partners), or VCT/HCT sessions (4 partners).
The number of VCT/HCT sessions have remained constant over the 2014 year; however, the total number of beneficiaries at the sessions dropped by about 5%.
The number of beneficiaries receiving home based care visits decreased from the previous January to June 2014 reporting period by 18%. As mentioned previously, the two 2014 reporting periods will be the predominant focus of this analysis. Across these two periods, the number of males being visited remained relatively stable but the number of females decreased by approximately 1500, as illustrated in the Graph below. Once again this trend appears to be driven by a few key partners.
Access to Treatment Enhancing access to HIV and AIDS and TB treatment is core to improving health outcomes in South African communities. The overwhelming majority of ART beneficiaries initiating treatment with support of partner organisations are female (79%). With the initiation of TB treatment, however, the number of males and females is equal, as opposed to ART where the number of females is significantly higher. This may be due to the target groups of partners’ various programs. When comparing TB and ART treatment initiation, it is interesting to note that there are roughly 2000 more beneficiaries who initiated ART treatment with support of partner organisations in 2014, including both reporting periods. However, over 4000 beneficiaries are referred for TB treatment by partner organisations, over and above those initiating treatment with their support. In each indicator for treatment, the numbers have been lower in the July to December 2014 period than they were in the first half of the year, as demonstrated in the Graph below. This could be due to a number of reasons, but is probably driven by the fact that JAW and KMCRC, who have assisted in treatment initiation and referral for a substantial amount of beneficiaries in previous periods, did not report for July to December 2014.
number of beneficiaries receiving home based care visits 10
thousands
8 6 4 2 0 males
females jan-jun 2014
total
number of beneficiaries accessing treatment with partner support
jul-dec 2014 7 6 thousands
As to be expected the number of home based care visits also decreased from just over 76 000 in Jan – June 2014 to just under 74 000 in the July – December 2014 period. The decrease in visits conducted is most likely due to the fact that Vhutshilo and KMCRC did not report on their home based care visits for the last 6 months (July – Dec 2014). Vhutshilo reported 2000 visits from January – June 2014 while KMCRC reported 15 000 visits conducted during that same time period. Other partners, such as JAW and Haven Wellness Centre, also experienced a decrease in the number of visits conducted and beneficiaries being visited compared to the early 2014 reporting period. However, PACSA and Isibani reported on home based care visits for the first time in July – December 2014 reaching 125 and 70 beneficiaries respectively. The Denis Hurley Centre also increased the number of visits conducted to almost 100, and beneficiaries reached to over 400. Interestingly, Sophakama experienced a decrease in the number of visits
5 4 3 2 1 0 ART
tb jan-jun 2014
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 25
tb referrals jul-dec 2014
HIV Prevention Programs
WASH
The number and participation rates of the HIV Prevention programs run by partners have increased substantially in the July to December 2014 reporting period. Within the partnership, 18 partner organisations reported running HIV Prevention Programs during this time. There were 63 more programs being run which was predominantly led by Palabora who reported 52 more HIV prevention programs in this period. Furthermore, an average of 190 participants was reported per program, as opposed to 118 participants on average during January to June 2014. This is most likely due to RSS’s results who with one program reached over 14 000 beneficiaries. This could potentially be an anomaly and needs to be investigated further. Overall, just under 72 000 beneficiaries are involved in these programs which is almost double the number in the previous reporting period. This is evidenced in the Graph below.
Of the 40 partners who reported for the last period, 18 provided results on the WASH indicators. The number of beneficiaries with access to WASH services continues to increase with 650 additional beneficiaries having access to safe water, 540 with access to appropriate sanitation, and just over 1500 with access to appropriate hand washing facilities as demonstrated in the Graph below. Operation Upgrade and Woza Moya are two of the key partners whose interventions have contributed to these results from July to December 2014.
number of additional beneficiaries with access to wash services, jul-dec 2014 16
number of beneficiaries participating in hiv prevention programs
14 12 hundreds
thousands
80 60
10 8 6 4
40
2 0
20
access to safe water
0 males
females jan-jun 2014
access to appropriate sanitation
total males
jul-dec 2014
access to appropriate hand washing facilities females
Although increasing, the rate of access to these crucial services has slowed since the January to June 2014 reporting period. For example, almost double the amount of additional people received access to safe water in Jan-June 2014 with a total figure of 1224. It is interesting to note that females are the main beneficiaries of these interventions counting almost two thirds in each indicator. Another 43 locations with hand washing facilities and soap were also added by the partnership during this reporting period bringing the cumulative total in 2014 to 87.
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 26
additional people with disabilities accessing wash services
Within the other WASH interventions, hygiene appeared to be a main focus of this period. Well over 8000 additional people were recorded as having increased knowledge of hygiene practices, as evidenced in the Graph below. The HIV/AIDS Prevention Group (HAPG), OneVoice and Woza Moya reported the three largest increases in this hygiene knowledge indicator.
additional people (thousands)
awareness of rights and knowledge of hygiene practices
88%
12%
jul-dec 2014
16
jan-jun 2014
14 12 10 8
Food Security
6 4
Although in the latter half of 2014, there was a drop in the rate of newly established community and household gardens compared to the January to June 2014 period, there were still over 2000 additional household gardens and 47 community gardens established. The number of household gardens remains much greater than that of community gardens. All of this is evidenced in the Graph below.
2 0 increased knowledge of hygiene practices jan-jun 2014
increased awareness of rights jul-dec 2014
number of additional gardens established
Interestingly, although there has been considerable effort in increasing knowledge and participation in decision making, additional beneficiaries with increased awareness of their rights continues to be a far lower number and is increasing at a much slower rate. This could point to the complexity inherent in increasing awareness of rights as opposed to disseminating knowledge about practices. As with numerous other indicators, the majority of these beneficiaries were female. There was also a substantial increase in the number of additional women and vulnerable group members participating in decision making relating to WASH from 177 in the first half of 2014 to almost 400 from July to December 2014.
thousands
5 4 3 2 1 0
Of the 49 additional people with disabilities who began accessing services in 2014, the majority (88%) were reported in the July to December 2014 period as illustrated in the pie chart below. The majority of the additional persons with disabilities accessing these WASH services are female (58%).
household jan-jun 2014
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 27
community jul-dec 2014
These two trends most likely point to resources being used for the maintenance of existing gardens, as well as the complexity of developing community gardens with multiple stakeholders compared to working with single households. Of the 21 partners who report on food security indicators, BioWatch, Palabora and TCOE helped establish over half of the additional house gardens (1308) during this period. Women on Farms and Siyavuna also established over 100 household gardens each in partnership with households.
The number of technical training workshops has also increased during this period, but the number of participants has decreased slightly. The average participation rate from July to December 2014 across all workshops was 14 participants. This is down from an average of 18 participants during the January to June 2014 period. The majority of participants (79%) were female.
As indicators of the productivity of these food security initiatives, it is positive to note that the number of households harvesting more than once a year has had a significant 50% increase during this reporting period. Furthermore, the number of projects selling surplus has increased substantially with 78 more projects being recorded. This is illustrated in the Graph below.
Over half of the partnership (22 partners) reported on the Access to Rights indicators during this period. These indicators centre on accessing grants, legal documentation, and community engagement. The number of additional social grants and identity documents (IDs) received by beneficiaries as a result of partner organisations’ interventions has decreased since the previous reporting period. However, the number of birth certificates has increased almost 60% with over 200 more birth certificates received, but this is from a low base. This is evidenced in the Graph on the following page. The increase in birth certificates received is largely due to the work of KMCRC, Sophakama, and Palabora. With regards to assistance in accessing these crucial documents and grants, female beneficiaries remain the majority across the three indicators.
Access to Rights
productivity indicators of food security initiatives 30
number of documents received by beneficiaries with partner support
20 15
7
10
6
5
5
thousands
hundreds
25
0 projects selling surplus
households harvesting more than once a year
jan-jun 2014
4 3 2 1
jul-dec 2014
0 additional social grants
birth certificates jan-jun 2014
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 28
ids
jul-dec 2014
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
There were also approximately 100 less people with disabilities engaged in partner DRR activities during this period. Interestingly, the number of female participants with disabilities decreased whereas the number of male participants with disabilities increased. The decreases in PCVA participants and involvement of persons with disabilities could be due to less DRR funds due to program closure.
Although the DRR program came to an end in June 2014, it is encouraging to see the continued work of certain partners in this important cross cutting focus area. In total, 12 of the 40 partners reporting provided results for the DRR indicators which revolved around research (fieldworkers, focus groups, interviews etc), action planning, community engagements, and so on. However, only 3 of the partners reported on over half of the DRR indicators in this period; namely TCOE, Sophakama and KMCRC.
Lastly, the two infrastructural outputs implemented by TCOE have continued in the last 6 months, remaining constant throughout 2014. However, the number of community action plans created with the community has increased, as well as the plans created by government.
The number of fieldworkers trained in the second half of 2014 remained relatively constant at 170 compared to the January to June 2014 period. The vast majority of those trained were females. The number of community members surveyed has dropped, with significantly less females being surveyed. TCOE surveyed 4600 community members resulting in the largest contribution to this indicator. In terms of focus group discussions, there were many more focus groups reported than participants. The male and female totals also do not add up to the total result. This is most likely due to gaps in reporting whereby partners report on a part of the indicator (e.g. number of focus groups) without reporting on the other element (number of participants and/or sex); for example RSS reported over 800 focus groups but did not report on the number of participants. This results in these figures not being valuable for disaggregation but they do indicate that engagement is continuing through partners’ DRR work.
Meetings Across the No Longer Vulnerable objectives and partnership, partners engage in meetings with various stakeholders such as government officials, traditional authorities and community members demonstrated in the Graph below. These form a critical part of the interventions as they are the basis for active citizenship and community ownership.
types of meetings facilitated/attended across the partnership, jul-dec 2014
The number of participants involved in a Participatory Capacity and Vulnerability Analysis (PCVA) process has decreased by 25%. Once again female participants were the vast majority with 78%, as illustrated below.
4%
public meetings
3%
community members participating in pcva process jul-dec 2014
85%
education and awareness raising meetings
govt officials
1%
traditional authorities
7% 78%
female
network
22% male
The vast majority of the meetings across all of the partnership objectives are education and awareness raising meetings (85%). This is particularly driven by the Health, Rights and DRR outcomes. There were over 5000 education and awareness raising meetings during this reporting period, which is more than triple the number of meetings in the January to June 2014 period. In Supporting Health Outcomes, the number of people attending these meetings also
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 29
Beneficiaries
increased substantially by over 30 000 people. However, the average number of participants per meeting dropped from 63 to 23. Within Food Security, the number of education and awareness raising meetings has decreased significantly in this period from almost 40 000 to just over 150. Consequently, the number of participants has also decreased dramatically from 45 000 to 8000. The January to June 2014 figures appear to be an anomaly in this case driven by CHOiCe’s reporting during that period. This is an enormous drop and still needs to be investigated further.
As well as recording their outputs, partners are expected to report on their beneficiary numbers. These figures are vitally important in order for Oxfam Australia to gauge the reach of partner organisations. In this period, the program managed to reach 606 529 men, woman and children. 91 628 people benefitted directly from the program of which the majority were female (just over 59 000). 23 896 of these direct beneficiaries were young people from the ages of 19 to 35 years old. 793 people with disabilities directly benefitted, the majority of whom were between the ages of 13 and 35 (exactly 468). 514 901 people were indirect beneficiaries, and once again the majority of these (just over 280 000) were female. There were 1075 persons with disabilities who indirectly benefitted throughout this six month period.
Network meetings were the next highest with just over 400 meetings. This is slightly higher than the last reporting period by approximately 100 which was largely driven by Access to Rights network meetings. On the other hand, there were only 73 meetings with Traditional Authorities. This is almost a 50% decrease from the previous reporting period. The number of meetings facilitated with government officials remained constant at 210, and the number of community/public meetings increased by 48 to 235. Finally, it is also interesting to analyse the total number of meetings by NLV outcome to get an indication of the level of engagements taking place. The outcome with the most meetings was Health with 47%, followed by Rights with 41%, and DRR with 8%. This is demonstrated in the chart below.
meetings per nlv outcome jul-dec 2014
1% 47%
health
8% drr
wash
3%
food security
41%
rights
This result is not surprising given the integral part that information sharing and awareness raising plays in supporting health outcomes and access to rights.
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Concluding Remarks The July to December 2014 period for the No Longer Vulnerable program has been fill of both highs and lows reflected in both the narrative and in the numbers. We can, and do, continue to learn from all of these experiences to improve the program work. As we enter this last year of the No Longer Vulnerable program, it is hoped that this report becomes an even more important reflection and learning tool for ourselves, our partners and other stakeholders.
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annexure 1:
program closure q&a Introduction and Background
• OAU will request partners to implement their programs from July 1st 2015 until 11th March 2016 so that close out reports can be submitted to Oxfam by the 18th March and financial acquittals by the 10th April 2016.
In 2008 the Executive Director and Oxfam Board represented by all 17 affiliates in the Oxfam Confederation made a decision to establish an independent and autonomous Oxfam South Africa (OZA). In 2014, this became a reality with Oxfam South Africa being registered as a NonProfit Company under the new Companies Act 71 of 2008. Oxfam South Africa is an autonomous and independent legal entity, separate to the current Oxfam affiliates operating in South Africa. In response to this, all other Oxfam’s working in the country have begun planning their exit.
What would be the grant size? • •
This Q&A guideline document is based on the conversations held with partners in January 2015 on Oxfam Australia’s (OAU’s) South Africa exit process. This document seeks to provide the most up to date information and comes after the recent communication from Andrew Hartwich regarding the pending DFAT cuts.
Operational Issues (Grant making and reporting)
OAU had initially communicated that it would provide a 12 month grant for a nine month period; however, this is no longer possible. The grant will be for nine months only (July 2015 to March 2016). OAU will not be able to roll over any funding during this year and the final financial year and partners will be asked to spend according to their budgets. The Finance team will be visiting partners over the next three months to perform audits and will be able to provide cost recovery advice to partners. Partners are requested to be in contact with Program Coordinators if they are unable to spend in line with their operational plans and agreed cash flows. We will also try to be more flexible on the nature of your spend and this can be built into your operational plans, but this will need to adhere to all of the compliance considerations.
What will happen to the OAU Grant and contract with partners? •
Given the short program year, how many tranches will OAU provide and when will the tranches be given?
OAU will honour all partner contracts until June 2015. In May 2015, OAU will communicate a nine month partner grant amount for the period July 2015 to March 2016. As far as possible OAU will seek to maintain its current grant levels for the remaining nine months. However, this is dependent on a number of factors including partners’ spend this year, partners’ meeting all OAU’s reporting and compliance requirements, and commitment from back donors (Department of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, Irish Aid, and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)). OAU will only be able to share these grant amounts once the Australian DFAT has finalized its new financial year budget and communicated where the foreign aid cuts will be.
• •
OAU will reduce the number of tranches in the final year from three to two tranches. Partners will be required to provide a full narrative report and acquittal for July to December 2015 on the 11th January 2016. This will be checked against spend before the second tranche is released. OAU will be flexible on the tranche amounts. For the first tranche a maximum of 75% will be given in July/August and the balance of 25% in January. Partners will however be given an option to reduce the first tranche to a minimum of 50%. Partners will be asked to communicate with their Program Coordinator to finalize these tranche amounts. Once finalized, this will be documented in the contract and will have to be adhered to.
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Will OAU provide capacity building support during the remaining period?
Who will manage OAU’s exit process in the Country Director’s absence?
•
•
OAU will focus on providing capacity support that will enhance the sustainability strategies of organisations post-OAU’s exit in March 2016. OAU will consider capacity building support on such things as organizational and institutional development and fundraising. Partners interested in receiving such support are encouraged to put in a written request to their Program Coordinator. Due to limited funds, OAU will prioritize capacity building options for clusters of partners above individual requests.
The plan is for the current Management staff to manage the exit phase namely: • Wendy Lubbee (Associate Country Director), • Pumla Mabizela (Programs Manager), • Blessing Zama (Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary), • Glenise Levendal (Development Effectiveness Manager).
Will OAU staff move across to OZA? OAU will be decreasing program reporting requirements and increasing contact with partners, what does this mean? • •
• Not automatically, those who apply for jobs in OZA will go through the same application process as any other potential employee. The same principle is being applied for all Oxfam staff who apply for jobs in OZA.
OAU would like to reduce the burden of reports so are looking for a full narrative report for the six month period July-December (11th January 2016) and then a short report for the remaining period 1st January – 11th March 2016 (10 week period) on the 18th March 2016. However, due to institutional reporting requirements, OAU will only be able to confirm this later and will clearly state this in the last working agreement with partners. OAU will increase the financial and monitoring visits during the remaining period to provide extra partner support through the change process.
Which programs will be affected? •
Institutional Aspects What is going to happen to OAU staff? • • •
Which Oxfam affiliates are being affected?
All OAU employees have been notified that OAU is contemplating retrenchment in March 2016 and the ramifications of the closure. OAU will provide a package of support services to its staff as it exits the country. A small team of staff will remain until all the necessary wind up processes have been completed in Country beyond March 2016.
• All Oxfam offices in South Africa will be closing. This includes Oxfam Australia, Oxfam Great Britain and Oxfam Italia. However, each Affiliate will have its own exit plan, timeframes and legacy programs. How will the program learning be shared after the closure of the program?
Why is the Oxfam International Country Director leaving now? •
Currently the NLV program will end in March 2016. The AACES program activities will end in March 2016 with final narrative and financial reports being submitted in May 2016. The future management of the Dutch Department of Foreign Affairs (DoFa) funded program: Promoting and Protecting Human Rights of Sexual Minorities in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Pakistan program is presently being discussed and announcements will be made in due course. The Oxfam/Monash students program will also close in its current form.
•
The Oxfam International Country Director (OICD) was employed to provide strategic leadership and management of Oxfam’s program in country including all development, advocacy, and humanitarian programming. With the establishment of OZA and the resultant action to shut down affiliate operations, each affiliate will take responsibility for their own programs and closures in the Country, and therefore the OICD coordination across the Oxfam Affiliates is no longer necessary.
OAU will continue to document lessons learned over the life of the program with a number of pieces already being identified for work during the year. This learning will be shared with the wider partnership, other NGO’s and the broader Oxfam Confederation so that the development field will benefit from what was learnt in the Oxfam funded programs over the years.
oxfam australia in south africa • no longer vulnerable report for period july 2014 to december 2014 33
How will OAU ‘officially’ close its program?
How is OZA constituted?
• •
• • •
In order to showcase partners’ work, OAU would like to host a Partners Expo on the 15th and 16th of September 2015. Please save the date; more details to follow. OAU will also hold an event, similar to its ‘linking and learning’ events, in the week commencing 16th November 2015 (watch this space!). This event will be used to share lessons learned, profile partners work, and celebrate the successes of the Oxfam funded program over the years. OAU will plan a participatory event and will seek the input of partners in the design of this event.
Is all of this information public knowledge or confidential? • This is an internal Oxfam process. We are sharing this information with you as partners and affected stakeholders. This information should only be shared with relevant parties within your organization and your stakeholders.
Will any of the OAU program work be handed over to OZA?
OZA
• No, the OAU program is closing. As OZA is still involved in determining its strategy, some of the learning from previous work may feed into their programs; however, any future partnerships with OZA will be considered by OZA and separate to OAU’s closure process.
How does OZA relate to Oxfam more broadly? • Globally, Oxfam has 17 full affiliates and 3 observer affiliates. Presently, OZA is an observer which has applied for full status. In 2016, OZA will become a fully fledged member of the Oxfam Confederation with the same autonomy and status as the others.
Will Oxfam Australia assist partners to negotiate funding with OZA? • OAU staff will at most assist with introductions to OZA if necessary. Discussions and negotiations regarding new opportunities must be held directly between partners and OZA staff.
What has led to the formation of OZA? •
OZA’s Executive Director is Siphokazi Mthathi. Sipho has headed up organisations including the Treatment Action Campaign, and Human Rights Watch in South Africa. OZA has a Board which is made up of six members selected through open nomination and selection panel. The Board members include: • Mazibuko Jara (Editor/Writer/ Researcher/Activist); • Louisa Zondo (Lawyer, Executive Director of Bertha Gxowa Foundation); • Hope Chigudu (Gender specialist); • Ezra Mbogori (Social entrepreneur, Executive Director, Akiba Uhaki Human Rights and Social Justice Fund); • Heather Van Niekerk (Chief of Operations, Sonke Gender Justice); and • Nomabelu Mvambo Dandala (Executive Director, Diakonia Council of Churches). At present, OZA have a minimum number of staff and will recruit additional key staff over the next few months.
Oxfam International and the confederation made a decision to increase the number of Oxfam affiliates in the global ‘South’ to reflect the world as it is today. OZA will have greater legitimacy and will be able to operate within South Africa in a way that other Oxfam’s have not been able to. However, the formation of OZA will have implications for local NGOs and the development environment in South Africa.
Will we be able to approach OAU in Melbourne on programs and funding? • No, all Oxfam funds and programming in South Africa will need to go through OZA. Where will OZA be based?
Questions of legitimacy – how is OZA an indigenous organization?
• OZA will be based in Johannesburg.
• Oxfam Australia is not in a position to speak on behalf of OZA. Partners should engage with OZA directly on these questions, as an emerging peer in the South African civil society space.
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Where to from here?
How did OZA develop its strategy and what are the areas of focus? • •
OZA engaged in some high level consultations internally and externally and on the basis of this prepared a draft strategy. The strategy will be made publically available once finalised and partners are encouraged to approach OZA directly regarding this strategy. OZA broad thematic areas are: Women’s rights and Gender Justice; Economic Justice; Democracy and Governance; and Pan-Africa and Global Engagement.
OAU understands that any change process is complex and difficult, and as new information arises we will be sure to communicate this to you. We will be sending out formal updated Q&A’s to the entire partnership throughout this time, and we will be surveying how people/ organisations feel at critical points during this process. An updated schedule of activities is also attached for your convenience.
Will OZA operate as a partner or implementer in South Africa?
Pumla Mabizela is available to discuss any aspect of this process with partners. If you have further questions or questions of clarity about the exit process, please feel free to contact Pumla on PumlaM@oxfam.org.au or 031 277 0346.
• As part of its strategic considerations, OZA is considering the best mode of operation it will adopt at this stage and questions should be directed to OZA. When could OZA start funding? • OZA will have full Oxfam Status in April 2016 and will make their funding mechanisms public during the course of the year. How do we make contact with OZA? • The OZA staff complement is still very small but you can contact Sibuko Dinake the newly appointed Personal Assistant for further information sibukod@oxfam.org.za
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