Three South African civil society organisations have welcomed what they say is the considerable progress made around public works, sectoral strategies to create jobs and strengthen local government.
The South African Council of Churches (SACC), the South African NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) met on Tuesday to discuss ways to engage more effectively in the process leading up
to the Growth and Development Summit (GDS) on June 7.
The three federations, representing numerous organisations, have worked together for many years in such campaigns such as the People’s Budget and the Basic Income Grant.
The meeting included representatives of the affiliates of all three organisations, including women’s, rural and other NGOs and individual unions and church groups.
Participants in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) task teams preparing for the summit presented reports on progress. Meanwhile, Business Day reports that time is running out for the participants to the growth and development summit to reach pre-negotiated agreements for signature at the summit, according to Business SA (BSA).
Nedlac is expected to hold a plenary session on Thursday.
The three federations said there has also been some agreement on specific projects and programs to contribute to social welfare and employment.
The meeting noted that there was concern, however, at the lack of progress around proposals to ensure better and more affordable basic services, improve social security and review housing programs to ensure they contribute more to employment.
To take the GDS process forward the meeting agreed:
to take the views of the meeting to the civil society team participating
in the Nedlac process in order to support and strengthen their intervention in
that process;
to hold a broad consultation of civil society in the week before the
summit;
to campaign for the GDS agenda to be open to issues of concern to all the
constituencies, including the issue of HIV/Aids;
to monitor and assess the implementation of the decisions of the GDS;
to launch a process of discussion and debate to formulate, by the end of the year, a common development platform for civil society.
“Civil society has a key role to play in giving voice to our people in interactions with government and business and the proposed platform should enable our organisations to improve their co-operation and engagement in forums like the GDS,” the three federations said in a joint statement. – I-Net Bridge