The role of non-governmental organisations in capacity building for democracy in KwaZulu-Natal : a case study of the Centre for Public Participation and the Democracy Development Programme.
Loading...
Date
2005
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study evaluates the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in educating
people about participatory democracy in post apartheid South Africa. After the first
democratic elections in 1994 the new government emphasised the importance of public
participation in decision-making. The government has advocated this approach through
Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) documents (Base Document and
White Paper) and the South African Constitution Act 108 of 1996. However, because of
public participation, novelty, and social exclusion, the majority of South African citizens
still have very limited knowledge and need to be educated about the structures, systems and
procedures of participatory democracy. In order to consolidate democratic government,
there is a need to shift away from community outreach programmes as ‘road shows’, where
there is no two-way ‘iterative and ongoing’ communication because of limited public
political knowledge. Conversely, government appears to have done little to increase
citizens’ political knowledge.
By contrast, NGOs are playing a crucial role in this regard. This study evaluates the
effectiveness of NGOs in improving optimal engagement in government and decisionmaking
processes in KwaZulu-Natal. Given this scenario, the Centre for Public
Participation (CPP) and the Democracy Development Programme (DDP) partnership serve
as case studies for this research project.
Interviews were conducted with the core facilitators and directors of the two organisations.
Through comparative evaluation, the effectiveness of both organisations in promoting
participatory democracy was qualitatively and quantitatively assessed using the constant
comparative method (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994) and the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) computer software respectively.
The results show that the trainees are more likely to participate in developmental issues at
local levels compared to non-trainees. The implication of this is that education for
participatory democracy is very important. However, it was found that NGOs are not
achieving their goal of increasing participation by their target groups in most government
processes due to NGO-public differences in what constitutes priorities. Encouraging is that
the two NGOs were found to be ‘eye-openers’ for the trainees in that they equipped them
with skills that would enable them to monitor local authorities and hold them accountable.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal,Durban, 2005.
Keywords
Non-Governmental Organizations., Community development ., Democracy--South Africa., Political participation., Theses--Political science.