CANGO hosts economic literacy workshop for civil society
28 August 2008
The Swazi Observer
Mbabane: The Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO) is currently conducting an economic literacy and social policy training workshop for civil society. Through CANGO's Economic Justice Project, the five-day workshop which began yesterday at the Simunye Country Club seeks to engender a vibrant civil society that would effectively influence national policies and programmes to respond to the socio-economic challenges of the country, said Executive Director Emmanuel Ndlangamandla.
"The programme goes well with the CANGO vision of an empowered and vibrant civil society for socio-economic justice," he said, "the need for advocacy and intellectual capacity in the areas of social policy and human development cannot be overemphasised."
He said capacity development in the areas of pro-poor advocacy, economic justice and development programmes was central to responding to not only evident and expressed conceptual as well as intellectual needs of civil society partners, but more importantly, to the development of capacity for partners in Swaziland to be effective and affective in and at economic justice advocacy.
"Economic and social justice is arguably one of the key manifestations, if not the pillar of the ethos of open society and therefore, must be strategically mainstreamed into our daily pro-poor human rights and development programmes," said Ndlangamandla.
He noted that the link between economics and development was one that was not only obvious, but also crucial and thus, should be understood in modern day Swaziland as well as southern Africa and Africa. The director said in the era of negative globalisation and climate change, it was essential that development practitioners appreciate the link between economics, development and social policy.
He said these included especially those concerned with not just the big macro issues of capital, gross domestic product (GDP), markets and economic growth, but also those concerned with the social policy imperatives of human development, poverty reduction, distribution and social justice.
"This understanding is a crucial bedrock for economic justice advocacy and social policy work," Ndlangamandla noted. "Economic justice organisations and activists must display sufficient understanding and grounding on the key concepts, notions and theories of both macro and micro economics if they are to effective and affective in an increasingly challenging environment and fast globalising world economy."
The training is targeted at mainly an emerging cadre of young to mid-career advocates, journalists, activists and practitioners in the fields of human rights, especially socio-economic rights, economic justice and social policy. The workshop will explore themes of economics and development in a user friendly and organic manner, thereby assisting civil society practitioners with the skills necessary for economic justice and social policy advocacy.
Keywords: Swaziland, civil society, budget monitoring
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