Page 41 - OSISA Annual Report 2015-2018

non-existent. The study established that when left unregulated, privatisation fuels inequality in access to essential services, as well as infringements of education and health rights. In line with the findings, the study makes recommendations for enhancing monitoring mechanisms and strengthening the policy and regulatory environment for privatisation and overall public-private partnership arrangements. In addition, the study makes a compelling case for enhancing civil society participation in the discourse and developments of privatisation.
We submitted a proposal for consideration by the Board focussing on building the capacity of CSO’s to be involved in national level privatisation discussions to influence the agenda and the pathway for privatisation in these crucial sectors. Follow-up activities would also include mobilising CSO involvement in monitoring private actor service delivery to amass evidence for influencing regulation development and monitoring frameworks and policy reforms.
The study formed the basis for the clusters work in privatisation. Over the strategy period, the Economic and Social Justice cluster would invest and grow this portfolio to highlight policies that undermine the socio-economic rights of marginalised populations.
In collaboration with the communications unit, the cluster also ran an innovation hub initiative in May 2018. In an attempt to look ahead, inspire others and pick up on future trends, the ESJ cluster explored the implications of Blockchain Technology on socio-economic rights. The brown bag meeting was well-attended by the ESJ cluster and other OSISA staff members. It was an opportunity to understand what Blockchain Technology is, how the technology is being used in the region, the kinds of open society questions that arise, and the opportunities it presents for informal traders, women, youth, and others the margins of the economy. We planned to explore these questions further to get a better sense of programming opportunities.
Specific programme highlights
Economic Justice Programme
The regional Economic Justice Programme presented seven projects to the second board meeting covering Angola, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Factoring in the Board and Chairperson’s anticipated approvals for 2018 work, the Programme’s overall projected core budget spend was 63% for the second quarter.
The Economic Justice Programme took the lead in developing a portfolio of work to respond to the informalisation of the economy. In the last quarter, we saw significant milestones from our partners’ work. An example was our partners, the Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA), in Zimbabwe, who mobilised vendors and formed a strong coalition to coordinate demands for better services and local government regulations. BVTA completed a one-year study on the conditions and challenges faced by informal traders in the city, which was used to inform their advocacy on the reform of city by-laws.
The organisation partnered with a network of human rights lawyers, Abameli, to develop a progressive model by-law. The presence of an organisation representing the interests of informal traders in Bulawayo has somewhat served as a deterrent and reduced harassment by the city officials. Armed with the knowledge of their socio- economic rights, traders have organised to demand services such as ablution blocks, waste collection and trading bays in the informal markets. This work, including previous initiatives in Swaziland and projects to support cross-border traders, provides an essential building block for future projects with the women’s rights programme, EAP, AfRO and other open society foundations.
The Programme hosted the last of The Developmental States book launches in Namibia. As with previous launches, the event included a public dialogue with civil society organisations (CSOs), media, labour movements and others on development in the country.
To support the advocacy aspect of this project and bring the question of developmental states into the
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