South Africa: Political Parties and Elections Support-Figccc Multi-Stakeholder Joint Convening.

14 August 2024
Democracy Works (Johannesburg)
analysis By Lerato Maloka

TOWARDS INCLUSIVE AND RESPONSIVE POLITICS AND DEVELOPMENT: LESSONS FROM PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES IN CLIMATE GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Context and background

DWF has been implementing a three-year project, Fostering Inclusive Growth Through Climate Change Champions or "Climate for Growth" from 1 March 2021 to 31 August 2024. The project supported democratic and participatory processes within the renewable energy economy in two provinces in South Africa (Northern Cape and Western Cape) by fostering inclusive growth by integrating community-driven development priorities into municipal planning processes. In addition, the project was creating an environment where civil society organisations (CSOs) could meaningfully engage with and represent their communities amongst government officials and Independent Power Producers. Over these past three years, FIGCCC has implemented a wide range of initiatives, including building the capacity of local CSOs to meaningfully contribute to climate mitigation policy, supporting CSOs to engage with local government planning processes (IDP), supporting local government to assess the impact of climate change on service delivery, and also creating opportunities of dialogue between civil society and local government on matters around climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Through its interventions, the project successfully assisted one of the project municipalities, Witzenberg Municipality in the Western Cape, in revising its climate needs assessment and adaptation strategy and informing climate change mitigation and adaptation in the municipality. The municipal council subsequently adopted the document. In addition, over 40 civil society organisations working in non-climate-related sectors were able to draft climate change adaptation plans that they can implement together with the core services they render to communities. The project also brought together officials from the targeted municipalities working in environmental affairs and municipal planning departments to discuss climate change-related policies.

While the FIGCCC project is phasing out, DWF has recently embarked on a regional programme: Political Parties and Elections Support. The overall goal, objectives, and some of the Political Parties and Elections Support interventions present DWF with a strategic opportunity to consolidate and sustain some of the key achievements, lessons and experiences from the FIGCCC project. The Political Parties and Elections Support is a five-year (November 2017- November 2028), seven-country programme (covering Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa) whose overall goal is to support a trend toward representative multiparty systems with political parties that are responsive to citizens while providing targeted assistance to promote electoral integrity.

One of the specific objectives of this programme is to have political parties develop responsive and evidence-based policy-making skills and practices. In this regard, some of the interventions of the Political Parties and Elections Support will include supporting and facilitating the existence of functional platforms and mechanisms that allow political parties to know and access citizens' needs as well as supporting political parties and elected representatives to have the capacity and knowledge to develop responsive and evidence-based policies. Furthermore, the Political Parties and Elections Support will also support civil society to have the knowledge and capacity to influence political parties' responsiveness to citizens' needs.

The Joint Convening

To ensure that the operationalisation of the Political Parties and Elections Support interventions can leverage the relevant lessons, experiences, and best practices of FIGCCC, while contributing to the sustainability of FIGCCC's interventions, DWF has organised a joint Political Parties and Elections Support-FIGCCC multi-stakeholder joint convening.

Themed: Towards Inclusive and Responsive Democratic Governance and Development: Lessons from Participatory Approaches in Climate Governance in South Africa.

The joint convening serves as a platform where, on the one hand, stakeholders will reflect on some of FIGCCC's successes, lessons and experiences in supporting democratic and participatory processes within the renewable energy economy in two provinces in South Africa (Northern Cape and Western Cape). On the other hand, allowing the same stakeholders to identify relevant best practices that can be mainstreamed/ integrated into the Political Parties and Elections support, thereby ensuring their sustainability.

Objectives

Therefore, the joint workshop seeks to realise the following objectives:

  1. Present to the stakeholders the approaches, successes and lessons of the FIGCCC project with respect to its efforts to support democratic and participatory processes within the renewable energy economy.
  2. Beyond climate governance, identify other relevant sectoral/developmental issues that political actors in South Africa will need to focus on going forward.
  3. Identify the key lessons (both from the approaches and successes) that may further inspire and facilitate the implementation of some of the interventions under the Political Parties and Elections Support, particularly with respect to inclusive, responsive and participatory policymaking.

Target group

The convening will target a total of 40 participants as follows:

  1. Municipality Partners: Local government entities involved in the FIGCCC project.
  2. South African Local Government Authority: Representatives from municipal government bodies.
  3. Department of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs: Government department overseeing local governance and traditional affairs.
  4. Civil Society Partners: Civil society organisations collaborating with FIGCCC.
  5. Broader Civil Society: Organisations working in various development sectors such as social welfare, community safety, education and public health.
  6. Independent Power Producers/Private Sector: Representatives from the energy sector and private industry.
  7. Project partners and staff

Approach

The convening will be facilitated as a multi-stakeholder dialogue, engaging government representatives, community organisations, and private sector stakeholders. The methodology will focus on fostering robust and productive discussions, reflecting on key development issues, and allowing for nuanced contributions. This will be achieved through expert presentations, multi-stakeholder plenary sessions, and sharing experiences in promoting democratic participation and inclusive decision-making processes.

Read more on the Fostering Inclusive Growth through Climate Change Champions and the Political Parties and Elections Support programmes.

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