Empowering silenced civil society voices.
“We have always done our work at a local level without thinking of broadening our working relations but through the coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that Restless Development created we have learned that together we can do more.“
– Lebo, Programmes Assistant, Yomelela Community Support Organisation, South Africa
Over the past two years in South Africa, Restless Development ran a groundbreaking project called Amplify Change: Empowering Silenced Civil Society Voices
“With this project, we wanted to support youth civil society to thrive not just survive. We brought together a collection of eight Civil Society Organizations – working with marginalised groups – and linked them together via a network. We provided them with training on everything from programme design to youth led accountability and supported them to deliver coordinated, evidence-based advocacy around Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR).”
– Natalie Agboeze, Director, Restless Development
Youth Civil Society: Surviving not thriving.
Many community based organisations who are working in South Africa’s rural areas are achieving great results, but they are often working in isolation, resulting in overlap and repetition.
According to Lebo, a steering committee member and Yomelela Community Support Organisation programme assistant:
“We had always done our work at a local level without thinking of broadening our working relations but through the CSO forum Restless Development created we have learned that together we can do more. The coalition has created a platform where we can share and deliberate on issues affecting development in South Africa. We have also established a sustainable relationship that does not only rely on physical meetings but goes much beyond this to engaging regularly offline and online and sharing information and ideas on how to tackle issues affecting our organisations together”.
From Strength to Strength.
Through the coalition eight CSOs developed shared advocacy messages, enabling them to provide consistent messaging across geographic locations and different audiences, hold joint events, mobilise service delivery from government departments and other providers, and generally receive more recognition for their work and impact.
They now speak with one unified and powerful voice.
“We have established a sustainable relationship that does not only rely on physical meetings but goes much beyond this to engaging regularly offline and online and sharing information and ideas on how to tackle issues affecting our organisations together”
