Archive for 2010
Serious Enterprise Development workshop – book now
2 September 2010
6 October 2010 With unemployment near 40% and skills backlogs constraining South Africa’s ability to create enough formal jobs, enterprise development (ED) is increasingly chosen by the private sector to expand opportunity and bring our economy to its full potential.
Our intensive one-day workshop exposes companies to hands-on lessons in how to best use their resources to unleash entrepreneurial activity in our country’s marginalised constituencies.
This is not a talk shop.
Rather, participants will work with people experienced in funding ED that works and will learn about ways in which their own companies can avoid mistakes in this field, and how to get the best ED results from their social spend.
Limited to 100 participants for effective learning and engagement, potential ED funders will be exposed to lessons in how to source ED opportunities in their business, how to find partners; how to work alongside them; avoiding pitfalls; and understanding related legislation.
Finally, participants will engage around the potential impact of this country’s budding social enterprise movement, and explore how this can be linked into ED infrastructure, legislation, and funding streams.
Date: Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Venue: Gordon Institute of Business Science, Illovo campus, Johannesburg
Cost: R 3250.00 p/person(All materials, lunch, teas & cocktails included. Delegates will also receive a six-month subscription to the Financial Mail.)
Brought to you by Tshikululu Social Investments and the GIBS Network for Social Entrepreneurs, in association with First National Bank and Financial Mail. To make a booking for this event please contact Lee or Hayley on 011 467 5377 or admin@creativespacemedia.co.za.
If you book just one enterprise development learning event for 2010, let this be it.
" alt="Social enterprise development in South Africa - creating a virtuous circle " />Social enterprise development in South Africa – creating a virtuous circle
Interest in social enterprise (SE) in South Africa is growing and we are seeing an increase in activity in this space. The impetus for this interest is in part driven by perceived advantages that social enterprise has: over government – in efficient delivery of services; over conventional business – on trust, accountability, and purpose; and over charities and NGOs – due to financial sustainability and access to capital. And it is in part driven by the BBBEE regulations which place an increased emphasis on supporting enterprise development.There is a growing body of work which supports the role of social enterprise, but in South Africa the concept is still relatively new and as such is not well understood. Social enterprise and social entrepreneurship are often used interchangeably, despite some clear differences, and definitions of social enterprise can be contentious.
That being said, support for social enterprise is increasingly popular among social investors wanting to break cycles of dependence in society.
Tshikululu Social Investments commissioned a scoping study, undertaken by SE consultant Bridget Fury, to give an overview of who is playing in this field locally, different approaches to SE already to be found, and the state of policy debate in this regard.
The results of this study are available on our website in the Research section of our Media Centre.
Please note that information contained in any of these documents may not be republished without due acknowledgement being given to Tshikululu.
" alt="Poor communities turn to private education " />Poor communities turn to private education
31 August 2010
It is clear that income or lack thereof is no indicator of demand for quality education.
Jane Roach is a CSI specialist in education at Tshikululu Social Investments.
In a month where many learners were not taught, raising the spectre of bad matric results once again, the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) released a study investigating the local occurrence and impact of the growth of low-fee paying private schools, an increasing international trend.
Workbooks no better than textbooks
The workbooks introduced in primary schools do not work better than traditional textbooks, a study found.
“The study suggests that more research is required before more workbooks are introduced into the national education system as these workbooks do not necessarily improve learner performance,” said Brahm Fleisch, professor of education policy from the University of the Witwatersrand school of education, and one of the lead researchers of the study.
Fleisch said the study suggested more research was needed before substantial public resources were committed to the printing and distribution of new workbooks to schools.
Read the full article at TimesLive and share your views in our Comments section below.
South African experts develop cell technology
Scientists in South Africa have developed a unique system to culture cells that could have an impact in the development of more effective medications and technologies.
“With the development of drugs you need to replicate the body’s system with cell cultures. The 2D system has limitations because the body is a 3D structure,” CSIR researcher Avashnee Chetty told News24.
She said that the closer a cell culture methodology was able to replicate the body system, its accuracy would result in more effective drugs to tackle disease.
She said that the process has been challenging, and they face a battle as a patent for the technology exists.
Chetty said that the methodology would be an advantage to new areas of research.
“Growing stem cells is a future possibility with this process, because it allows the mass growth of cells.”
Read the full article at News24 and share your views in our Comments section below.
Join The Black Tie Ensemble at the Capital Arts Festival
5 September 2010 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm The Black Tie Ensemble (BTE) in collaboration with The Capital Arts Festival present One Voice, a Sunday evening concert featuring members of The Black Tie Ensemble, performing not their usual repertoire, but showcasing their versatility in celebration of Africa.
For this concert, The Black Tie Ensemble will celebrate their musical diversity through styles and genres – from Opera to African contemporary melodies in a vibrant and energetic musical tribute. The programme will include popular songs from artists such as Vicky Sampson, Toto, Elton John, Miriam Makeba and Koos du Plessis. This will be the first time that patrons will be treated to the “lighter side” of The Black Tie Ensemble and the members will be supported by the dancers from the Monnyth Dance Company.
Climate change policy ignores women farmers
27 August 2010
Research has shown that women are more likely to feel the effects of climate change because they have less access to resources. Changing weather patterns increase poor women’s work burden on gathering water and firewood. Girls may be forced to forgo school in order to contribute to the increased household work.
Where traditional land tenure is practiced, women may lose land normally reserved for growing crops for household consumption to give way for commercial crops.
The South African government, through its Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), is in the process of developing a national climate-change policy. Consultations with a few environmental experts and civil society organisations took place in May.
The content of the draft document remains confidential, but according to gender experts, who have been provided with a draft of the policy, it does not once mention the words “women” or gender”, despite the fact that most small-scale farmers are women and women are the most vulnerable to climate change and disaster.
“An effective climate-change policy must begin and end with people, but this document ignores that,” says Dorah Lebelo, coordinator of advocacy group Gender CC – Women for Climate Justice.
Read the full article at Mail & Guardian and share your views in our Comments section below.
Strike must not disrupt drug supply to HIV, TB and other chronic patients says SANAC
The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) appealed to health workers today to make sure that the strike did not interrupt the flow of life-saving antiretrovirals and TB drugs to patients needing them, and to ensure that diabetic, epileptic and blood pressure patients could also get their medications.
More than a million South Africans are on ARVS and disrupting their treatment could jeopardise their health and increase the risk of drug resistance.
“A failure to ensure an uninterrupted flow of medication…will be seen for years to come and could adversely affect thousands of people,” warned SANAC deputy chairperson Mark Heywood.
Patients struggling to get their chronic medicines during the public sector strike can contact the SA National AIDS Council Nerve Centre for assistance at (012) 395 9078/9, (012) 395 9081/7/8/9 or (012) 395 9090 or e-mail: sanacnervecentre@gmail.com.
South Africa’s children are in danger
24 August 2010
This is an extract from an article written by Leonard Saul, the chief executive of the South African Congress for Early Childhood Development, for the Mail & Guardian, published online on 24 August 2010.
Early childhood development (ECD) is the term used by the South African government to encompass all services provided to children from birth to nine years old.
Children of this age group are provided for in many different settings, from playgroup to workplace, nursery to public school, and at home- and community-based sites. The settings vary but children have in common a need to learn. During that period they are at the most impressionable stage of their development and what they learn will be with them for the rest of their lives.
Pan-African Early Childhood Development Conference
27 September 2010 to 29 September 2010 The Centre for Early Childhood Development, in association with the Chaeli Campaign and the HCI Foundation, is hosting an Early Childhood Development Conference between 27 and 29 September 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Quality early childhood development programmes are a means of eradicating poverty. In order to be able to offer quality ECD programmes, it is essential that ECD stakeholders, including staff from ECD non-profit organisations (NPOs), government officials, donors as well as civil society members involved in ECD are properly informed. By providing ECD stakeholders with information on best practice in early childhood development we can improve the quality and quantity of ECD programmes and education for young children in Africa.
