Not waiting for Jackie O: lessons for public participation advocacy in South Africa
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Date
2011
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Unisa Press
Abstract
This article explores the significance of an important event, namely, the Pioneers of
Participation workshop held in November 2009 in Cape Town, for public participation
advocacy in South Africa. By tracing the shifting consciousness of one participant, a
key provincial official (Jackie O whose name has been changed), the article shows
both how such events can change mindsets to create better informed, better inspired
and more connected advocates for public participation, and that this transformation is
not necessarily permanent. Hence, it is argued that events like the Pioneers workshop
are best located in a broader advocacy strategy appropriate to the particular context
of state-society relations. In South Africa’s case it is argued that this strategy ought
to focus on the twin objectives of policy reform – both to make formal participatory
spaces more inclusive, democratic and empowered and to support the emergence
of independent, popularly rooted yet technically competent civil society formations
that are capable of mediating both popular needs and the policy system. How these
objectives ought to be realised is an open question, but it is clear that events like
the Pioneers workshop can be a galvanising and mindset changing resource in this
broader strategy.
Description
Keywords
Advocacy, Public participation, Local governance, Officials, Mindsets, Civil society
Citation
Piper, L. (2011). Not waiting for Jackie O: lessons for public participation advocacy in South Africa. Africanus, 50(1): 30-42