Community Affiliated Fund Programme 

Local communities are where people most directly relate to the social, economic and developmental challenges taking place and where they can be most active in influencing them. The Community Affiliated Fund (CAF) Program provides mechanisms through which people can contribute (financially or otherwise) to the building of secure and responsive financial assets for community advancement. Through the CAF Programme the ICA mobilise local resources and foster the growth of local philanthropy for progressive social change. CAF’s are started by community activists who are concerned about issues and problems that causes real risks in their community.  

CAF’s are hosted and administered by the ICA but decisions about the focus of the FUND and the projects they choose to support are taken by the Fund Committees. All CAF’s abide by a set of rules and standard operating procedures but are still given the flexibility to adapt their activities and processes to local circumstances. 

Citizenship Engagement Programme 

In order to combat apathy, ICA wishes to equip the community with the knowledge, skills and networks to be able to actively engage with community issues. The programme has three core activities: 1) facilitating ward conferences; 2) running issue-focused community dialogues, and 3) development of a web-based municipal project implementation and budget tracking system. 

• Ward conferences are gatherings of community members from different sectors in the municipal ward where community issues are articulated, debated and prioritized. The Ward Conference can elect a Community of Interest that are mandated to action and report on the resolutions of the Ward Conference.  
• Issue-focused dialogues are conversation platforms for experts and people affected by a specific issue prevalent in the community that needs urgent action. These platforms can be used to select individuals who serve on forums. 
• Lastly, the development of a web-based municipal project implementation and budget tracking system will utilize and distill data from the municipal Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP) to share with the communities the progress of the implementation of Integrated Development Plan (IDP) priorities. The web-based system will enable locals track budget spent on community priorities as well as hold municipal officials accountable for service delivery. Results of the web-based system will be made accessible to the public through town-based events and social media platforms. 

The aim of these activities is to create and maintain a critical dialogue concerning the main challenges of the municipality as well as facilitating transparency regarding the municipality’s efforts to address these challenges. It also serves as platforms for lobbying government and local industry for strategic community development. 

If you would like to get involved please reach out:

Chimell Fortuin (Programme Officer) chimell@theinitiative.org.za 

Youth Public Participation

MyDorp 

The third and final programme – Youth Public Participation Programme, is aimed at encouraging young people to get actively involved in the public participation and planning processes of the community. The programme involves learners in Primary school level, students from TVET colleges, industry experts and partnering with different departments in the municipality. 

This is a pilot Programme using a four-step approach and is named MyDorp (Afrikaans for MyTown). MyDorp is a programme whereby young people between the ages of 13-16 years are involved in developing a vision for their “dream town”.