Networking in Civil Society

One of the ideals of our society is to bring Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) together. How hard or how easy is this when each organisation is independent, autonomous and has diverse interests and focus.

From a developmental point of view, the two aims of doing this are to avoid duplication and pool resources. As simple as this may sound the complexities are numerous.

Given however, that the benefits of coming together outweigh whatever the complexities may throw up, let us seek to examine the complexities and how we can turn complexities into positive energy.

Each CSO has several interests arising within the context on a commonality. For example, in the disabled community the disability is a commonality. Then within the grouping of the disabled are several disabilities, each peculiar in its own right with attendant issues.

For example, the blind will focus on different issues to the hearing impaired and the physically disabled will have a totally different focus to them. The same would apply to sports groups, youth, gender, etc.

While each group will have peculiar issues, there are also common issues which cut across all of them. For example HIV/AIDS, unemployment and education.