THE Eastern Cape Non Government Organisational Coalition (ECNGOC) has expressed excitement about a project which will aim to bridge the gap of public participation through the use of a digital devise, the Streetwise Collaborator.
ECNGOC hosted a community feedback session at the Komani town hall last Thursday.
Director of ECNGOC, Rooks Moodley, said the purpose of the session was to give feedback to communities on survey findings and to have an engagement session with relevant sector departments working with municipalities.
Sector departments present were social development, South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), safety and liaison, human settlement, water affairs and office of the Premier, representing provincial and district offices.
“The ECNGOC is an umbrella structure representing more than 850 NGOs in the province. Its primary mandate is to create a vibrant civil society.”
“The Streetwise Collaborator provides an information connectivity solution that can be rolled out immediately with the minimum amount of infrastructure upgrade and maximum scalability,” he said.
“The issues that are covered in the survey are service delivery issues such as housing, roads, water and sanitation, safety and security, electricity and health services, among other issues of citizen responsibilities.”
A total of 132 people representing 34 wards were reached and, in addition, the ECNGOC was planning more community feedback sessions over the next three months to strengthen meaningful public participation.
“It was also noted that most municipalities are not able to do ward-based plans due to a lack of resources and therefore community engagements in municipal planning processes are lacking.”
“Citizen engagement is definitely a “game changer” for development,” he said.
