::::South Africa Reflect Network © 2008::::

Who and what is SARN?

South Africa REFLECT Network (SARN) is represented by participants, practitioners, organisations, and adult education and development activists across South Africa who are either using REFLECT or advocate for it as an accepted and preferred means to contribute to the realisation of rights of the poor.

SARN brings together the expertise and experiences of these people to:

Enhance the capacity of partnering Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to implement REFLECT.
Strengthen the capacity of organisations to mainstream HIV and AIDS and gender into their adult education and development work.
Facilitate and promote processes that improve the capacity of poor and excluded people to play a more effective role in influencing policies to overcome poverty.
Foster and promote processes that strengthen literacy and communication skills of poor and vulnerable people, particularly women, giving them skills to open up dialogue, negotiate and influence decisions that affect their lives.
Develop a resource of trained and skilled REFLECT practitioners.
Increase opportunities and access to shared REFLECT training, mentoring and learning experiences.
Coordinate a forum for lobbying and advocacy to influence policy and change practices that disadvantage women in particular.

Raising Visions and Voices for Change

SARN aims to strengthen the lives of poor and excluded people and encourage them to become vibrant and vocal members of civil society by:

building a critical mass of civil society organisations effectively practising REFLECT, and;
sharing learning and strengthening quality delivery of REFLECT programmes of action.

By creating a structured and well resourced representative network of REFLECT practitioners, participants and advocates, SARN has a key role to play in contributing to the realisation of the rights of poor and vulnerable people, and of women in particular.

Deepening participation and fostering innovation and creativity to provoke critical reflection, learning, sharing and change...

Who is the South Africa REFLECT Network (SARN)?

Currently there are 8 organisations using the REFLECT approach to support a wide range of development and educational objectives operating in South Africa, with a further 350 organisations preparing to introduce REFLECT into their development work. These organisations are supporting community beneficiaries in both rural communities and poor and disadvantaged urban areas. 80% of these beneficiaries are women. The implementation of REFLECT has been well monitored and documented across all of these organisations with great success emerging.

SARN evolved out of a growing concern amongst current REFLECT practitioners to ensure HIV and AIDS is mainstreamed into adult education work, to ensure REFLECT practices are effectively implemented within organisations, to pool expertise and strengthen learning, and to generate information that can change practices which disadvantage women.

Vision: A structured and well resourced representative network that promotes and supports REFLECT as an accepted and preferred means to contribute to the realisation of the rights of the poor.

Mission: To build a critical mass of CSOs effectively practising REFLECT that will share their learning and strengthen quality delivery of programmes, thus improving the lives of poor and excluded people and encouraging them to become vibrant and vocal members of civil society.

Specific Objectives:

To increase the scale and scope of provincial REFLECT projects.
To enhance the capacity of partnering NGOs/CBOs to implement REFLECT in order to increase the quality and effectiveness of their adult education and development practice.
To strengthen the capacity of organisations to mainstream HIV & AIDS and gender into their adult education work in order to respond effectively to the HIV-related needs and priorities of poor people and to contribute to the mitigation of HIV & AIDS.
To facilitate and promote processes that foster effective community engagement in the design and implementation of policies intrinsic to the fight against HIV & AIDS.
To facilitate and promote processes that strengthen literacy and communication skills of poor and vulnerable people, particularly women, giving them the skills to negotiate, open up dialogue and participate in taking decisions that affect their lives.
To develop a cadre of well trained and skilled REFLECT practitioners.
To propagate and disseminate the results of research obtained via case studies and ongoing participatory evaluation in order to influence policy and change practices that disadvantage women in particular.
To increase coordination and accessibility of shared REFLECT training opportunities, mentoring and learning experiences.
To provide an identifiable and representative REFLECT forum from which to communicate with the broader community of development and education actors in South Africa.

Strategic Partnerships:

IIZ/DVV -
PASARNET – Southern Africa region forum
Pamoja – Africa region forum/network
CIRAC – international network
SAT - Southern African Trust
COMBOCO - the KwaZulu-Natal CBO Coalition
LANFE - Lesotho Association for Non-Formal Education
ALN - Adult Learning Network
AAI - Action Aid International

The International REFLECT network (CIRAC) supports constant mutual learning with practitioners, so we are always strengthening the methodology.

Likewise, Africa regional network (Pamoja) and local network (SARN) also promote constant innovation, diversity and learning.

Pamoja Africa REFLECT Network

Pamoja is an Africa-wide, non-profit, participatory education and development initative that was establised in 2002 by African REFLECT practitioners to faciltate learning, sharing and continuing evolution of REFLECT practices in Africa. It forms part of the Circle for International REFLECT Action and Communication (CIRAC), which is a global organisation of REFLECT practitioners.
Pamoja facilitates learning, sharing and the continuing evolution of REFLECT experiences in Africa to build a critical and enlightened mass of men, women, boys and girls empowered to realise their rights, ideals and values. These values include: mutual respect for all actors, solidarity with the poor, respect for African indigenous knowledge, equitable practice of power at all levels, individual and collective transformation and gender equity.

Pamoja deals in areas such as HIV/AIDS, conflict resolution, education and governance. All organisations practising REFLECT have formed their own network in their respective countries. The Highlands project forms part of the Southern Africa REFLECT Network and the South Africa REFLECT Network (SARN). The secretariat of Pamoja is in Uganda and all country networks report back to it on their activities. The council meets once a year. Meetings are rotated between countries. The last meeting was held in Malawi and this year’s council meeting will take place in Mali in November.

COMBOCO

COMBOCO and SARN have been developing a working relationship since January 2006, when they came together to propose a joint initiative under the theme REFLECT, Rights and Governance: Prioritising Local Agendas.
At that time, COMBOCO had identified the need to introduce its member organisations to a mechanism which could address the following key areas of work:

The development and design of Local Development Agendas (LODAs);
Mobilising community-led advocacy campaigns; and
CBO empowerment as facilitators of community-driven development initiatives.

SARN sought to work with COMBOCO to support the CBOS to implement REFLECT as a means (or the mechanism) to initiate and sustain community-driven development. Although a new approach to community development for COMBOCO and her members, both SARN and COMBOCO recognised that REFLECT can move beyond mobilising people to engage with current governance structures to one which transforms these structures and the power relations which they reinforce. The Southern Africa Trust’s call for proposals therefore came at an opportune and relevant time for SARN and COMBOCO to strengthen their partnership and areas of work. During the process of engagement with the Trust, members of COMBOCO participated in a STAR training of trainers (TOT) course in June 2006. This sub-regional STAR TOT was jointly initiated and coordinated by SARN and IIZ/DVV. STAR provides structure to the way in which HIV and AIDS are mainstreamed throughout REFLECT practice.

LANFE

LANFE has been a grant-funded partner with IIZ/DVV for the past 20 years, and has been implementing REFLECT across their areas of adult education work for the past +/- 5 years.
Since 2003, SARN and LANFE have been developing a learning and exchange relationship, particularly in the context of mainstreaming HIV and AIDS into REFLECT practice. In the absence of a national Reflect network in Lesotho, SARN has maintained linkages and information sharing opportunities with LANFE, through a tripartite relationship and support from IIZ/DVV.
Like COMBOCO, members of LANFE also participated in the June 2006 STAR TOT.

ALN