Accountability Lab South Africa (ALSA) provides long-term, creative, and flexible support to build the field of young people’s activism on accountability, democracy, and social justice. It is part of a global translocal network that thrives on finding new ways to shift societal norms, solve intractable challenges, and build “unlikely networks” for change.
Why Accountability Lab South Africa?
- South Africa is a Summit for Democracy country at risk of backtracking.
- The Menu of Possible Commitments presents a list of recommendations the South African government should prioritise to enhance youth participation but young people need to know about them to be able to hold their governments accountable.
- Accountability Lab South Africa implements youth-friendly and innovative ways which incorporate convenings, incubation, and multi-media like music and short films to get young people involved and engage other young people.
Objectives and activities
- Facilitating space for youth engagement and advocacy on The Menu of Possible Commitments related to the South African governance infrastructure.
- Monitoring the South African government’s implementation of S4D commitments and uptake of youth asks regarding engagement, participation, and democratisation of political and governance space.
- Facilitating cross-country collaboration on popularising the Menu of Possible commitments in Southern Africa.
Activity 1: Provincial convenings on The Menu of Possible Commitments
ALSA will coordinate youth convenings on the Menu of Possible Commitments in six provinces. The first set of discussion will introduce the menu of possible commitments and listen to how young South Africans understand and prioritise the commitments. The second set of discussion will act as feedback, reflection and planning engagements.
Activity 2: What’s on the Menu, Mzansi? Voice2Rep Competition
Accountability Lab South Africa will organise Voice to Represent, or Voice2Rep, its leading audio storytelling activity which runs as a focused music competition for young people interested in accountability and governance issues. The selected artists will undergo a training on music production and will create a five track EP.
Activity 3: Targeted and influencing meetings
Young people will meet with government representatives, targeted parliamentarians and committees and political party officials at provincial and national level in order to influence reform processes in line with young people’s priorities.
Activity 4: Collaboration with other Youth Democracy Cohort initiatives
Accountability Lab South Africa will build networks and synergies to connect like-minded groups in different countries and within the Southern African Development Community region to further spread and coordinate on the Menu of Possible Commitments.
Main deliverables
- 12 youth provincial convenings organised.
- 5 mini documentaries/short films created, featuring youth voices on critical commitments that young people want the Southern African government to meet. What’s on the Menu? Mzansi.
- 5 young conscious musicians trained and mentored to produce an album with 3 to 5 songs focused on the themes of the Menu of Possible Commitments with an estimated reach of 100,000 measured through streams and downloads.
- 8 meetings held with relevant policy and law centres at the national and provincial level.
- 3 regional learning and networking visits paid to other participating countries and organisations.
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