27 Apr 2017

 The Non-Governmental Organisation Council (NGOC) hosted a regional core group meeting in Francistown in preparation for the upcoming stakeholder forum to be held on June 20 to 23.
 Addressing stakeholders, an official from the NGOC secretariat, Ms Diana Meswele said the objective of the meeting was to announce the upcoming annual stakeholder forum and mobilise interest for participation among district stakeholders.
Ms Meswele also said the objective of the meeting was to introduce the district level dialogue forum, which would precede the annual stakeholder’s forum.
In addition, she explained that before the stakeholder’s forum, they would hold district forums on May 17-18, to provide a space for actors actively engaged in the development of the district to engage with one another and discuss main issues, priorities and strategies.    

 
The district level meetings, she said would seek to nurture trust and an understanding on critical development issues in each district as well as progressively building a common platform for action across the different actors.
A council member, Mr Montshiwa Montshiwa said the NGOC had managed to establish an Endowerment Fund to support non-government actor’s development initiatives. He said they had identified strategic objectives for society organisations for the period 2016-2021.
Mr Montshiwa stated that one of those objectives was to improve dialogue and partnership between civil society organisations (CSOs), government and other actors as well as enhance the availability and allocation of resources for CSO’s-overnment partnership. In her welcome remarks, the deputy mayor of Francistown, Mr Godisang Radisego encouraged the council to also empower youth on volunteering in NGO’s as few undertook the initiative. Mr Radisego also encouraged stakeholders to use these forums to benchmark on each other so they could improve the lives of Batswana. ENDS