Seychelles takes over Presidency SADC-CNGO |16 November 2015

‘Civil society in the region needs to be strengthened’

Seychellois Jules Hoareau, the new chairperson of the council of non-governmental organisations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC-CNGO), has stressed the need to support and strengthen the civil society sector in our region.

Mr Hoareau, who is also the chairperson of the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps), was speaking after he had taken his oath of allegiance as the new president of the SADC-CNGO during the council’s general assembly held recently in South Africa.

During the assembly the presidency of the council was handed over to Seychelles.

Ceps, the national platform for civil society sector in Seychelles, is an accredited member of SADC-CNGO and Mr Hoareau was previously the vice-chair.

Delegates from all the 15 member states attended the general assembly.
 
In his acceptance speech to the general assembly, Mr Hoareau noted that SADC-CNGO is established on core principles of good governance, democracy and respect for human rights and that these values are essential for maintaining peace, security and prosperity in our region.  

The new president added: ‘’We  need to establish policies to address some of the challenges we are facing in the SADC region and as civil society organisations, we must tackle some of the pertinent issues, namely women engagement at political and strategic level, capacity building and strengthening of civil society at national level and peace and security in the region. Some of the challenges which the new board will have to deal with are: the defragmentation of civil society in some SADC member states and lack of capacity and resources of some members and other challenges at national level.”

Prior to the general assembly, the SADC-CNGO forum was also held in South Africa and Ceps was represented at the forum by Jude Fred and Marie Nella Azemia, Ceps’ vice-chairman and board secretary respectively.

The aim of the forum is to bring together various stakeholders with similar interests of evolving the regional integration agenda from various perspectives ranging from socio-economic reform, to political and environmental reform.

It creates a bridge between the official and governmental regional leadership and civil society. At the same time it is a space for civil society to analyse, reflect and dialogue on the critical issues facing the region; contribute to and create synergy with the agenda of SADC; impact on the summit of heads of state and government; plan and develop independent actions and priorities for regional civil society for the coming year, including identifying key campaigns, movement building and areas of collaboration.

Some of the issues put forward by Ceps’ representatives in the forum include formulation of policies to address gender issues in the region, effective and robust communication strategy at national level and peace and security.