HTML Preview Non-Profit Business Plan for Social Development page number 4.
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1. INTRODUCTION
The main purpose of the Directorate- Nonprofit Organisations, within the national
Department of Social Development, is to administer the Nonprofit Organisations Act 71 of
1997 (NPO Act) that aims at creating an enabling environment for NPOs to flourish.
The Business Plan articulates how the Directorate intends to implement this mandate,
what are the new strategic priorities and what informs them. The Plan relates the activities
of the Directorate for the MTEF period 2007/08 to 2009.
The document starts with a brief background on the important role of nonprofit
organisations in society and the different policies and legislative initiatives of government
in creating an enabling legal environment to support and encourage the growth of civil
society in South Africa. Within this context it specifically relates the objectives and
intentions of the NPO Act and the role of the Directorate in carrying out this statutory
mandate.
The document further articulates the current challenges of the NPO Directorate in
implementing the provisions of the NPO Act. These challenges are then used as the
argument to motivate and justify the current strategic priorities of the Directorate in
implementing the Act. The Plan thereafter concludes with an operational log framework on
how to implement these identified priorities for this financial year.
2. BACKGROUND
Civil Society in South Africa is characterized by a wide variety of organisations of different
sizes and shapes across the political, economic and social spectrum of society
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. These
range from faith and community based organisations, charities (welfare), traditional
organisations like social and sports clubs, and a host of other development and social
forms of organisations working tirelessly on the social fabric of society.
Literature on the subject of civil society posits that the sector plays an important role in
societal change and stability that is critical for a functioning democracy. It is also argued
that civil society plays a critical role in the nurturing of social capital and that says
something of the health of society in social, political and economic terms. Robert Putnam
(1993) and others go so far as to argue that the vibrancy of the sector is a much more
reliable indicator for economic prosperity and public sector responsiveness in addressing
societal needs
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. Other studies and arguments has advance a notion that it is difficult to
conceive a society without social forms of organisations or to ignore the impact it has on
the functioning of society.
In South Africa, the acknowledgement of the historical value of this sector is found in the
volumes of South African policy documents that amongst others includes the
Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and the recent Marco Social
Environmental Analysis Report that led to government’s Accelerated Share Growth
Initiative (ASGISA) strategy for the country.
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Civil Society here is referred to as “…the broad range of social institutions that operate outside the confines of the market and the
state. [It is] known variously as the ‘nonprofit, the ‘voluntary,’…the ‘third,’ or the ‘independent’ sector”. (Salamon, L . el al (1999:3).
Global Civil Society- Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector. The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society. Baltimore, MD.
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Putnam,R. (1993). Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton University Press.