Citizen Engagement Program

About this program

Purpose: To accompany citizens and communities to achieve their full human potential through creating, facilitating and fostering spaces for critical dialogue and change.

Why?

To activate, educate and mobilise citizens in order to become active co-participants in the creation and accomplishment of their own development agenda.

How?

  • Hosting public dialogues around critical issues of governance, accountability, social and economic justice, and nation building
  • Empowering and accompanying communities through capacity building workshops to support, capacitate and mentor those we work with
  • Producing educational materials that can be distributed to communities to inform and educate them about critical issues of active citizenship
  • Building partnerships with community radio stations in order to increase the reach of our educational programmes to remote and marginalised areas
March 4, 2020

DDP Dialogue Program: Re-imagining youth participation as an informed electorate

The Democracy Development Program has created the Students’ dialogues program as a platform for meaningful engagement among students. It is a space that can be initiated […]
February 28, 2020

Local Government Dialogue: “Count us in on better services”

The Democracy Development Program convened a local government dialogue themed: Count us in on service delivery, the dialogue was held on the 27th of February 2019, […]
February 21, 2020

Discussing Political Developments and unpacking #SONA 2020

By: Sthabiso Mdledle The Democracy Development Program hosted a post SONA forum at Elangeni Hotel in Durban on 20 February 2020. This comes after President Cyril […]
February 10, 2020

Unpacking the State of Education in the KZN Province

By: Sthabiso Mdledle As South Africa embarks on a new school year, it is an opportune moment to engage communities, civil society as well as citizens […]
November 22, 2019

EXPLORING ETHICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

By: Sanelisiwe Mabaso The Democracy Development Programme (DDP) in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), hosted a two- […]
November 8, 2019

DDP Public Forum- Engaging Civil Society and Citizens on the Economic Policy Document Released by Treasury

DDP Convened a public forum to gauge citizens thoughts on the Mid-term budget speech presented by Finance Minister, as well as to gauge insights on the […]
September 18, 2019

SOCIAL COHESION: IT SHOULD START WITH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY

By Lizeka Maduna Following a spade of violent clashes between African migrants and locals in the past few weeks, which has seen people chaos emerge in […]
September 3, 2019

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ROUNDTABLES: RE-IMAGINING PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY

Afesis-corplan in partnership with Democracy Development Program (DDP) and the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Social Action (PACSA) hosted a civil society roundtable in Pietermaritzburg on the 28-29 […]
August 21, 2019

Community Media Needs to Strengthen Its Relationship with Civil Society and Communities

The Democracy Development Programme held an Inaugural Media Summit aimed at enhancing and strengthening existing relationship between community media, civil society and communities; through long term […]
August 20, 2019

DDP WOMEN’S BREAKFAST FORUM: IMBOKODO IN BALANCE

By: Mbalenhle Mkhize   Women in South Africa are slowly breaking the gender stereotypes and changing the narrative of what women stand for and who they […]
July 17, 2019

Elections, Electoral Accountability And Youth Participation In Africa

As 24 countries across Africa will be holding elections this year, the Democracy Development Programme in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and My Vote Counts hosted […]
June 21, 2019

DDP 4TH ANNUAL YOUTH INDABA – NEWSLETTER

View the Newsletter here >  
May 16, 2019

3RD ANNUAL YOUTH INDABA CONFERENCE

By: Sthabiso Mdledle and Nosipho Luthuli  The Democracy Development Program hosted its 3rd Annual Youth Indaba on Wednesday to Thursday June 14-15 at the Diakonia Centre […]
May 16, 2019

DDP BOOK LAUNCH ON TRANSFORMATION AT SA UNIVERSITIES

DDP convened a book launch on transformation: “What is transformation in contemporary South African higher education? how can it be facilitated through research and pedagogic practices? […]
May 14, 2019

INANDA FM & VIBE FM LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION DIALOGUE WITH DDP

By Sphesihle Masondo – As the local government elections get close, the competition between political parties to win the hearts and votes of citizens becomes stronger. […]
May 14, 2019

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE

By Sthabiso Mdledle – This initiative was a multi stakeholder initiative which sought to combine practical learning elements and conversational engagement. The Lindelani Youth Forum (LYF)  […]
May 14, 2019

ANC TO BLAME FOR CHAOS IN PARLIAMENT SAYS RESPECTED POLITICAL ANALYST

By Sthabiso Mdledle – Respected political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi has blamed the African National Congress (ANC) for the chaos and violence in parliament. This emerged last […]
May 14, 2019

FOLWENI COMMUNITY DIALOGUE – HUMAN RIGHTS MONTH

The Folweni community Dialogue took place at the Folweni Community Resources Centre (FCRC) on 20 March 2017. This dialogue focused on the various issues that affected […]
May 14, 2019

ASONET & DDP WOMEN’S DIALOGUE ON ACCESS TO SOCIAL SERVICES

By Stabiso Mdledle – The DDP (Democracy Development Program) and ASONET (African Solidarity Network) in partnership with other women organisations held a women’s dialogue at the […]
May 14, 2019

UNPACKING RADICAL ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION FOR CIVIL SOCIETY

By Sthabiso Mdledle – The Democracy Development Program in partnership with the KwaZulu-Natal Economic Council hosted a forum on South Africa’s contentious topic: Radical Economic Transformation […]