Jaco Roets
- Jan 8, 2015
- 3 min read
"The work at the Foundation gave me space to rethink how I have viewed community"
Country: South Africa
Areas of Interest: Grassroots Organizations; NGOs; Youth; Gender Issues; Health;
Email: roets80jaco@gmail.com
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What is he currently doing?
Jaco Roets works as an independent consultant in the civil society space, based in Knysna (South Africa). He has 12 years of international experience within the civil society sphere, with a particular focus on democracy, active citizenship and governance. Jaco believes that civil society programs that fail to understand the local context, include ordinary people and enhance collaboration across the complex stakeholder framework will be limited in its impact and difficult to sustain. Jaco aims to bring a strategic approach to the developmental space that understands and respects the specific local context, the program objectives and activities, donor requirements and the needs of the various stakeholders. As a consultant, Jaco enjoys the different challenges that each opportunity throws up. He is currently working with an international partner to design, test and implement a curriculum designed to reframe the way that people understand and talk about the problem of corruption. This curriculum is aimed at allowing ordinary people to understand how corruption negatively impacts trust-networks. Through this, they are able to have deeper conversations as to their role in countering entrenched corruption and building vertical and horizontal networks amongst society and implementing partners to make societies more resilient to corrupt networks. In all of his work, he is passionate about ensuring that interventions ‘activate’ the local population, making them more than just passive recipients of aid, but rather engaging them through participative and inclusive strategies to be agents of change in their communities. He has qualitative and quantitative research experience and has worked with a diverse grouping of international funding organizations (USAID, CDC, SIDA, JICA, DFID, Elton John Foundation and the Mac Aids Fund and others). Jaco holds a Masters’ Degree in Public and Development Management (Distinction) from the Wits Business School (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa).
New Questions around democracy
Understanding power relations; why some participate in democratic processes and others decide not to or cannot access.
Suggestions for the international Network and connection with the Foundation
Communication is often ad hoc. The object of the interaction must be clearer. Who gets invited to meetings and what’s the criteria for the interaction? We could find a way of sharing blurbs on what people are asking.
There’s no place to talk about what we are doing. We struggle to see the depth of work being done by fellows. We need to see the overlaps and what we might learn. Is there a way to share the work we are doing? A skype conversation between those working in similar areas can be useful. There will be more values on linking people. Responsibility on the part of the network- abstract of what you're working on.
The important thing is not to get 60 people talking but to create the avenue for 2 people who need to talk and for others to be informed and ask questions across countries. As fellows Expectation should be less on meetings and more on regular communication. Democracy doesn’t happen two days in Dayton.
Quotes/Insights
"The work at the Foundation gave me space to rethink how I have viewed community"
Media
What Kind Of Organizations Does Kettering Kettering Work/Learn With?
Where Is the Real Problem Here?
The Problems Behind the Problems in South Africa
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