Civil Society Organisations directory launched

Mon, 27 Feb 2017 08:15:29 +0000

By MARY KACHEPA

A FIRST ever Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) directory has been launched in Zambia by Skillsshare Consultancy Services.

Skillsshare managing partner Charles Mushitu said the aim of the directory was to equip organisations with necessary skills to effectively contribute to the positive growth of their businesses by offering participant tailored trainings.

“Apart from knowing registration details of the organisations (CSOs) practical experience has shown that it is extremely difficult to physically locate most of these NGOs, and it has impacted negatively on the very civil society organisations, the communities they serve and the government,” he said.

Mr Mushitu further explained that the CSOs whose physical addresses were not known were disadvantaged because they tended to exist as closed shops.

“As a result, they miss out on meetings, workshops, training and funding opportunities because they are not locatable or communicable and the communities these CSOs serve the very people they exist for are unable to access their facilities because they are not locatable,” he said.

He explained that in the process Government was inhibited to effectively work with these organisations because it was difficult to locate them, hence it became difficult for them to access funds.

“All CSOs need the media to disseminate their activities and the media equally needs these organisations to fulfil its responsibility of giving equal coverage,” he said.

Mr Mushitu said the CSOs directory would, therefore, respond to all the above challenges highlighted because each Civil Society Organisation had been allocated a full A-5 page containing their details.