Civil society network, Awethu! has unveiled a mobi-site that will help in addressing challenges faced by civil society organisations in SA.
The mobi-site is accessible via the any Internet-capable feature phone or smartphone.
According to Awethu! civil society organisations will be able to share news, events, start and hold discussions on the platform for free.
Organisations will be encouraged to register and to upload their information on to the site, whether they are groups in need of help, or groups that can offer help, says Maurice Smithers, national coordinator at Awethu!.
Over time, Awethu! will develop new apps for use on the site, some in response to needs raised by users, others to do things it would like it to do, he adds.
Smithers notes the purpose of the platform is to strengthen and link the work of civil society organisations and provide them with the space to share information.
Civil society in any community in any country in the world has a role to play in assisting government and organisations to work for social justice in a range of sectors, he continues.
"We hope to use the mob-site to mobilise as many people around the country as possible to work together on common issues and to support each other across sectors. Our aim is to give all organisations, no matter how small, a loud voice."
Smithers says civil society is to a large extent fragmented and this makes the movement weaker and unable to have the kind of impact it would like to have. He believes the mobi-site is a way to unite civil society.
Smithers points out if properly utilised, technology can make all the difference to whether a particular battle is lost or won.
"Today there are enormously powerful resources that make it possible to communicate in a multiplicity of ways and to produce and share information in ways we could only dream of in the 1980s."
However not all civil society has access to technology - what should be basic technology like computers and laptops are not readily available to the vast majority of these organisations in SA and also the costs of Internet access is too high for most, says Smithers.
So if organisations are not adopting technology, it's not because they don't want to or don't see the value of it. It's because of the lack of resources, he concludes.
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