Greetings from SAFCEI, the Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute. We share with you a letter about African food security and resilience in the time of Covid-19 and beyond.

We write with a request that you consider endorsing the following letter about food security. We also ask that you share this appeal as widely as possible amongst other faith based institutions and initiatives that are concerned about establishing a just and nutritious food system for people that also restores the good Earth.

Open letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from SAFCEI and Faith community representatives from the African continent.

We, faith leaders from Africa, are experiencing first-hand how the Covid-19 pandemic is making visible failing food systems and fuelling hunger and poverty in Africa. Alongside our responsibility to be custodians of the Earth, faith networks are entrusted to ensure the just distribution and sharing of resources for all in need.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation expresses a commitment to overcoming food insecurity, but we are gravely concerned that their support for intensive industrial scale agriculture is deepening the humanitarian crisis.  We believe that our people are not being sustained by the high input – high output approach of industrial monoculture farming and food processing that the Gates Foundation promotes. We are also aware that aggressive frontier expansion of farmable land breaches human-nature barriers, enhancing the opportunistic transmission of pathogens from reservoirs in wild animal populations to humans.

In the light of evidence that community-based agroecological approaches with minimal inputs will strengthen local and informal food network systems and bring about greater ecological integrity and social and gender justice, we appeal to the Gates Foundation to reconsider how it promotes “food security”.  Locally-defined, holistic approaches, that are based on regenerative farming methods, will enable an agroecological transition to sustainable food systems in Africa.

This is a vision the faith traditions of the continent long for as we strive to ensure the just distribution and sharing of resources for all in need. It can only happen if we restore our relationship with the Earth and the community of life upon which we depend.

Please join us to raise your voice by signing on to the letter to the Gates Foundation. Please endorse this letter by 30th September.

Download the open letter here.

In solidarity and faith,

The SAFCEI team

From 10h00 to 12h15 on Monday 14^th September 2020, ACT Ubumbano is convening a Learning Hub to reflect on how community voice is amplified in calling for a universal Basic Income Grant (BIG). Isobel Frye from Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute, and Skhumbuzo Zuma from Church Land Programme will lead the conversation. Click here to register to participate.

The revival of the campaign for a universal is important for South Africa and the region. The COVID-19 lockdown has exposed the inadequacy of social security safety net provisions, and has driven poor people with few livelihood and social security options to an even more precarious position. The income support of a BIG can provide significant relief to poor communities, yet it faces strong opposition from political and economic conservatives. To successfully counter this resistance, civil society organisations and activists will need to force change by proving the technical feasibility of a BIG, and ensure that pressure is brought to bear on decision makers through mass action and other forms of advocacy.

In this advocacy work, the voice of people most affected is of critical importance.

• What strategies and coalitions will be needed to ensure their experiences and concerns are reflected in and inform policy conversations?
• How do campaigning and advocacy organisations ensure that people have the necessary technical knowledge to articulate their BIG-related demands independently and effectively?
• What role do community organisers play in connecting the technical policy issues to community struggles?
• What do solidarity networks and their participating organisations need to do to develop and implement a truly mass-based campaign?

If you have any questions, email thabo@actubumbano.org.

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The revival of the campaign for a universal Basic Income Grant (BIG) is important for South Africa and the region. The COVID-19 lockdown has exposed the inadequacy of social security safety net provisions, and has driven poor people with few livelihood and social security options to an even more precarious position. The income support of a BIG can provide significant relief to poor communities, yet it faces strong opposition from political and economic conservatives. To successfully counter this resistance, civil society organisations and activists will need to force change by proving the technical feasibility of a BIG, and ensure that pressure is brough to bear on decision makers through mass action and other forms of advocacy.

In this advocacy work, the voice of people most affected is of critical importance.

• What strategies and coalitions will be needed to ensure their experiences and concerns are reflected in and inform policy conversations?
• How do campaigning and advocacy organisations ensure that people have the necessary technical knowledge to articulate their BIG-related demands independently and effectively?
• What role do community organisers play in connecting the technical policy issues to community struggles?
• What do solidarity networks and their participating organisations need to do to develop and implement a truly mass-based campaign?

ACT Ubumbano will convene an online Learning Hub on Monday 14^th September from 10h00 to 12h15 to grapple with these questions, and to challenge participating organisations and activists to find new ways of supporting struggles for BIG…and for human dignity in communities in the region.

Click here to register to participate. If you have any questions, email thabo@actubumbano.org.

1. Introduction & BackgroundACT Ubumbano is a voluntary association comprising European and Southern African organisations working for social justice. More information is available at www.actubumbano.org.We are looking to appoint a service provider to support the ACT Ubumbano Coordinator in the management of the organisation’s finances, administration and regulatory compliance.  Currently we have a staff of three people, and an annual budget (not considering COVID-19 revisions) of approximately ZAR 8 million.ACT Ubumbano has currently contracted one of its partner non-profit organisations to act as its fiscal host but finance matters will now be brought under the control of the Coordinator.

2. Scope of WorkThe new service provider will be expected to provide, among others, the following main functions:
   
   • With the Coordinator, develop and implement a robust financial management system for ACT Ubumbano that incorporates a strong framework of internal control and enables good financial reporting to internal and external stakeholders.
   • Assist with the opening of new bank accounts and the management of all banking activities including the making of properly authorised payments to service providers on a monthly basis.
   • Establish and manage a forex facility for enabling transactions beyond South Africa.
   • Lead the handover of accounting records from the current fiscal host; capture all monthly financial transactions, based on proper and appropriate documentation and on coding/allocations provided by the Coordinator according to an agreed monthly timetable; reconcile/analyse all balance sheet accounts and provide financial reports for the organisation’s budget holders, for its board and for donors in the manner, and at the points in time, required by the respective funding contracts.
   • Prepare funder reports for audit, where applicable, and compile the draft annual financial statements for the organisation’s general purpose audit on the basis of a suitable accounting framework.
   • Prepare/provide all supporting schedules and reconciliations required by the auditors.
   • Manage payroll functions for the organisation’s employees including the monthly running of the payroll against an authorised salary, allowance and deduction schedule, together with leave recording, maintenance of the leave provision and submission of monthly, half-yearly and annual SARS returns and compliance with other statutory requirements from SARS, UIF, COIDA and others.
   • As requested, advise the Coordinator on financial management matters for the prudent stewardship of the organisation’s money.

3. Invitation to BidInterested and suitably qualified and experienced parties are invited to submit their bids to provide the required financial management services. Each bid should contain the following:
   
   • Your assessment of the level of effort required to provide this service.
   • A clear statement of your suitability and capacity to undertake the assignment on an ongoing basis, including a description of the experience and qualifications of those who will be providing the services.
   • Evidence of experience in similar work (we will treat information with due discretion).
   • Confirmation of the accounting and payroll packages that you would propose to use to meet the above requirements with your reasons as to why those packages would be suitable.
   • Name and contact details of a representative of at least 2 existing clients who would be prepared to act as referees.
   • Your fee estimate.

4. Submission InformationAll submissions must be sent to ashley@actubumbano.org by no later than 16h00 on Monday 17 August 2020. The same email address can be used for any questions that you need to ask when preparing your bid.