As from January 2010, we are establishing an Advocacy and Policy Unit to facilitate synergy between PACSA’s accompaniment, awareness raising and advocacy and policy work. The aim is to support PACSA and its community partners to consistently and systematically mainstream research, advocacy and policy engagement in order to deepen democracy and deal effectively with the structural nature of poverty and socioeconomic inequality.

The intention is that our work in partnership with our community partners might substantially change

the conditions of their lives rather than simply finding survival solutions at local level.

Initial activities planned together with PACSA programmes and community partners include:

Baseline research for benchmarking programme progress; evidence based research, summarising and

simplifying relevant policy and other docs to aid programme and community partner advocacy processes; strategic advocacy working  policymaking forums. This is a way to enhance our

capacity to develop creative linkages between mass mobilization, building community organizations,

and engaging with policy development to create an environment conducive to political engagement and to eradicate the structural nature of poverty and socio-economic inequality.

Mervyn Abrahams, who left PACSA to join the University of KZN in March 09, will be back

to take up the leadership of this Unit in January 2010. We are thrilled to have him back, and pray

that he will be richly blessed in taking up this new and vital challenge in PACSA.