26 Apr 2012The Afrobarometer survey conducted in South Africa towards the end of 2011 provides interesting insights into the charachteristics of South African citizens and their percpetions of society and the country's democracy. ...

29 Mar 2012The Afrobarometer survey conducted in South Africa towards the end of 2011 provides interesting insights into the charachteristics of protests and protestors in South Africa. A recent surge in protests ...

28 Feb 2012Idasa's Right to Know, Right to Education Project publishes a Toolkit for School Budgeting and Budgeting Processes.

01 Dec 2010By Samantha Fleming Citizen action is an important part of democracy. Young people, our potential future leaders, are participating in discussions online about what it means to be an active ...

27 Oct 2010See the pics from the march, to defend our right to know http://www.facebook.com/democracyafrica

13 Aug 2008Participatory budgeting is a decision-making process through which citizens deliberate and negotiate over the distribution of public resources. Participatory budgeting programs are implemented at behest of governments, citizens, non-governmental organizations ...

22 Nov 2007Since 2001, Idasa, in partnership with Action Aid, has been using Reflect Circles to address a wide range of community issues in Mpumalanga. Now, after five successful years, Idasa is ...

31 Jul 2007By: Shameela Seedat A bedrock principle of South African constitutionalism is that the democratic political order cannot include only features of representative democracy, but must also incorporate elements of participatory ...

28 Aug 2006Harry C. Boyte, Marie-Louise Ström, and Bennitto Motitsoe Below the surface of the debates about self-enrichment of ANC leaders, party funding, and poverty statistics, is another debate with even larger ...

11 Aug 2006By Elizabeth Mekonnen The word ‘budget’ used to turn off social activists and development practitioners. Debate on the budget or public finance in general was traditionally the domain of economists, ...

18 Jul 2006Most government budgets present a range of large figures. Because programmes, departments and municipalities differ in size, one cannot compare the amounts with one another right away. Also, each year, ...

25 May 2006Parliament and the People: Citizen Participation in the Parliamentary Processes in Lesotho Compiled by Lindlyn Chiwandamira, Lene Overland and Stefan Gilbert in conjunction with the Parliament of Lesotho This handbook ...

22 Jun 2004The Bill of Rights applies to all law and binds not only all state institutions, but also all natural and juristic people. The rights that are protected include: • The right to ...

22 Jun 2004Ordinary citizens or groups of citizens can influence what happens to Bills and can lobby for new legislation or changes to existing laws. What follows is a brief outline of ...

22 Jun 2004What follows is a brief outline of the kind of issues necessary to remember when dealing with the media. It is not a comprehensive document, bur rather designed as an introduction ...

21 Jun 2004Ordinary citizens or groups of citizens can influence what happens to Bills and can lobby for new legislation or changes to existing laws. What follows is a brief outline of ...

21 Jun 2004This training toolkit is used as part of Idasa's Leadership Training, and covers the following areas: 1. How Government works in a democracy 2. Importance of voting and elections 3. Citizen Participation

22 Mar 2003Summary of Highlights This study, funded by the Centre for Civil Society at the University of Natal, explores the perceptions and experiences of 253 civil society organisations (CSOs) in South ...

01 Mar 2002As the Child Justice Bill comes to Parliament, it is important to understand the parliamentary process of passing legislation, and also the crucial role that NGOs and civil society in ...

21 Dec 2001This report provides the results of a survey conducted by the Co-operative for Research and Education (Core) and Idasa on behalf of the South African National Non-Governmental Organisation Coalition (Sangoco). Structure ...

12 Jun 2001See report for more information.