The Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa
Mission
The Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa (IFAISA) is devoted to upholding constitutionalism in Southern Africa through the inculcation of the values of accountability and responsiveness to the needs of the people of the region in its governments, parastatal organizations and civil society, including business and industry. Accountability is the obligation of those with power or authority to explain their performance and justify their decisions.
Projects
Research: IFAISA conducts scientific and legal research concentrating on the socio-political and economic issues of the day.
Monitoring services: IFAISA monitors the legislative, policy, legal and regulatory environments with a view to upholding the values of constitutionalism, the revival of ubuntu and the promotion of human rights and responsibilities in the region.
Information services: IFAISA publishes, in the media and by email to its subscribers, an ad hoc ACCALERT newsletter containing up to the minute information and comment on developments in the parliaments and courts of the region as they occur. A quarterly electronic magazine, ACCOUNTABILITY QUARTERLY, covers issues affecting accountability and responsiveness to the needs of the people of the region, it collects the most important information first published as ACCALERTS.
Education for adults programme: IFAISA conducts workshops and seminars designed to empower field workers in the non-governmental organization sector, to inform and enlighten public servants and to assist governments so as to improve service delivery through accountability and responsiveness.
Public awareness campaign: strategies to promote public awareness of the entitlement of ordinary inhabitants of the region to accountability from those who rule them are undertaken through liaison with the media orally, electronically and in writing in the press.
Legal assistance: IFAISA assists people and organizations to claim their rights, through litigation when necessary, and to hold those in authority responsible for their conduct and omissions.
The Mufasa project: teaches the youth of the region on an age appropriate basis that the last four letters of African spell...yes: "I can", that politics is for serving people, not making money, and that all in their own way can leave the region a better place than they found it by living responsibly according to the values of dignity, equality and freedom in a way which accords with the tenets of accountability and responsiveness.
