sivioinstitute.org

SIVIO Institute Advisory Services

Our mission is to promote a citizen-focused democracy by catalysing citizens’ agency to enhance government performance and nurture the mobilisation of community assets.

The Advisory Unit

The SIVIO Institute Advisory Unit is a unit within the organisation dedicated to coordinating and managing commissioned projects from third parties. Our advisory work is based on our competencies, namely:   

  • Design and preparation of organisational, sustainability, and advocacy strategies for non-profits;
  • Development of Integrated Technology Platforms/ dashboards for accountability, advocacy and learning;
  • Policy analysis and advice on land policies, food security, agrarian reform, rural development strategies, philanthropy, analysis of elections;
  • Development of research papers and conference presentations;
  • Support to philanthropy organisations;
  • Facilitating and Designing training courses;
  • Deploying surveys and developing reports;  
  • Hosting dialogues and convenings.

Our Services

Our services include:

Research Services

Training and Capacity Building

Curating and Hosting Dialogues

Regranting and Fiscal Hosting of Grants

Our Projects

  • Training of Local Councillors and Residents Associations

    SIVIO supported the International Republican Institute by training 10 Local Councillors and 92 members of Residents Associations in Marondera, Chitungwiza, Bulawayo, and Goromonzi on Local Governance. The training, held between March and April 2022, used modified content from our Public Policy and Analysis Course to prepare participants for local advocacy ahead of the 2023 national…

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  • Vision 2020 Dialogues

    SIVIO curated and hosted six (6) dialogues to frame the importance of an inclusive Vision 2030 process. The dialogues gave platforms to non-state actors to comment and address the areas of focus as well as speak about progress made so far towards achieving an upper-middle-income society. These dialogues were a pathway to build trust as…

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  • Political Economy Master Class

    In partnership with TrustAfrica, we developed and conducted an online Political Economy Master Class to foster critical consciousness among activists, community organizers, and civil society leaders. The training focused on contemporary political economy issues, participatory democracy, inclusive economy, pro-poor service delivery, and social justice.

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  • Adapting in the Face of Change: Citizen Participation and the Role of Civil Society in Zimbabwe

    The conference focused on understanding and surfacing new patterns of citizen participation during the period of COVID-19. The conference provided an opportunity to learn from best practices in Uganda and Zambia.

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  • Youth Participation in GoZ COVID-19 Initiatives

    The study, conducted across all ten provinces of Zimbabwe, examined youth contributions to national processes, especially COVID-19 responses at various levels. It also provided recommendations to enhance youth agency and oversight in future response activities, resulting in a report and executive summary with proposed recommendations.

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  • Regranting and Fiscal Hosting of Grants

    SIVIO Institute partnered with Victory Adullam Foundation to manage a grant supporting a feeding scheme in Epworth by ‘Our Children, Our Hope Foundation’. SIVIO also helped the foundation register as a Trust with the Epworth Local Board.

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FAQs

Who is SIVIO Institute?

SIVIO Institute was established in January 2018 to contribute towards nurturing processes that lead to a more inclusive society. We have an African footprint. We contribute towards (i) a new type of citizen-based politics, (ii) revamping the economy for shared growth, and (iii) building a people-to-people philanthropy. We do this not just by looking at ‘what is’, but we actively work with start-up founders, community foundations, civil society leaders and activists to frame ‘what should be’ narratives.

We seek to address the following problems:

  1. Inadequate performance of existing political systems in Africa,
  2. Inadequate models of development, and
  3. Limited local participation in national and continental processes of African citizens.

Our approach is aimed at increasing participation in policy processes, redefining philanthropy and creating new forms of giving that are responsive to citizens’ needs.

What is the SIVIO Approach?

SIVIO Institute integrates the centres of work with various tools. Our tools of intervention  include knowledge production, training, dialogues/convenings, and leveraging of technology. Most of our work uses technology as the key to our country-wide and continental reach. We have close to 17 technology platforms that include trackers (African Citizens Watch), indices (African Citizenship Index, Philanthropy Index, Financial Inclusion Index), information hubs (Philanthropy Lab), an online training platform (SIVIO Institute Online School) as well as a giving platform for individuals to support African NGOs (Africa Giving). We also have several websites to keep our followers engaged in our work: The SIVIO Institute Website, SIVIO Connect and the African Journal of Inclusive Societies.

How is SIVIO organised?

We have organized our work into three centres of work:

  1. Philanthropy and Communities

The centre is focused on nurturing and growing a philanthropy that draws upon existing local assets. The centre also seeks to further improve the work of citizens in various forms of associational life

2. Civic Engagement

The centre is focused on sharpening citizens engagement in public processes and increasing participation in the demand and implementation of inclusive policies.

3. Economic Development and Livelihoods

The centre is focused on supporting social enterprises as a sustainable model for local development. It also seeks to study and understand the key drivers of economic growth namely agriculture, mining and land use.

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