Civil society organisations, particularly community-based organisations, are often on the frontlines of responding to complex social challenges. Yet, they face a host of obstacles that limit their impact. Many are under-resourced and overstretched, relying on small teams to deliver programmes, fundraise and manage administrative tasks without access to adequate training, systems and leadership development courses.

When core organisational functions are weak, interventions suffer. Considering their critical role in South African society, the sector needs strong, resilient and innovative organisations. Strengthening the sector is a shared responsibility among the organisations themselves, various players in the NGO space, donors and government.

In this podcast, we discuss ways to support civil society through funding, resources and strategies that won’t fall flat. We talk to Malibongwe Nkunkuma, Innovation Manager at DGMT. 

Visit www.dgmt.co.za/the-impact-engine to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

Owning books can change a child’s life trajectory. This is a profound statement rooted in evidence from research around the world. Toddlers who are read to learn more words, aiding their ability to speak and read when they start school, and children who read for enjoyment perform well academically.

The advantage of owning books is significant — children with books at home have the edge on children who don’t, irrespective of their parents’ income or educational attainment. But many South Africans, mostly in poorer communities, are not experiencing the positive impact of book ownership since a quarter of households have no books at all.

There is a solution — giving books to children for free to support their early language development and emergent literacy. Other countries are already doing this; for instance, the United Kingdom gives families free books to encourage reading to children at home.

In this podcast, we talk about the value of owning books and whether our country needs a national book giveaway programme for our poorest children. Our guests are Kwanda Ndoda, Project Lead of Umncedi, Ongeziwe Nxokwana, Innovation Manager at DGMT and Dorette Louw, Director of Programmes and Operations at Book Dash.

Visit www.dgmt.co.za/the-economic-value-of-free-books to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

Youth development practitioners often focus on the supply and demand side of unemployment: greater investment in skills development and quality education on the one hand, with job creation and economic growth on the other.

However, in South Africa, a country with high rates of poverty and inequality, we often miss an important part of the conversation — the experience of poverty on a young person’s ability to identify, connect with, and hold on to opportunities.

Poverty is not just about material deprivation; it impacts every aspect of a young person’s life, including their confidence. The inner or hidden dimensions of poverty also require policy attention and investment in evidence-based interventions.

In this podcast, we explore how the inner dimensions of poverty reinforce the everyday material hardships experienced by out-of-school and unemployed young people. We talk to Simone Peinke, project lead of FETCH and Anwar Parker, Psychologist for the Year Beyond programme, about how these compounding challenges trap them in cycles of exclusion and what we can do to help them break free.

Visit www.dgmt.co.za/the-hidden-dimensions-of-poverty to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

There is no safe amount of alcohol consumption for teenagers. Early binge drinking has long-term consequences on brain development, health and wellbeing. It also stokes social problems as teens lose interest in school, engage in risky sexual behaviour and find themselves in dangerous situations.

Alcohol advertising contributes to this. Young people are influenced by marketing so much that researchers have found the more they’re exposed to advertising the more likely they are to drink. The alcohol industry also uses other ways to promote their products, like using influencers on social media which is popular with young people. This type of marketing could be restricted if lawmakers passed legislation banning alcohol advertising, except at the point of sale.

The social toll of heavy and binge drinking is felt everywhere, but it’s most acute in communities where violence, crime, unemployment and poverty are rife. NGOs in these communities experience first-hand the impact of teen drinking and have to respond to the problems it causes. At the same time, little is being done nationally to prevent these problems from happening.

In this podcast, we explore the impact of alcohol advertising on teenagers, and the impact of binge drinking on communities. We talk to Kashifa Ancer, Campaign Manager for Rethink Your Drink, an alcohol harms reduction campaign; and Aadielah Maker-Diedericks, Secretary General of the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance (SAAPA).

Visit www.dgmt.co.za/would-an-advertising-ban-reduce-teen-drinking to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

South Africa has a constitutional responsibility to uphold children’s rights. The government does this in different ways, by setting laws, delivering public services, allocating funding from the national budget and by taking decisions that affect children’s lives. What’s been missing for a long time is a shared vision for all children and teenagers which effectively places their interests at the centre of government decision-making.

This is where the National Strategy to Accelerate Action for Children (NSAAC) comes in — a high-level, shared vision aimed at improving the wellbeing and life outcomes of all children and teenagers in South Africa, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns that disrupted public services and people’s livelihoods.

This new strategy can only succeed if everyone gets behind it, including civil society organisations, many of whom are already delivering services in areas where government capacity is poor or limited, reaching people in their homes and remote communities.

In this podcast, we explore the type of strategic thinking needed to galvanise different sectors of society behind a common vision, with Noxolo Gqada, Strategy Lead for the Hold My Hand Accelerator, a project that supports the vision and priorities of the NSAAC. She talks about how the Accelerator is thinking about fast-tracking change for children.

Visit www.dgmt.co.za/thinking-on-the-edge to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

Mobile apps are designed to simplify and digitise almost every aspect of our modern lives. You can buy groceries from your couch, order take-out, catch a ride within minutes, or find a date online. Apps are not only convenient, but they have the potential to solve real-world problems, which is why civil society organisations are turning to technology to magnify the impact of their work.

In recent years, civil society organisations have shown eagerness to invest in tech solutions to address the everyday challenges of those working with young children. In response, DGMT invested in developing a suite of digital tools that could serve the needs of multiple organisations and cover a range of early childhood development services. With the support of behavioural scientists and experts, ECD Connect was born. The base version is free to use and customisable, allowing it to be utilised by a broad community of people, from early learning practitioners to community health workers. 

In this podcast, we discuss the challenges and benefits of developing tech solutions for civil society from the perspective of the developers of ECD Connect. We talk to the project’s lead, Peter Schutte, about the evolution of the app; its social purpose and its potential to radically change the traditionally paper-based environment of early education and community health.

Visit www.dgmt.co.za/is-there-an-app-for-that to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

What comes to mind when you hear the term ‘social protection’? For many, it’s social grants or government assistance programmes. But at its core, social protection is a safety net that keeps people from falling deeper into poverty, benefiting individuals and society. 

In South Africa, even though this principle is embedded in the Constitution, there are still gaps in our social protection system. Pregnant women living in poverty are falling through the cracks. Without financial support during pregnancy, women living in poor communities face greater economic hardship, limiting their ability to work and making it harder to afford nutritious food and healthcare. Right now, South Africa doesn’t have a dedicated social grant for expectant mothers living in poverty. Yet research shows that providing financial assistance during pregnancy leads to healthier babies and better long-term outcomes.

This matters for NGOs working on the frontlines of social development. The people most in need of social protection are often the very same communities that NGOs serve — whether in maternal health, early childhood development, or food security.  

A Maternal Support Grant (MSG) wouldn’t just change lives at an individual level; it could also ease the burden on NGOs because stronger state support for pregnant women has the potential to break cycles of intergenerational poverty.

In this Deep Dive conversation, we look at what a Maternal Support Grant could mean for South Africa, why it’s a social justice issue, and how NGOs can help push this conversation forward. We speak to Wanga Zembe-Mkabile, senior specialist scientist at the South African Medical Research Council; Julie Mentor, Project lead of Embrace and Daniel McLaren, a public finance economist at Ilifa Labantwana. 

Visit  www.dgmt.co.za/maternal-support-grant-its-social-justice to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

Strategic litigation is a tactic that involves going to court to promote social change or human rights. This approach targets specific legal barriers that affect entire communities, aiming to reshape laws, policies or practices.

But when is strategic litigation the right tool for an NGO? In some cases, it's essential when there's a clear legal violation that requires judicial intervention to effect change — such as when governments fail to uphold constitutional rights. On the other hand, it may not be the best strategy when the legal system isn’t the right forum for the issue at hand, or when the political or public momentum is still building, and a different kind of advocacy could be more effective.

In this Best Bite podcast, we break down the factors that determine whether strategic litigation is the right course of action for NGOs by drawing on the experience of DGMT’s Alcohol Harms Reduction campaign (relaunched as Rethink Your Drink). We speak to the campaign’s lead Zimasa Mpemnyama about why they’ve decided that the courtroom is the best place to effect change.

Visit  www.dgmt.co.za/litigate-to-advocate to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

In the world of policy change, timing is everything. According to political science scholar John Kingdon, a significant policy shift happens when three things are in place. First, the problem must be well understood. Second, there must be a viable and feasible solution ready to address that problem. And third, there must be political will to deal with the problem.

When these conditions are met, a policy window opens, sometimes unpredictably. Having solutions ready at the right time is key to taking advantage of these opportunities. This could mean working for several years, even decades, building a body of evidence for your solution before an opportunity reveals itself.

For NGOs who have long been lobbying for systemic reforms to improve the accessibility and quality of early learning programmes in South Africa, a radical shift in the landscape presented itself in early 2024 when the minister of education called for an urgent push to register approximately 22 000 unregistered early learning programmes. Only registered programmes can access state subsidies for children in poorer communities.

Today, the mass registration drive (as it’s known to those involved in its design and implementation) is a collaborative effort between government and its social partners.

In this Nourish & Flourish conversation, we talk to Kayin Scholtz, process design lead for the mass registration drive about how social partners are rallying to support the Department of Basic Education’s efforts to expand access to early childhood development subsidies and the conditions that made all this possible.

Visit  www.dgmt.co.za/what-are-policy-windows to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za

Civil society is a vibrant ecosystem of interest groups, activists, advocacy groups and organisations delivering a range of social services. These groups are often the first to design and test interventions, learning from their successes and failures, and staying closely connected to the communities they serve. They conduct research, gather evidence, and develop innovative solutions to pressing social issues. In many ways, civil society is the originator of powerful ideas that can lead to significant social impact.

But how do these ideas get taken up by the state? Beyond the usual processes of public participation and opportunities to comment on policy and legislation, how are civil society organisations shaping public policy and perceptions?

In this Deep Dive conversation, we explore the makings of powerful ideas and how they gain political traction and social support. Our guests are Zoe Postman, head of communications for social change at the Equality Collective, and Phylicia Oppelt, project lead of Change Ideas – a DGMT initiative.

Visit www.dgmt.co.za/the-anatomy-of-a-powerful-idea to read more and access the takeaway instructions.

The Learning Lunch podcast features three types of episodes: Deep Dives; Nourish & Flourish; and Best Bites.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:
The Main Meal - A ±30-minute podcast
The Takeaways - Instructions for a ±30-minute group reflection based on what you listened to.

To learn more about the work that we do, go to www.dgmt.co.za