The NEDLAC Community Constituency

According to the Nedlac Constitution, the Community Constituency refers to 'non-governmental organisations representing community interests with an interest in development and reconstruction and which have been admitted as parties of the Council' (Section 1: Sub clause 1.11.). The constituency's role is to represent the views of local communities, women, youth, and people with disabilities in the NEDLAC participatory process on social and economic issues.

The Community Constituency originally comprised of five sectors. The rural sector had the National Rural Development Forum as its representative; the youth sector, the National Youth Development Forum (which was subsequently replaced by the South African Youth Council); the women sector, the Women's National Coalition; the disabled sector, the Federal Council of the Disabled (later replaced by the Disabled People South Africa), and the civic sector was represented by the South African National Civic Organization.

The community constituency presently comprises of six sectors. It co-opted two additional organizations; the National Co-operative Association of South Africa and the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition, representing the co-operative movement and grass roots communities on local economic development issues respectively.

Thus, the organizations comprising the community constituency are:

• The South African Youth Council (SAYC)
• The Disabled People South Africa (DPSA)
• The Women's National Coalition (WNC)
• The Financial Sector Campaign Coalition (FSCC)
• The National Co-operative Association of South Africa (NCASA)
• The South African National Civic Organization (SANCO) 

The South African National Civic Organization (SANCO)

The South African National Civic Organization draws it membership from the poor communities who reside in townships and informal settlements.  SANCO, as a community based organization thrives on its past credentials in community struggles e.g. the Landless People Movement, Rates Payers Associations, Masakhane Campaign, etc whose struggles are fundamentally informed by bread and butter issues. SANCO is present in all 54 regions in South Africa.

The mission of SANCO is to contribute to improve the lives of people through accelerated socio-economic development, democracy and prosperity.

The Women's National Coalition (WNC)

The Women's National Coalition was launched in 1991, soon after the unbanning of political parties. The now focuses on training for parliamentary and local government candidates and community leaders and plays a key role in adult basic education and gender training.

The mission of the WNC is to act as an effective gender equality organizing forum that works toward the improvement of the quality of life of all South African women in a committed and flexible manner and to carry out research in women's issues to improve women's lives.

National Co-operative Association of South Africa (NCASA)

The National Co-operative Association of South Africa came into existence in 1997 as an umbrella body for all South African co-operatives. It is the voice of all co-operatives in the country.  The organization represents a wide spectrum of people cutting across all age groups and gender. Its membership profile stretches from the illiterate to the well educated people in both rural and urban. Co-operatives represented by NCASA include Worker Co-operatives, Financial Co-operatives, Consumer Co-operatives, Housing Co-operatives and Agricultural Co-operatives. The bulk of the NCASA's member organizations are in Financial Services co-ops and Agricultural co-ops. The influence of NCASA outside the borders can be witnessed through the existence of links with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).

The mission of NCASA is to promote and protect the concept and practice of cooperation and contributes to the organization of significant areas of the economy and society around cooperative values and principles - the building of a cooperative sector.

Disabled People South Africa (DPSA)

The Disabled People South Africa was established in 1984 to cater for the needs of the disabled. DPSA is the democratic cross-disability umbrella body of organizations of people with disabilities in South Africa, recognized as the National Assembly of disabled people by Disabled people International (DPI), which has observer status in the United Nations. DPSA represents the interest of all people with disabilities across all age and gender groupings and its motto is "Nothing About Us without Us". The majority of the membership of the organization is well educated and drawn from various political parties across the country. The organization head office is in Cape Town and has operational provincial offices in 8 provinces with the Northern Cape being the only province with no office. 

The mission of DPSA is to be an effective and efficient democratic national assembly of all persons with disabilities which mobilizes to advocate for their rights for the attainment of equal opportunity in an integrated, social, political and economic environment.

South African Youth Council (SAYC)

The South African Youth Council is a civil society umbrella body of all youth organizations. It creates a platform for young people to voice out their interests. It collectively lobbies and advocates for the empowerment and the rights of youth in South Africa and abroad. SAYC provides a forum for youth organizations and youth service providers to contribute to youth policy and monitor its implementation.

SAYC facilitates the participation of youth in upholding democratic values as enshrined in the constitution and bill of rights of the republic of South Africa. Its membership is drawn from the national youth formations, NGOs servicing the youth and spread across political, cultural and religious affiliation.

The mission of SAYC is to harness all efforts by youth organizations to realize a roll out of a comprehensive youth development plan in South Africa.

Financial Sector Campaign Coalition (FSCC)

The Coalition represents the interest of all South Africans in general and particularly the poor who are having transacting or prospectively hoping to have bank account/investments. The Financial Sector Campaign Coalition has 52 member organizations spread all over the country and drawn from political, civil organizations, non profit organizations, research institutions, Cooperative movements, labour organizations, ANC, COSATU, Youth Leagues, Student Organizations, TAC, Naledi, Human Rights Commission, Gender Commission, Rural Women Organization, Utshani Housing Association, Blacksash etc. The organization clearly represents all age and gender groupings cutting across all educational levels.

The mission of the FSCC is to mobilize civil society and build a movement which contributes to the transformation and diversification of the financial sector in the South African economy, in mobilizing capital and other resources for economic growth and development, and to use this in the promotion of local livelihoods, local economic sustainability and development.

The Coalition's programmes include: conducting research on the role of the financial sector in South Africa; disseminating research findings to its large constituency through a variety of media; conducting information and education programmes for members of FSCC affiliates in order to improve financial literacy; mobilising communities to campaign for an end to unfair industry practices such as redlining and discriminating against people with HIV/AIDS.

Also affiliated to the FSCC is, the Black Sash, a national human rights organisation that works to empower marginalized communities and individuals to speak for themselves in order to effect change in their social and economic circumstances. Through their rights education, advice giving, and advocacy programmes they educate and inform individuals and groups about their rights in order to empower them to take action to access these rights within the area of social protection (social assistance, social insurance, social services and subsidies) and consumer protection (debt and credit). The Black Sash also advocates for economic and social policies and practices that make it possible for all South Africans to eat nutritiously and live with dignity.  In 2007 its seven regional offices helped 6 621 people and recovered over R9.7 million in government grants and private pensions and social security insurance.