Invite: PAIA Training for Housing Sector

Invite: PAIA Training Housing Sector

SAHA would like to invite NGO's in the housing sector to a series of capacity - building workshops. The workshops are centered on access to information and in particular, the right to information. Please note that participation is free.

SAHA is an independent human rights archive dedicated to documenting and providing access to archival holdings that relate to past and contemporary struggles for justice in South Africa. To further its objective to recapture lost and neglected histories and to record aspects of South African history in the making, SAHA's Freedom of Information Programme (FOIP) runs capacity-building workshops in various sectors. This year, SAHA has elected to train NGOs working in the housing sector.

The training aims to: assist organisations understand how the right to information is an enabling right that can help groups to realise other human rights; explain how information can be used as an advocacy tool; and teach people how to access information by using the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).

The workshops are aligned with the legislated PAIA timelines, meaning that they run over a period of 6 months. There are three one-day sessions. The content covered is as follows:

First session (early February 2013)

• Value of information
• Access to information
• Submitting a PAIA request

Second session (late March 2013 - 6 weeks after the first session)

• Assessing the response to the PAIA request
• Assessing information released
• Internal appeal process

Third session (mid-April 2013 - 6 weeks after the second session)

• Role of chapter 9 institutions (SAHRC, Public Protector)
• Way forward

All workshops will be held in Johannesburg or Cape Town. The precise dates and locations will be decided in December. SAHA can offer limited funds to help cover transportation costs.

If you would like to attend, please contact Senkhu Maimane or Persia Sayyari at foip@saha.org.za or (011) 718 2560 before December 14, 2012.