Welcome to SIVIO Institute, where they are pursuing a certain kind of socio-economic and political transformation that is people centred and people driven. They like to think of ourselves as a think and do organization. They established SIVIO Institute as part of ongoing efforts to be an active catalyst for transformation and also after a realization of the frustration with the weak and inadequate attempts at inclusive economic development and democratisation.

There is an urgency to our work, they seek to contribute towards building resilient communities that recognize and leverage their assets but are also ably supported by an effective government with responsive policies. They strongly believe in helping strengthen communities and citizens’ own agency as they subscribe to the thinking democracy can only thrive where there are active citizens.

In all this they remain absolutely non-partisan but they welcome political parties to be part of our processes and where possible to use some of the knowledge products and innovations that they will be developing. They realize that the task of nation-building cannot be done by one organization alone and as such they see ourselves as part of an ecosystem of collaborative network. They are positioning ourselves as a learning and continuously evolving organisation.

Our initial work and focus has been organized around three inter-related areas:

Policy Analysis and Advocacy
Communities
Philanthropy
Although fairly new in the space, our thinking on what needs to be done has been developing over years. In 2015 they published ‘Beyond the Crises: Zimbabwe’s Prospects for Transformation’ and wthey have been debating around the ideas contained in the book at www.beyondthecrises.org

On the 5th of March they launched www.zimcitizenswatch.org, a platform that tracks conversion of promises or pledges made by the President into policy. The platform is part of an attempt to steer the public debates from being highly polarized towards a more issues-based process. They are committed to ensuring that our contributions for policy considerations will be informed by evidence that has been subjected to rigorous analysis. They are also particularly keen to be at the cutting edge of innovations in the manner in which they play a catalytic role in building philanthropy and citizen led democratic dispensation.

MISSION

Promote a citizen focused democracy by catalysing citizens’ agency to enhance government performance and nurture the mobilization of community assets.