Area
(iii) social
GOAL(s)
Select most relevant to SDGs, max. 3 goals (erase the not relevant ones)
GOAL 1: No Poverty
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
Summary (description and reason to be)
The Nelson Mandela Foundation is a non-profit organisation focused on memory, dialogue and legacy work, founded by Nelson Mandela in 1999. The Foundation are the custodian of his life and times; we are a committed facilitator of his living legacy; and they are mandated to promote his lifelong vision of freedom and equality for all. Part of the preservation and advancement of Madiba’s legacy and making this legacy available to the world is the provision and ongoing preservation of its extensive archive collection materials.
Target: Vulnerable Group (VG) and/or type of community
The foundation provided the base for his charitable work, covering a wide range of endeavours: from building schools to HIV/AIDS work, from research into education in rural areas to peace and reconciliation interventions.
Five years later, the Foundation began its transition into an organisation focused on memory, dialogue and legacy work. A comprehensive refurbishment of the Foundation’s building provided it with an appropriate physical home, the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory. The Centre was opened on 18 November 2013, three years to the day after Mr Mandela last used the building as his office.
Application setting: context
- The creation, establishment, protection and preservation of a Centre of Memory about Mr Mandela, which contains an archive of the life and times, works, and writings of the Founder
- Convening dialogue around critical social issues, including particular issues regarding human rights and democracy, in order to contribute to a just society
- The promotion of, or engaging in, philosophical activities, including discussion regarding issues pertaining to human rights and democracy
- The raising of funds in furtherance of the Trust’s objectives
- The provision of support services to, or the promotion of the common interests of, public benefit organisations
Objectives
The vision is a just society, one which learns from its pasts and listens to all its voices.
The mission is to contribute to the making of a just society by mobilising the legacy of Nelson Mandela, providing public access to information on his life and times, and convening dialogue on critical social issues.
The core objective is to deliver to the world an integrated and dynamic information resource on the life and times of Nelson Mandela, and promote the finding of sustainable solutions to critical social problems through memory-based dialogue interventions.
Requirements
The Nelson Mandela Foundation focuses its work on contributing to the making of just societies by mobilising the legacy of Nelson Mandela, providing public access to information on his life and times, and convening dialogue on critical social issues. The key objective is finding sustainable solutions to the problems confronting humanity. We aim to become a respected change agent in South Africa and beyond, with a global audience and an embedded practice of deep dialogue informed by robust research, analysis and evaluation.
Performance procedures
The objective of the Dialogue and Advocacy platform is to find sustainable solutions to critical social issues. Drawing on the rich traditions of transformative dialogue, problem-solving and social renewal that made South Africa’s remarkable transition possible, the Foundation hopes the drive positive change and realise social justice by facilitating engagements about the problems people face.
Activities
The Nelson Mandela Foundation’s research and archive function aims to generate an integrated and dynamic information resource on the life and times of Nelson Mandela, and to undertake the research and analysis required to support all Nelson Mandela Foundation functions.
Unlike most conventional archives, the Foundation is not defined by the custody of physical collections (although it has substantial and growing collections).
The Mandela Archive is infinite, fragmented and scattered, both geographically and institutionally. It is neither the intention of the Foundation, nor its mandate, to bring all these materials into a single physical collection.
Results
The imperative is to document this vast resource, facilitate access to it, and promote its preservation and use. The most important tool in achieving this objective is web-based technology.
The Foundation has conceptualised a multilayered virtual archive (portal) accessible through its website.
The following key design elements define the portal’s shape – a surface layer of stories and information; databases providing dense description of materials; linkages to actual materials, to other sites and to different layers within the site; digitised materials, from hard copy to moving images; and a social media webbing around it.
The Foundation aims to continue developing the portal, staying abreast of new technologies, and ensuring that the portal becomes the best used and most highly trusted online resource on the life and times of Nelson Mandela.
The Foundation routinely fields several thousand enquiries a year about Mr Mandela, about archival sources, access to materials, and use of Mr Mandela’s intellectual property. The Foundation constitutes a one-stop shop for all such enquiries, whatever their origin.
In addition to routine research on the life and times of Mr Mandela, the Foundation undertakes both continuing robust scoping of the broader social environments in which the organisation operates and a range of special research projects.
The Foundation, through its research and archive work:
- Locates documents and promotes the preservation of these scattered resources.
- Collects and curates Mr Mandela’s personal archive.
- Promotes public access to these resources.
- Facilitates research by individuals and institutions.
- Utilises an array of information-delivery platforms to make information available to global and local audiences.
Strengths
The Nelson Mandela Foundation is a proud and formulation of Nelson Mandela Day recognised every year on Mandela Day. This has grown to be a strength recognised even by the UN Day on the 18 of July (Mandela’s birthday) where people volunteer to recognise the work that Nelson Mandela left behind.
Nelson Mandela followed three rules throughout his life, which he did at great personal sacrifice: Free yourself. Free others. Serve every day. It was not just his mantra; it was his way of life.
The message behind the Nelson Mandela International Day campaign is simple – that everyone has the ability and responsibility to make an impact through public service. It is the activation of our Founder’s ethos and demonstrates that his vision has indeed inspired a global movement for good. The call to action is clear: act, inspire change and make every day a Mandela Day.
Mandela Day will continue to become an even more vital means of honouring and activating his legacy. It joins government, civil society, industry and the general public in a common purpose.
If the legacy of Nelson Mandela’s life and work is to be dynamic, it must be “owned” by current and future generations; it must be accessible to everyone, and applied in constantly changing contexts of time and place.
The Mandela Day campaign was inaugurated as a vehicle to achieve this. Its objective is to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better, and in doing so, to build a global movement for good. Ultimately, it seeks to empower communities everywhere.
Individuals and organisations are free to participate in making every day a Mandela Day. We do, however, urge them to find inspiration for their contribution in the legacy of Nelson Mandela and to adhere to the ethical framework of “service to one’s fellow humans” every day.
Difficulties or constrains for its implementation
Some constraints are the funding for such work is limited as they must fund limited number of projects or organisations as the funding is on application basis. So, the Nelson Mandela Foundation implements projects for South African communities, but it has to reject some CBO’s as its funding is limited too.
CRITERIA actors or stakeholder are using to assess it as a “good practice”
All organisations wishing to implement such good practice are invited to Nelson Mandela Foundation and learn from the Board and Trustee how such a model has functioned. Funding also comes from local as well as international organisations which carry one the work of community development in South Africa.
Year and length (duration)
In 1999 was the foundation and it still continues to grow in strength until this day.
