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Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies

Part2:Country studies

South Africa

Funding sources and adequacy

Blindlib

Total funding for Blindlib is approximately SAR 9.5m, amounting t R13.00 per capita per annum.

Government investment into building a culture of reading for blind and print impaired South Africans currently stands at R13.00 per capita per annum (at an exchange rate ratio of SAR11/GBP1).

Funding income is pretty static ? changes in tax legislation have made fund-raising much more difficult.

Funding comes from the National Department of Arts and Culture (SAR 7.5m) and fund-raising activities (SAR 2m).

There is no regular funding from provincial or municipal government, only the occasional grants-in-aid.

Project funding has been received from international organisations to carry out specialised training activities or best practice transfer of skills.

The provision of a free national library and information service (Blindlib) is partially subsidized by the National Department of Arts and Culture. Other services are provided by different institutions from different budgets. At present there is no direct national funding channel linked to provincial and local library services, which undermines many projects that could be developed between these tiers. This also places local and provincial libraries at a distinct disadvantage in terms of receiving adequate funding due to each provinces’ particular initiatives. The need for the Department of Education to come on board is taking root very strongly.

Adequacy

Funding is quite inadequate. There is particularly no funding available for changing technology, or, for visually impaired people to ave access to affordable adaptable equipment.

On an ongoing basis, Blindlib estimates that it would probably need to realise more than double its funding on an annual basis just to maintain and upgrade their service to international benchmarks, but in the South African context.

Considering that at present Blindlib only addresses the needs of approximately 1% of all South Africans with a visual disability with a current government investment of R13.00 per capita per annum, this would need to increase enormously to be able to provide a relevant library and information service to all people with a visual disability.