AIDC.org.za – Celebrating our 30th Anniversary

The Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) is a South African organisation working to advance transformative social, economic, and environmental change. Our work is grounded in the belief that transformative change must be driven by organised communities and democratic participation.

We focus on three interconnected areas:

Advancing transformative economic and fiscal alternatives that promote equitable, sustainable, and inclusive development.
Supporting a just and equitable climate transition that protects livelihoods, strengthens community resilience, and places people and the environment at its centre.
Rebuilding counter-power and strengthening social movements to advance democratic accountability, collective action, and systemic change.
Through research, advocacy, capacity strengthening, and movement building, AIDC works to co-create emancipatory alternatives from below and contribute to a more just and democratic society.

Community members marching through Cape Town streets with banners and placards

Celebrating 30 Years of Struggle and Solidarity

For three decades, the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) has worked alongside workers, communities, social movements and progressive organisations to challenge inequality and advance alternatives rooted in social, economic and climate justice.

As we celebrate 30 years of struggle and solidarity, we honour the people, movements and partnerships that have shaped our journey. We also look ahead—strengthening alliances and building collective power for a wage-led, low-carbon, sustainable and equitable development path for South Africa and the wider Southern African region.

LATEST AMANDLA

With local government elections approaching and anti-migrant mobilisation growing, the central concern of this issue is how anger at poverty, unemployment and collapsing public services is being turned against other poor people. The feature, Setting the poor against the poor, asks how this politics can be defeated.

LATEST RESEARCH

Spending most of the budget on the social wage isn’t the same as meeting constitutional obligations. The world’s most unequal country can and must redistribute far more so everyone can live with dignity. Here are 10 ways that show how this can be done.

STATEMENTS

Economic transformation must come before fiscal surpluses. South Africa urgently needs large-scale public investment in public services, social protection, and economic and social infrastructure.