The NSP GBVF Implementation Collaborative is piloting the 100-Day Challenge process as a way to fast-track the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NSP GBVF) at local level.
The first leadership design session in preparation to launch 100-Day Challenges to advance the NSP GBVF took place in Welkom, Lejweleputswa District, on Thursday 27 January 2022. A total of 22 participants, who represent government, local CBO’s and NGO’s (Including, Famsa, Men’s Forum, DSD, Safer SA, UN, SAPS, Shelter Movement, House of Hope, and others) put their heads together to decide how best to move forward. They are all committed to the implementation of the NSP GBVF at local level through the 100-Day Challenge.
The Matjhabeng Municipality leaders devised a challenge, facilitated by NSP GBVF Ambassadors, that will have a lasting impact on Response, Care, Support & Healing for victims and survivors of GBV and the families of Femicide victims.
Their focus is to work within the Thuthuzela, SAPS, Victim Empowerment, and Court systems to strengthen support to victims, survivors and their families that will include psychosocial and legal support which will make it easier for them to navigate the system and access justice.
“I was absolutely delighted about the degree of collaboration, the intensity and transparency with which the stakeholders engaged and the richness and robustness of the conversations. I noted with great excitement that 50% of the participants were men, which I thought was a powerful statement about the accountability of the community,” said Tracey Kotzen, the NSP GBVF Ambassador who was part of the facilitation team at the event.
Another leadership design session will take place in Bloemfontein on Friday 11 February 2022, facilitated by the NSP GBVF Ambassador team focussed on Justice, Safety, and Protection. The focus area for this challenge is alternative dispute resolution and rehabilitation toward restorative justice.
100-Day Challenges are structured journeys for frontline teams and leaders that are designed to inspire and enable intense collaboration, continuous innovation, and fast and disciplined execution.
Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) was officially declared a national crisis in 2019 following the first ever GBVF Summit on the African continent in 2018. The National Strategic Plan on GBVF was developed in consultation with all roleplayers and published at the beginning of 2020. Ever since, the largest single volunteer network in South Africa, the NSPGBVF Multi-sectoral Implementation Collaborative, has been working tirelessly to build the necessary capacity to bring this plan to action.
Over the past two years there have been great strides from an overarching legislative perspective and decision-makers are beginning to gain a deeper understanding of the structural drivers that allow this problem to continue. Nonetheless, we still have a long way to go.
Six teams will be working in 7 districts to localise the implementation of the NSP GBVF over the next 7 months. The work currently in progress will set the stage for 100-Day Challenges to kick off at the beginning of March 2022.
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