South Africa is one of the most unsafe places in the world for womxn, children and LGBTQIA+ individuals to simply exist. Gender-Based Violence & Femicide (GBVF) was officially declared a national crisis in 2019. It is a whole of society problem that requires collective action to solve it.
100-Day Challenges create an enabling environment for frontline workers to overcome the systemic obstacles they face in delivering prevention interventions as well as services to victims & survivors of GBV. A facilitated process leads to intense collaboration, rapid innovation, and disciplined execution. In addition to the tangible impact, the lessons learned and relationships formed pave the way to long-term sustainable solutions.
Seven teams across the country participated in GBVF NSP 100-Day Challenges as part of a pilot initiative to discover what is possible when multisectoral teams commit to new ways of working together to shift the needle on National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and Femicide (NSP GBVF) implementation.
Ambassadors from each of the six NSP GBVF “Pillar” working groups of End GBVF Collective worked alongside local teams to improve knowledge of the outcomes of the NSP GBVF and facilitate their implementation at municipal level. These are the tangible results:
PILLAR 1: Accountability, Coordination and Leadership.
Rapid Response Teams have been established in Sol Plaatje resulting in improved response times & increased reporting. The team in Frances Baard District set a goal to reduce GBV incidence by 30% by repairing 48 streetlights and floodlights in Phuthanang GBV hot spots, and conducting awareness campaigns. They exceeded their target, 62 lights were repaired & installed and 60 community and door-to-door engagements were conducted which led to a 45.5% reduction in reported sexual offences in the area.
PILLAR 2: Prevention & rebuilding Social Cohesion.
Learners in Tshwane have been enabled to play an active role in GBV prevention at school through child-centred GBV prevention strategies. The team achieved their goal to implement evidence-informed programmes in 2 schools and safety audits and actions to reduce GBVF hotspots in 100-Days. Fourteen changemakers were trained who in turn trained 60 of their peers at Tiyelelani Secondary School and Hlompanang Secondary School. Going forward, GIZ-Violence and Crime Prevention programme and Katekani will in partnership roll out whole-of-society school-based training on NSP GBVF Pillar 2.
PILLAR 3: Justice, Safety & Protection.
In Bloemfontein, the team set out to reduce the maintenance case backlog by 75% in 100-Days. They exceeded their target and reduced the backlog by 82% without any additional resources by simply working together in new and innovative ways. They also aimed to increase the finalisation rate of maintenance cases from 51% per month to 75% per month in 100-Days. They got very close to their target with a 65.5% finalisation rate in April, 71% in May, and 74% in June despite the fact that there was also an increase in cases during this period. They have relaunched another round of 100-Day Challenges that will see this model implemented in 5 other maintenance courts in the Free State. Their lift-off workshops take place on 16 September 2022.
In Tzaneen, the rate of withdrawn sexual assault cases involving minors has decreased by 70%. This was an unintended spin-off of the team’s initial goal to increase the reporting of rape cases by 80% compared with the same period last year, with the focus on rural areas. Although the rate of reporting only increased by 37% the decreased withdrawals was attributed to a number of successful multi-sectoral awareness campaigns. The team also managed to establish mobile office one-stop service in communities as well as temporary shelters for victims and survivors. All critical factors in providing a core package of services to enable the necessary support to pursue justice.
PILLAR 4: Response, Care, Support & Healing.
In Matjhabeng, the team set a goal to increase the number of victims & survivors of GBV accessing legal & psycho-social support services by 300% in 100-Days. In other words, prior to this challenge an average of 416 clients were accessing response, care, support and healing services on a monthly basis despite there being significantly more cases reported. By the end of the 100-Days there were 1092 clients accessing services on a monthly basis, a 262% increase. This is in addition to the spaces created for healing during community engagements including support for frontline workers and team members.
PILLAR 5: Economic Power.
Exxarro have popularised their sexual harassment policies & offered self-defense classes to womxn in mining in their operations in Limpopo & Mpumalanga. The team set a goal to increase engagements on GBVF and Harassment at Exxaro in 100-Days and start a campaign to get 10,000 pledges condemning sexual harrassment and GBV in the workplace and society at large. Although only 1550 action pledges have been received so far, a total of 5200 employees have been engaged in conversations to end GBVF & harassment. Exxarro also produced a 12-episode educational series on the drivers of GBVF. The education and awareness campaigns saw a remarkable increase in the reporting of sexual harassment cases.
PILLAR 6: Research & Information Management.
Garden Route District is ready to trial an app that allows social workers to be assigned to child sexual & related offences cases at 1st reporting. They had initially set a goal to start using an integrated case management application for centralised victim and survivor-centred data within 100-Days but refined this goal to the creation of a tech-enabled solution to facilitate tracking of all suspected sexual and related offenses against children by means of Form 22 and Form 581B submissions. Although they were unable to secure the necessary permissions to trial the app within the 100-Days, they are committed to the process and will relaunch the next leg of their challenge as soon as the necessary permissions have been secured. This will take an estimated three to four months.
During the close-out celebration webinar, Ford Foundation announced their continued support for this initiative. We look forward to seeing 100-Day Challenges expanded and scaled throughout the country over the coming months and years.
A joint media briefing was held this morning, it can be viewed here:
The close-out celebration was broadcast live on facebook:
https://fb.watch/rwZYfH-mLS
To apply to become an Ambassador for NSP GBVF 100-Day Challenges in your district, please email [email protected] or WhatsApp 060 715 3607. For questions or to arrange an interview with any of the team leaders, please contact Candice Ludick on [email protected] or 060 715 3607.