Halve gender violence by 2015: Score a goal for gender equality

25 November: Gender Links has urged Southern African governments to put prevention at the centre of national action plans to end gender violence during the Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence that gets underway today.

It has also called on governments to ensure that these plans include comprehensive legislation and services, harness the energies of all sectors of society, are based on baseline surveys with measurable indicators and are adequately funded.

Noting the positive trend towards stretching the Sixteen Days of Activism campaign to 365 days of action across the region GL has also urged local government and community based organisations to come forward with innovative campaigns for ending GBV at the local level to be featured at a Gender Justice and Local Government Summit in March 2009.

In a statement GL said that its slogan this year will be “halve gender violence by 2015: score a goal for gender equality” in line with the target set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development and as a way of linking this to the upcoming Soccer 2010.

GL is also linking its campaign to the call by the UN Secretary General on all governments to develop integrated plans with specific targets and timeframes as part of his global UNite to End Violence Against Women Campaign.

According to a baseline barometer conducted by the Southern African Protocol Alliance that campaigned for the gender protocol and is coordinated by GL “thanks to collaboration between civil society and governments, all SADC countries now have in place multi sector action plans to end gender violence.”

The SADC Gender Protocol Baseline Barometer notes however that “specific targets and indicators need to be strengthened. More resources and effort needs to go towards prevention.”

Other key findings (see attached detailed matrix) include:

• Nine of the SADC countries currently have legislation on domestic violence.
• Only seven SADC countries currently have specific legislation that relates to sexual offences.
• Only one country, South Africa, has specific provisions for Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP).
• Only five SADC countries have legislation to prevent human trafficking: Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, Mauritius and Zambia.
• Ten SADC countries have some form of legislation to address sexual harassment; most of this in.
• There is no legal aid for survivors of gender violence in at least five SADC countries; in all SADC countries NGOs carry the major burden of providing advisory services.
• No places of safety in four SADC countries; in all SADC countries these facilities have little or state support.
• There is now a concerted move to stretch Sixteen Day of Activism campaigns to year long campaigns to end violence that are better monitored and evaluated.

However, the report notes that “the unreliable and sporadic data on the extent of all forms of GBV points to the need to escalate the pilot project for developing GBV indicators started in South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius.”

The project, initiated by GL with government and civil society partners in the three countries, includes a prevalence and attitude survey, as well as a burden study, that will provide more accurate data on the extent, effect and response to GBV than is available through police and court data. The study will also

Key initiatives of GL this year include:

• The regional cyber dialogues starting on 25 November with a Taking Stock exercise and running throughout the Sixteen Days on different themes. These are being run in partnership with the City of Johannesburg and the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) Network.
• The Take Back the Night campaign in partnership with local councils in several countries.
• The call for entries for the Gender Justice and local government summit in March 2009 as a way of showacasing innovative community strategies and localising national action plans for ending gender justice.
• Kicking off the Gender and Soccer 2010 campaign: Score a Goal for Gender Equality in a major event at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium.

(More information on all these activities can be found on the GL website: https://www.genderlinks.org.za/page/16-days-of-activism-2009 or by calling Naomi on 27-11-622-2877 or our local country facilitator https://www.genderlinks.org.za/page/contact-us)