Western Cape gearing up for GBV action plans

The project to develop gender action plans for local government was the outcome of a number of processes. Following the launch of the research, At the Coalface: Gender and Local Government in Southern Africa, Gender Links in partnership with SALGA Gauteng convened a roundtable meeting to review the Gender Policy Framework for Local Government and plan for effective gender mainstreaming in governance processes in the sphere of local government. The final Gender Policy Framework for Local Government was launched in August 2007. In November 2007 provincial representatives from SALGA joined a Training of Trainers workshop in Johannesburg to develop the Gender Action Plan Manual for South Africa that was to be used to roll out the gender action plans in all provinces from April to July 2008.

In 2008 the Western Cape, along with other provinces, developed a gender action plan in which gender based violence included. In this plan gender based violence features as one of the key areas of service delivery. It should be noted that as this was a provincial plan and as such required further fine tuning to suit the specific needs and circumstances of each municipality in the province. Some municipalities have gone ahead and developed their local action plans while others are still in the process of doing this.

The intention of the GBV action plan workshops is to build on the preceding processes as well as to provide support and backstopping. Participants are encouraged to take time to reflect on progress that has been made in addressing gender violence since these initiatives as well as address the challenges that have been encountered by the different municipalities in developing local plans.

The opportunity is also used to devise strategies for collecting good practices to showcase at the first annual Southern Africa local government and Gender Justice Summit and Awards.