RESOURCES AND FUNDING
It is about preventing violence against women and children from happening in the first place. It is in the area of prevention that we need to place greater attention, exert more effort, and dedicate more resources. that as individuals, institutions, and leaders across society, we all must play our part. This fight is about far more than ensuring that survivors of GBV get justice. Solidarity Fund – to make more resources available where they are needed most. We must accept Last year we established a private sector-led Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Response Fund 1, which received a commitment of R162 million and has to date funded 112 grant partners. We must acknowledge, however, that given the demand for services to address the many different aspects of the fight against GBV, these funds are currently inadequate. I, therefore, call on the private sector in particular to join hands with us – as we did with the As government, we have developed a comprehensive National GBVF Prevention strategy, and in March this year, we also launched the National Integrated Prevention Strategy against Femicide. But we have not mobilised the resources required for effective behaviour change programmes that link up with the efforts of social partners in communities to address the attitudes and actions of men.
We have been working to ensure that South Africa’s efforts to turn the tide against gender-based violence are aligned with global efforts. Late last year, South Africa ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 190 aimed at eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work. A key aspect of the National Strategic Plan is the economic empowerment of women. Since announcing our determination to direct at least 40 percent of public procurement to women- owned businesses, we have sought to establish an enabling environment to support women entrepreneurs. We have trained more than 6,000 women to prepare them to take up procurement opportunities. Through the Women’s Economic Assembly, we have seen industry associations and companies committing to industry-wide gender transformation targets. We can therefore say that we have made significant progress in putting the supporting architecture in place that is critical to a coordinated and collaborative fight against GBV.
In the Joint Sitting of Parliament in 2019, I called for government departments to allocate the necessary resources to combat gender- based violence. As a result, in February 2021, government announced the allocation of approximately R21 billion over three years to implement the various components of the National Strategic Plan. A significant portion of these funds has been committed to advancing the empowerment of women through procurement, business support, and access to economic opportunities. Funds have also been directed to expanding support to survivors, strengthening the response of the criminal justice system, and undertaking prevention programmes. The Department of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation has been tracking the expenditure of the R21 billion allocated over the medium term. It is important that this Summit assesses both the extent of funds that have been spent as well as the purposes to which these funds have been put. We need to ensure that our resources are being directed to where there is the greatest need and where they have the greatest impact.
We can therefore say that we have made significant progress in putting the supporting architecture in place that is critical to a coordinated and collaborative fight against GBV.
104
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator