Violence against women can be prevented. How can that be done?
In South Africa, we have levels of violence that would be similar to a UN humanitarian crisis or conflict state. So that's something we need to consider as a country. Are we still living through it? Are we in the post-conflict phase? Are we addressing the issue of the ‘conflict under apartheid by means of state- sanctioned violence’ as a key driver that we also have to acknowledge and somehow address?
Elizabeth: What we have also learned is that violence can be prevented if we understand the drivers and underlying factors that cause violence. The Violence Prevention Forum, for example, is a collective working to apply evidence-informed programmes and practices and put these into policy. We have identified a number of drivers in South Africa, for example: The sort of very violent history of colonialism and apartheid, and the normalisation of the use of violence to resolve conflicts to express power or discontent. There are high levels of gender inequality in the social norms that govern the roles of men and women in society. We also have high levels of racism and xenophobia. We have allowed weak governance and patriarchal privilege. Historically, welfare has really neglected black communities which remain neglected. Mental health care and support are not available for the large majority of South Africans and that's a real failure of the system. We have a history of state-sanctioned violence and racial inequality that has become a key driver of violence within South African societies. High levels of poverty, inequality, and food insecurity are, across the world, key drivers of violence against women. We really need to address issues of poverty in our society. Families and our communities are really fragile, a little shock to a family or community and they break. In areas where there is a humanitarian crisis, violence against women and violence against children increases.
Once we understand the drivers, we need to create interventions in response. We need to ensure that we have sustainable community-based programmes through NGOs and women's rights organisations because they are essential in the work. The NGO sector, particularly in South Africa, is very fragile and highly underfunded, as you know. One day they have funding and the next day it's gone, and it is really stressful for them, and, of course, not sustainable. We need to ensure that civil society is vibrant, has a voice as well as being funded to support it. We have to look at the different forms of perpetration of violence - Who is the perpetrator? What are their drivers? What programmes are available for perpetrators? We have a massive gap! perpetrator drivers
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Dec 2022 | Collective Action Magazine
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