KnowYourNSP

How can I take action to end gender-based violence in South Africa? Just #KNOWYOURNSP and #OWNYOURNSP

Did you know? South Africa is considered one of the most unsafe countries for women in the world.

Right now, our country is experiencing a Gender-Based Violence and Femicide crisis (when a woman is murdered, it is called ‘femicide’).

Because of this, in 2020, the South African government created a National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NSP-GBVF). This plans how the government – and South Africa, as a country – can improve the way it prevents and deals with gender-based violence and femicide.

Now we have this plan in place, it’s time to make sure the South African government does what it has planned to do!

Do you want to take action, as a young person? Do you want to hold our government accountable, and help stop GBVF in South Africa?

You can start by getting to know the NSP-GBVF today!

The NSP-GBVF Pillars

Pillar 1: Accountability, Coordination & Leadership
This pillar makes sure government departments work together to prevent gender-based violence and femicide.

This pillar asks, ‘who is responsible?’ We are all accountable for addressing gender-based violence, and we must hold one another accountable – from the president to you and your neighbour. This pillar outlines how:

Individual leadership leads to collective leadership

Collective leadership means a community comes together to hold those in office accountable and,

This leads to the building of structures or organised systems for responding to gender-based violence and femicide cases: it makes sure different government departments work together and are properly funded and resourced to do so.
Pillar 2: Prevention and Rebuilding Social Cohesion
This pillar makes sure we address the root causes of gender-based violence and femicide in our country.

This pillar asks, ‘why do we have a gender-based violence and femicide crisis in South Africa?’ It works out how to deal with these root causes by rebuilding the society in which we live.

Some of the root causes are:

Ideas of masculinity which believe in men controlling women

Ideas of femininity that promote women’s subordination to men

Violence during early childhood, including boys being bullied

Poverty

Lack of education and,

Drug and substance abuse.
Pillar 3: Justice Safety & Protection
This pillar finds solutions to the current failures in the legal system around gender-based violence and femicide.

This pillar asks, ‘why is the legal system failing with some cases of gender-based violence and femicide – and how can we improve this?’

All survivors of gender-based violence should be able to access efficient and sensitive criminal justice, quickly and efficiently. Some of the solutions that the National Strategic Plan suggests are:

Tackling the backlog of cases where investigations into GBV take too long and the backlog of DNA samples at forensic laboratories

Ensuring coordination between police (SAPS), prosecutors and magistrates to ensure GBV cases are dealt with quickly

Making sure SAPS does its job around GBV cases

Setting up a laboratory for DNA testing in the Eastern Cape and other rural provinces

Establishing 11 sexual offences courts to deal with sexual offences specifically and,

Dealing with online sexual violence.
Pillar 4: Response Care Support and Healing
This pillar is about creating systems of support for survivors of gender-based violence.

This pillar asks, ‘how can we make sure that survivors of gender-based violence can access supportive, healing processes that allow them to reclaim their lives?’

This is done by making sure that different government institutions and civil society organisations work together to give support to survivors of GBV. For example, when a health facility helps a victim of GBV after the case has been reported to the police.

This pillar outlines how we must ensure that:

Victims of gender-based violence get counselling assistance and support from a social worker and,

Civil society organisations working with GBV survivors have proper support to do so.

This pillar also speaks about the importance of communities and neighbourhoods, and how they can provide support for GBV survivors. This means developing safe spaces in the community for survivors to come together to express themselves without fear or shame. Communities can do this through establishing informal platforms such as

women’s/men’s group meetings at places of worship like churches and mosques,

group meetings formed within the community or

combined group meetings for all people to share their experiences.
Pillar 5: Economic Power
This pillar is about improving women’s opportunities to find work and be financially independent.

This pillar asks, ‘how can we create ways for women to be more financially independent?’

Often, women stay in abusive relationships because they are financially dependent on their abuser. This means they are not only physically abused; they are also economically abused.

This pillar aims to address this by;

Increasing women’s access to income-generation (such as procurement or employment)

Strengthened child maintenance and related support systems.
Pillar 6: Research and Information Management Systems
This pillar makes sure that proper research on gender-based violence takes place so that we better understand, and deal with, GBV.

This pillar asks, ‘how can we make sure that we bring together different knowledge about gender-based violence to make a real difference?’

Making sure that research on GBV is coordinated and shared by different stakeholders is important. This pillar aims to make sure that:

Different players (government departments, organisations, etc.) share their statistics, data, findings and reports on GBVF so that there is increased knowledge on the problem and,

Ensure that the shared research allows us to determine whether the new solutions to gender-based violence and femicide are successful and what we can do to improve.

Share your knowledge with your friends and classmates!

Remember, knowledge is power! Chat with your friends about the National Strategic Plan, give a presentation at school, or write about it online (you can use the hashtags #KnowYourNSP or #OwnYourNSP if you want). You can share the link of this page, too, if that is easier [insert link]. The more people who know about it, the more people there are to hold the government accountable.

Want to know more about the NSP-GBVF?

Sonke Gender Justice have made a printable brochure, which you can read.

Download

Check out the NSP impact infographic

Download the full infographic here.

Download

KnowYourNSP

How can I take action to end gender-based violence in South Africa? Just #KNOWYOURNSP and #OWNYOURNSP

Did you know? South Africa is considered one of the most unsafe countries for women in the world.

The NSP-GBVF Pillars

Pillar 1: Accountability, Coordination & Leadership

Pillar 2: Prevention and Rebuilding Social Cohesion

Pillar 3: Justice Safety & Protection

Pillar 4: Response Care Support and Healing

Pillar 5: Economic Power

Pillar 6: Research and Information Management Systems

Share your knowledge with your friends and classmates!

Want to know more about the NSP-GBVF?

Check out the NSP impact infographic