Sonke Gender Justice

News Category: Sonke News

  • ‘Farmworkers challenged to curb risky behaviour’

    Read the Irin Plus article “Farmworkers Challenged to Curb Risky Behaviour“.

  • ‘Donors call the shots’

    Read the Irin Plus article “Donors Call the Shots“.

  • Lancet editorial on male circumcision and HIV/AIDS

    Read the Lancet editorial “Male circumcision and HIV/AIDS: challenges and opportunities“.

  • Understanding Men’s Perceptions of their own and Government’s Responses to Violence Against Women

    Executive Summary:

    From November 10-15, 2006 Sonke Gender Justice conducted a survey of 945 men in the greater Johannesburg area. Men were selected from diverse racial and ethnic groups in the same general proportion as these groups are represented in South Africa.

    Men were asked two initial questions about how they viewed responses to violence against women. These were:

    1. Is the Government doing too much, not enough or the right amount to address the problem of violence against women in South Africa?
    2. Are men in general doing too much, not enough or the right amount to address the problem of violence against women?

    Men were then asked to rank according to priority six potential strategies for dealing with violence against women. The options offered were in two broad areas:

    1. what government could do and
    2. what men could do themselves.

    Findings:

    The survey results indicate that men in the greater Johannesburg area hold a range of quite different perceptions about gender equality and about violence against women.

    Men’s perceptions of what they and other men are doing to respond to violence against women: In response to the question “are men doing enough to end violence against women”, only a small proportion of men (15.3%) felt that they were doing too much to end violence against women while a majority of men (50.1%) felt men should be doing more.

    Men’s perceptions of the government’s response to violence against women: In response to the question “is the government doing enough to end violence against women, 41.4% of men surveyed said that the government is doing too much to end violence against women. At the same time, 38.4% of men surveyed said that government is not doing enough to end violence against women. In other words, very similar numbers of men within all population groups seem to support and oppose government efforts to promote gender transformation.

    Recommendations: Extremely high rates of gender based violence and the HIV/AIDS crisis demand that Government and civil society organisations take action to increase men’s commitment to ending violence against women. These survey results indicate that some men appear eager to play a more involved role in ending violence against women while other men appear threatened by gender transformation. Violence prevention interventions need to be tailored to respond to the perceptions of these different groups of men.

    Government and civil society organisations should encourage more gender equitable men to play a more active role in ending violence against women and should provide these men with the necessary support, skills and resources. At the same time, government and civil society should challenge the myths and misconceptions held by those men who resist change and inform them about the reality of endemic levels of violence against women and a still inadequate criminal justice system response that fails to protect victims or deter perpetrators in any meaningful way.

    >> Download the full report

  • Research into the Impact of PEPFAR Funding

    On behalf of OSISA, Sonke Gender Justice is conducting research into the impact that PEPFAR funding is having on HIV/AIDS organisations in Southern Africa.

    Background

    In 2003, US President George Bush signed the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

    This plan has made significant amounts of funding available to organisations in 15 countries, including a number of countries in Southern Africa. The funding is predominantly available for HIV/AIDS treatment and care, as well as abstinence-only prevention programmes. PEPFAR openly promotes a particular moral agenda, and many NGOs accepting PEPFAR funding are signing agreements that restrict their ability to work with commercial sex workers and prevent work around termination of pregnancy. PEPFAR also strongly supports an “abstinence only” approach to preventing HIV infection, and has required many NGOs receiving grants to include disclaimers around the effectiveness of condoms.

    PEPFAR’s approach is highly controversial, and in the United States the Alliance of Open Society Initiatives (AOSI) along with a range of other US-based organisations, is suing the US Government in relation to a specific policy that emanates from PEPFAR:  the prostitution loyalty oath.

    OSISA is concerned that requiring organisations to adhere to conditions may infringe on organisations’ rights and may ultimately be harmful to public health. It has thus commissioned this research to gather information about US policy on HIV and AIDS and its impact on Southern African organisations.

    Research

    Sonke Gender Justice is conducting an informal survey of NGOs and organisations in Southern Africa to gather information on experiences in relation to US policy on HIV and AIDS, particularly in relation to PEPFAR’s influence on activities related to condom use, abstinence and the prostitution loyalty oath.