Sonke wants to express its gratitude for funding support from Irish Aid. Irish Aid is the Government of Ireland’s official international development aid programme, managed by the Development Co-operation and Africa Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Irish Aid and Sonke Gender collaborated on the Rights, Accountability and Action project in South Africa from 2018 to 2022, with an emphasis on enhancing local actors’ ability to direct, impact, and oversee the execution of GBV-responsive initiatives in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, and the Western Cape provinces.
The goal of the five-year initiative was to strengthen the connections between media advocacy, rights literacy, community education and activism, and the application of the law to promote gender equality in South Africa. By creating engaged and empowered communities that can hold local and national duty-bearers accountable for the implementation of laws and policies, aimed at preventing and responding to gender-based violence and promoting gender equality.
Sonke, in collaboration with civil society, the media, and community actors, was able to achieve its intended impact of “contributing to the realisation of human rights and gender equality in South Africa,” according to an independent, endline evaluation of the project. The creation of GBV-desks intended to support targeted populations, such as the LGBTIQ+ and Gogo-desk in Johannesburg, and the allocation of resources in provincial or municipality budgets, specifically targeting GBV in all three sites were among the project’s major accomplishments. Multisectoral GBV forums were also established in all three provinces.
Sonke was a key player in the Total Shutdown demonstrations and the founding of the Call-to-Action civil society organisation, which helped shape and pass the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (NSP GBVF) in 2019, thanks to its collaboration with Irish Aid. Irish Aid has continued their funding to Sonke from 2023 to 2025 with the goal of reducing gender-based violence in South Africa by empowering and energising local communities in the areas of gender equality and human rights. Their support builds on the previous fruitful collaboration between Sonke and Irish Aid on the Rights, Accountability and Action project in South Africa and this cooperation continues to enhance local actors’ ability to influence the execution of GBV-responsive programs in the provinces of the Eastern and Western Cape.
The project also involves holding duty-bearers accountable in enforcing GBV laws and policies, setting up multi sectoral GBV desks and forums, influencing state budget allocations that specifically target GBV in these locations, and using forceful civic actions to influence the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide. The long-standing partnership between Sonke and Irish Aid holds critical value for ensuring community-led accountability systems to track progress and mainstream the NSP GBVF objectives at local government that contribute to influencing structural changes within the frame of rights, action, and accountability.
