Sonke Gender Justice

Publication Type: Policy Briefs

  • MEA Policy Advocacy Strategy on Engaging Men to End FGM

    MEA Policy Advocacy Strategy on Engaging Men to End FGM

    FGM is more than just a cultural practice with adverse health consequences, but it is an issue of concern for women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). UNFPA has identified severe pain, shock, haemorrhage, tetanus or infection, urine retention, ulceration of the genital region and injury to adjacent tissue, wound infection, urinary infection, fever, and septicaemia as the immediate complications of FGM. The haemorrhage and infection is often severe and could cause death. The long-term consequences include complications during childbirth, anaemia, the formation of cysts and abscesses, keloid scar formation, damage to the urethra resulting in urinary incontinence, dyspareunia (painful sexual intercourse), sexual dysfunction, hypersensitivity of the genital area and increased risk of HIV transmission, as well as psychological effects. 

    The harmful effects of FGM have been recognized globally through international frameworks, such as the Convention on the Right of the Child (1990), the International Conference for Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo 1994 and the Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW), Beijing 1995. The Programme of Action of the ICPD (1994) defined FGM as a harmful practice and a form of violation against women and girls’ basic rights aimed at controlling their sexuality and a major lifelong risk to women’s health. The Convention urges governments and communities to urgently take steps to stop the practice and to protect women and girls from all such similar unnecessary and dangerous practices. Regional instruments such as the Maputo Protocol, Article 5 lists FGM as a harmful practice and calls for targeted support and creation of awareness to the public on its harmful effects. Similarly, Agenda 2063 aspires to end all social and cultural harmful practices such as FGM through national and continental efforts, which include the passing of national legislation on such forms of violence and strategies to protect women and girls in conflict. Similarly, the African Union (AU) led Saleema initiative also seeks to galvanize political action to enforce strong legislation, increase allocation of financial resources and strengthen partnerships to end FGM by 2063.

     It is therefore incumbent upon the Men Engage Africa (MEA) to assume a proactive and collaborative role in ensuring substantive legal and social equality for women and girls generally and contribute to the elimination of FGM in particular. MEA’s FGM Policy Advocacy programme seeks to identify, analyse and locate laws and policies in relation to women and girls’ experiences premised on the understanding that gender is both ignored and enshrined in legal theory and practice. The programme/ campaign systematically uses public policy and law as vehicles for social change and is constantly finding innovative methods of harnessing these in a positive way to improve the lives of women and girls. This strategy document sets out the motivation, imperatives and entry points for engaging in national, regional and international advocacy initiatives and articulates the necessary actions and available opportunities at these levels for effecting change.

  • Children’s Rights and Positive Parenting in Zambia

    Children’s Rights and Positive Parenting in Zambia

    Positive parenting in sub-Saharan Africa is undeveloped and fundamentally inadequate. Few countries have policies that focus specifically on positive parenting or a framework for parenting into which this is integrated and defined as a priority. Given the significance of enabling environmental factors for good parenting, the ‘mainstreaming’ of support for parents is important for enabling positive parenting. It is against this background that Sonke embarked on the process of developing this policy brief, in partnership with Save the Children Zambia and their implementing partners within the parenting space.

    SAVE THE CHILDREN (SC) Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO), in partnership with Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke), are implementing the MenCare Campaign in six (6) target countries, namely, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar. This is done through the SC Country offices to promote men’s involvement as equitable, responsive and nurturing and non-violent fathers and caregivers. The programme intervention offers individual men the opportunity to prepare themselves for active parenthood and equal relationships with their partners by: promoting women’s rights and children’s development and rights; improving reproductive, maternal and paternal health; preventing and ending intimate partner violence and transforming harmful gender norms.

    This policy brief can be used by Governments and Civil Society structures, policy and decision makers to implement policies and programmes which create opportunities for the equal and fair participation of men in caregiving, child development and domestic work, while facilitating opportunities for women to work. The vision is to engage with the civil society and activists in Zambia to participate in their national policy processes and further influence their government with regards to implementing existing policies and drafting of new ones related to improving children’s rights and promoting positive and gender equitable parenting.

  • The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (MAPUTO PROTOCOL)

    The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (MAPUTO PROTOCOL)

    This policy brief provides a synopsis of the Maputo Protocol over the past one year as it turns 18 years. It also highlights the impact COVID 19 is having on achieving: SRHR/HIV and STI, Food security, Economic and Social Welfare, Harmful Cultural Practices and Gender Based Violence. It zeroes in on some of Kenya and Nigeria responses towards ending FGM in midst of the COVID 19 times. It then gives some policy recommendations for consideration by Civil Society, Policy Makers and Communities.

  • A Policy Brief on the Impact of the Global Gag Rule and COVID-19 on SRHR Services in Africa

    A Policy Brief on the Impact of the Global Gag Rule and COVID-19 on SRHR Services in Africa

    Introduction

    Sonke Gender Justice, with the support from CHANGE, commissioned a policy brief to explore the impact the Global Gag Rule, and COVID-19 on SRHR services in Africa. Owing to the compounded effects of the Global Gag Rule (GGR) and the COVID-19 pandemic, strained and fragile health systems in Sub- of Saharan African countries are facing a double threat in meeting their sexual and reproductive health rights outcomes (SRHR). The Policy Brief explores some of the effects of GGR and COVID 19 in countries such as Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Uganda.

    Background

    The Mexico City Policy, also referred to as the “Global Gag rule“was first enacted by the President Ronald Reagan in 1984 – it initially forced organisations to make the choice whether to implement comprehensive sexuality services without US funding or opt to comply with the conditions attached to US funding to not utilise these funds for work on that nature. In 2017, the Trump Administration reinstated and made further restrictions on the policy gagging any organisation receiving US government funds from engaging in activity aimed at promoting abortion services. It expanded the policy to prevent Foreign or non–US organisations receiving funds from the US government from engaging in activities aimed at providing abortion services, information, counselling, advocacy and referrals. The policy makes exception in cases of incest, rape and where a woman’s life is at risk. In 2019, Trump’s Administration further expanded the policy by restricting gagged organisations from funding organisations providing abortion services and related information even though these organisations do not receive US funding. In addition to this, US organisations are now barred from funding their non-US partners.

  • Combatting Gender-Based Violence Through Safer Public Transport

    Combatting Gender-Based Violence Through Safer Public Transport

    The aim of this brief is to inform policy and decision makers of key areas of intervention to address safety in public transport, and prioritise measures to mitigate and eradicate gender-based violence, sexual harassment and crimes perpetrated against women and children commuters, particularly of mini-bus taxi’s, buses and commuter trains.

    This policy brief is in support of the research report findings and recommendations of the “Women and girls’ experiences of Gender-Based Violence on Public Transport in Gauteng and the Western Cape Province”.

  • Gender, Migration and Health in SADC: A Focus on Women and Girls – Policy Brief 1

    Gender, Migration and Health in SADC: A Focus on Women and Girls – Policy Brief 1

    This policy brief sets out the key findings of a study exploring gender, migration and health in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with a focus on women and girls. As a region associated with high levels of population mobility, a high communicable and non-communicable disease burden, poor maternal and child health outcomes, pervasive gender inequity, and struggling public healthcare systems, SADC poses a number of challenges – and opportunities – to policy-makers and those working with policy.

  • Gender, Migration and Health in SADC: A Focus on Women and Girls – Policy Brief 2

    Gender, Migration and Health in SADC: A Focus on Women and Girls – Policy Brief 2

    This policy brief sets out the key findings from the study exploring gender, migration and health in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with a focus on women and girls. The key recommendations are based on a set of guiding principles for key actors responsible for developing and implementing responses to migration, health and gender.

  • National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence Shadow Framework

    National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence Shadow Framework

    Every year, gender-based violence (GBV) affects the lives of millions of people across South Africa. These individuals are members of families, workers and voters. So significant is the scale of the epidemic of violence in South Africa, that KPMG estimates that it costs the country over R28 billion per annum, amounting to 1% of the GDP (KPMG, 2014). Too costly to ignore: the economic impact of gender-based violence in SA.

  • Call for National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence Shadow Framework

    Call for National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence Shadow Framework

    This policy brief comes out of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) Shadow Framework Report, developed by Civil Society in 2014, under the Stop Gender Violence Campaign. The Campaign calls for the involvement of local communities and civil society to put pressure on the government to act and make sure that the voices of those affected by gender-based violence are taken into account.

  • On the CUSP of Change

    On the CUSP of Change

    Over the past 10 years, the evidence base on the effectiveness of programs focused on changing social norms to achieve gender equality has grown. A number of approaches and methodologies demonstrate significant impact in preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG) and in advancing women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Activists, organizations, governments, researchers, and donors now want to know how best to scale up these initiatives to reach more communities and increase sustainable impact. This is a critical moment, rich with opportunity. It also comes with risks and challenges.

  • Prohibition of corporal punishment in the home in South Africa

    Prohibition of corporal punishment in the home in South Africa

    Corporal punishment in the home refers to any kind of physical force inflicted on children by a parent or guardian as a means of discipline. It is a grave concern in terms of children’s development as it violates children’s human rights to physical integrity and human dignity, as upheld by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), as well as the South African Constitution.

  • Appropriate implementation of the prohibition of corporal punishment in schools in South Africa

    Appropriate implementation of the prohibition of corporal punishment in schools in South Africa

    Corporal punishment in schools refers to any kind of violent action inflicted on children by teachers or school administrators as punishment for disciplinary purposes. Since its prohibition in 1997, research shows that corporal punishment has still been widely practised in South African schools.

    It’s a grave concern in terms of children’s development as it violates children’s human rights to physical integrity and human dignity, as upheld by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), as well as the South African Constitution.

  • Policy to address sexual abuse of inmates in DCS facilities

    Policy to address sexual abuse of inmates in DCS facilities

    Various forms of sexual abuse are common in detention facilities around the world. Research studies, reports by independent bodies such as the Jali Commission of Inquiry and the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services (JICS), and documented reports by victimised inmates make clear that South Africa’s detention facilities are no exception. The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is working in partnership with key stakeholders to address the problem.

    It is well known that sexual violence takes place in our correctional facilities, but it is often seen as part of normal prison life. Historically, DCS has remained silent or succumbed to a sense of powerlessness in the face of such an uncomfortable issue. DCS has also failed to share information about sexual abuse in our facilities and to ensure that all DCS staff receives the necessary training and guidance on how to prevent and respond to sexual violence. Sexual abuse in correctional facilities can no longer be tolerated or overlooked; now is the time for change.

  • The role of the state in addressing sexual violence

    The role of the state in addressing sexual violence

    The focus of this policy paper is on the role of the state in addressing sexual violence in public and private spaces. Specifically, the focus is on the policy provisions in terms of service delivery to sexual offences victims in terms of policing and health services and how these services are currently being provided. The paper begins by discussing the prevalence of violence against women globally and in South Africa. It then examines the South African state’s response to gender-based violence and the gendered nature of the state’s response to addressing violence against women. The paper further examines the response of the criminal justice system, and assesses the service delivery challenges faced by victims of sexual offences at the hands of the police and broader criminal justice system, and the intersection of this with healthcare provision. The paper concludes by making recommendations on how to address these challenges.

  • MenEngage Africa Call for Action: Post-2015 Agenda

    MenEngage Africa Call for Action: Post-2015 Agenda

    This Call for Action outlines MenEngage Africa’s priority goals within the Post-2015 Development Agenda and includes suggestions on how engaging men contributes to each of the proposed new 12 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    The engagement of men as allies in achieving gender equality often receives little mention in the development frameworks (particularly the Millennium Development Goals). Yet, a broad and growing base of evidence shows that effectively engaging men for gender equality can have significant benefits for women, children and men themselves.

    Promoting healthier and more equitable gender norms with regards to manhood and developing public policy aimed at engaging men and boys have been shown to inter alia: improve men’s and women’s access to HIV treatment and other health services; reduce men’s violence against women and children; increase men’s support of their partners in accessing health services; reduce the disproportionate burden of domestic tasks on women; increase men’s involvement in their children’s lives; engage men as partners in women’s economic empowerment; achieve more equitable relationships at the household, community and societal levels; and reduce homophobia and discrimination towards LGBTI people.

    Work with men and boys is therefore integral to the new global Post-2015 Development Agenda, and in particular to maintaining the momentum on addressing gender inequalities, strengthening human rights, promoting women’s empowerment and leadership and improving the health and wellbeing of all.

    We believe in a strong focus on women and girls as part of the new SDGs. We view these recommended indicators and commentary on the goals to be a complement, not a replacement, to the gender goal suggestions put forth by regional institutions like the African Union. This Call for Action can be used as a policy advocacy and programming tool to strengthen a focus on engaging men for gender equality within the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Its key audiences are local, national, regional and global civil society, policymakers, UN agencies, donors and other decision-makers.

  • MenEngage Call for Action: Post-2015 Agenda

    MenEngage Call for Action: Post-2015 Agenda

    This Call for Action outlines MenEngage’s priority goals within the Post-2015 Development Agenda as well as suggested indicators for inclusion in the measurement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The engagement of men as allies in achieving gender equality often receives little mention in the development frameworks (particularly the Millennium Development Goals). Yet, a broad and growing base of evidence shows that effectively engaging men for gender equality can have significant benefits for women, children and men themselves.

    Promoting healthier and more equitable gender norms with regards to manhood and developing public policy aimed at engaging men and boys have been shown to inter alia: improve men’s and women’s access to HIV treatment and other health services; reduce men’s violence against women and children; increase men’s support of their partners in accessing health services; reduce the disproportionate burden of domestic tasks on women; increase men’s involvement in their children’s lives; engage men as partners in women’s economic empowerment; achieve more equitable relationships at the household, community and societal levels; and reduce homophobia and discrimination towards LGBTI people.

    Work with men and boys is therefore integral to the new global Post-2015 Development Agenda, and in particular to maintaining the momentum on addressing gender inequalities, strengthening human rights, promoting women’s empowerment and leadership and improving the health and wellbeing of all.

    We believe in a strong focus on women and girls as part of the new SDGs. We view these recommended indicators and commentary on the goals to be a complement not a replacement to the gender goal suggestions put forth by agencies like UNWomen. This Call for Action can be used as a policy advocacy and programming tool to strengthen a focus on engaging men for gender equality within the Post- 2015 Development Agenda. Its key audiences are local, national, regional and global civil society, policymakers, UN agencies, donors and other decision-makers.

  • Gender Equality and the Work with Men and Boys

    Gender Equality and the Work with Men and Boys

    MenEngage recognizes that the Post-2015 Agenda must embrace a human rights-based approach, as championed by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and believes that meaningful citizen participation should be built into every stage of the Post-2015 process, from developing the agenda, to the implementation, all the way through the monitoring and evaluation.

    MenEngage stands with UN Women and women’s rights NGOs in advocating for a stand-alone goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights must be a cross-cutting issue in all other future development goals. To achieve gender equality it is essential to work with men and boys given that women’s and men’s lives are intertwined. Men have not only a responsibility to contribute to transforming oppressive gender systems, they will benefit from it as well.

    Within the stand-alone gender equality and women’s empowerment goal, MenEngage strongly recommends to include the following three critical targets, accompanied by suggested indicators of work with men and boys:

    1. Engage men and boys in preventing and responding to Gender Based Violence (GBV)
    2. Commit men and boys to equal share in caregiving and household work
    3. Engage men as supportive partners, clients and positive agents of change in sexual & reproductive health & rights and maternal, newborn & child health

    These commitments build on the MenEngage Call to Action for the Post-2015 Agenda and on the MenCare+ oral statement delivered at the 58th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW58).

  • MenEngage Alliance Call for Action at the Commission at the Status of Women 2013

    MenEngage Alliance Call for Action at the Commission at the Status of Women 2013

    The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform of Action and the Agreed Conclusions of the 48th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) all make explicit calls for prevention to end violence against women. The Cairo Platform of Action at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Agreed Conclusions of the 48th Session of CSW make specific references to engaging men and boys in ending violence against women, as do numerous UN agency plans of action. The World Health Organization has repeatedly endorsed gender equality work as an important strategy and provided guidance on how to implement it. However, existing UN agreements on violence against women have yet to make explicit calls for scaling up and implementing universal primary prevention programs to end men’s and boys’ use of violence against women and girls.

    With the growing array of interventions and strong evidence that interventions with men and boys can work to change the norms and other factors associated with men’s use of violence against women (VAW), the time has come to make primary prevention a part of national and international policies and platforms. Most primary prevention efforts working with men and boys to end VAW to date have been small-scale, reaching several hundred beneficiaries, or at most several thousand. The challenge and urgency for each of these approaches is that they garner adequate funding and global attention, while ensuring that they hold perpetrators accountable, and do not inhibit or diminish funding for the protection of survivors of violence or efforts to empower women (including political and economic empowerment). It is time for approaches that have been shown to lead to changes in men’s use of violence against women be taken to scale via large-scale public institutions and with adequate attention to quality, rigor, and protection of women’s rights.

  • Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict

    Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict

    This MenEngage-UNFPA advocacy brief explores how to engage men and boys in preventing and responding to sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings. Both the prevention of such violence and the quality of responses when it has occurred will be greatly enhanced by understanding men’s varied relations to this violence and by engaging men at diverse levels.

  • Policy Approaches to Engaging Men and Boys

    Policy Approaches to Engaging Men and Boys

    Work with men has demonstrated significant potential in contributing to building gender equality and improving the health of women and men.

    This policy brief:

    • outlines the rationale for using policy approaches to engage men in achieving gender equality, reducing health inequities, and improving women’s and men’s health;
    • offers a framework for integrating men into policies that aim to reduce gender inequality and health inequities;
    • highlights some successful policy initiatives addressing men that have advanced gender equality and reduced health inequities by generating positive changes in men’s behaviours and relations with women and with other men.
  • MenEngage Africa Declaration 2009

    MenEngage Africa Declaration 2009

    Reflecting the growing movement to involve men and boys in achieving gender justice, over 300 women and men from twenty five countries gathered in Johannesburg to build the Global MenEngage Alliance and issue this declaration and call to action. The principles that inform this declaration and work that aims to transform gender norms include a commitment to gender equality, human rights, feminist analysis, inclusion, transparency, accountability and social justice. This declaration and call to action is intended to provide a unified set of education, advocacy, policy and research priorities identified at the MenEngage Africa Symposium held in Johannesburg Oct 5-9 2009, to advance work with men and boys for gender equality.