MenEngage Africa Strategy to Strengthen Youth Advocacy for Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
This Youth SRHR Strategy is aligned with the MenEngage Africa Strategic Plan 2019-2023. It has also been developed in line with the Maputo Plan of Action 2016-2030 for the Operationalisation of the Continental Policy Framework for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and the Southern African Development Community’s Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health and […]
Engaging Men in GBV and HIV prevention, SRHR promotion and parenting
This report explores the strength and weakness of selected relevant policies, laws and plans in terms of engaging men and boys; and provides recommendations for how such policies can improve the way in which they include men and boys, account for their needs, enable them to support their partners, children and peers and facilitate their […]
Asijiki Coalition: Sex Work and Covid-19 Webinar
This is a report of the webinar hosted by the Asijiki Coalition on the 8th July 2020. The webinar explored the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of sex workers and the continued unlawful policing of sex work, as well as recent policy developments that support the continued call for the decriminalisation of sex work […]
Eastern Cape Liquor Board Complaint Report
This report aims to highlight an aspect of Sonke Gender Justice’s work within its local government accountability (LGA) project in the Eastern Cape province. Our complaint with the Eastern Cape Liquor Board (ECLB) is rooted in Sonke’s mandate of ensuring access to justice andinformation for all who reside in South Africa. Too often, we find […]
Towards harm reduction programmes with sex worker clients in South Africa
This report explores possible harm reduction approaches to a sex worker client intervention in the South African context. It considers the current evidence base on client interventions globally and sets out key recommendations for an effective client intervention programme.Drawing on this framework and recommendations, the report concludes with an example of a curriculum which could […]
Women and Girls’ Experiences of Gender-Based Violence on Public Transport in Gauteng & the Western Cape Province
Transport systems have tended to function in ways that prioritise men’s needs over those of women, which has led to public transport being described as ‘an institution through which hegemonic masculinity is maintained’, where women are at greater risk of violence, sexual harassment and sexual assault. Violence in public places, particularly on public transport systems, […]
Positive policing practices and sex work
The report of the Positive Policing Partnership (PPP) Roundtable that took place on 22 May 2019 in Cape Town. The roundtable comprised a panel of five experts from the sex work, law enforcement and civil society sectors. Through discussing ways of creating more positive relationships between law enforcement and sex workers, the purpose was to […]
Migration and health in Southern Africa
This report captures a two-day programme of presentations, panel discussions and group discussions at the regional symposium on gender, migration, health and public policy. The aim of day one was to discuss a number of migration-related topics including: health and universal health care (UHC) in Southern Africa, researching migration and health, associated ethical and methodological […]
“They treated me as if I was nothing”
This report analyses the gendered impact of the closure of, and decisions to close, Refugee Reception Offices (RROs) in South Africa, with an emphasis on the impacts experienced by women, children, and LGBTIQ+ identifying asylum seekers living in and around Cape Town. The impact analysis is based on a literature and media review plus in-depth […]
Gender, Migration, and Health in SADC
This report explores policy responses to migration, health and gender – with a focus on women and girls – in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). 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 […]
Engaging South African fathers
This programme brief provides a review of programmes that promote or facilitate the involvement of fathers and father figures in their children’s lives. It provides an overview of parenting programmes across the world and the results of the MenCare South Africa Childcare and Protection Programme’s evaluation, and finally makes recommendations for policies and programmes to […]
Stakeholder Dialogue: Refugee Reception Office Litigation and Advocacy Strategies
In April 2019, activists and civil society organisations held a stakeholder dialogue in Cape Town to discuss problems facing refugees in South Africa. The last eight years have seen the Department of Home Affairs shutting down Refugee Reception Offices (RROs) in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng, leaving refugees with fewer options, and needing […]
Final report on the official launching of MenEngage Network Mali
The Mali network of MenEngage Africa Alliance was officially launched at a workshop chaired by Mali’s Permanent Secretary of the National Gender Policy, Tounkara Sophie Souko on the 11th and 12th of July 2019. The workshop was realised thanks to the joint efforts of the government of Mali and the Secretariat of MenEngage Mali – […]
State of the World’s Fathers 2019 – Executive Summary
This report has a big ambition: we are calling for nothing less than full equality between women and men, in the workplace and in the home. The third State of the World’s Fathers is rooted firmly in a feminist analysis of care, and the belief that unpaid care work must be valued as much as […]
State of the World’s Fathers 2019
This report has a big ambition: we are calling for nothing less than full equality between women and men, in the workplace and in the home. The third State of the World’s Fathers is rooted firmly in a feminist analysis of care, and the belief that unpaid care work must be valued as much as […]
A Gender and Migration Analysis of 2019 Election Manifestos
Sonke Gender Justice has compiled a short analysis of the manifestos of nine political parties contesting the 2019 National Elections. The analysis addresses traditional gender issues such as female representation, gender equality, and issues relating to LGBTIQA and sexual and reproductive health – while sex work, as well as migration, were included to broaden the […]
Best Practices Research Report
Consistent and effective prison oversight is a crucial means to ensure the protection and promotion of prisoners’ human rights. Not only does regular monitoring, inspecting and reporting serve to prevent human rights abuses of prisoners, it also ensures transparency and increases the accountability of the government department responsible for overseeing the prisons system. Prison oversight […]
Public Transport and Safety Symposium
Marike Keller, Policy Development and Advocacy Specialist at Sonke Gender Justice, welcomed the participants and provided an overview of the necessity for a symposium bringing stakeholders from the transport and human rights sectors together. Public transport is an essential part of everyday life for many South Africans. According to a 2013 National Household Travel Survey, […]
MenEngage on the spot
What does MenEngage Alliance need to do better? What does MenEngage Alliance have to do that it has not done yet? What does MenEngage Alliance need to stop doing? Those were some of the questions we put to women’s rights organizations from around the world as part of our Accountability Dialogue session in New York […]
International Women’s Day Event: “Water and Women”
On 8 March 2018, Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) hosted a panel discussion and community dialogue to explore the relationship between gender and water in the context of Cape Town’s water crisis. The focus was placed on the gendered burden of care, specifically in relation to access to water, including the potential impact of “Day Zero” […]
State of South Africa’s Fathers 2018
There is no typical father in South Africa. There are many types of fathers and many types of fatherhood in the country. There are biological fathers, social fathers, gay fathers, straight fathers, young fathers, older fathers. We have self-identified fatherhood, ascribed fatherhood, long-distance fatherhood and proximal fatherhood, to name only a few. The texture is […]
Criminal Justice Symposium Report
On 22 June 2018, Sonke Gender Justice hosted a criminal justice symposium, with a focus on bail and sentencing. The purpose for the symposium stemmed from the recognition that the current model and understanding of both bail and sentencing have had considerably negative effects on remand detainees and incarcerated persons. These include: overcrowding, disease, lack […]
Sonke Gender Justice: Reviewing Achievement against Results
In 2017 Sonke Gender Justice sought to review and offer an account of its contribution, over the last ten years, towards reaching gender equality, reducing gender-based violence, and addressing HIV and AIDS in South Africa and at regional and global levels. In reflecting on its practice it has sought to understand both its successes and […]
The Positive Policing Partnership
Marginalised and stigmatised groups in society such as migrants, sex workers, homeless people and drug users are at particular risk of human rights violations during policing and security operations because of skewed power relations. Sex worker rights and health organisations receive a high volume of complaints from sex workers regarding their experiences of human rights […]
