Sex Worker & Policing – Human Rights Challenges
This draft report produces a body of research recording the contemporary policing experiences of sex workers from a grass roots level. The final report will be available in October 2017.
CHANGE Evidence Brief
Violence against women is a leading cause of illness and death and occurs in the lives of one third of women globally. Prevalence of violence against women in South Africa is alarmingly high, with 32% of men reporting violence towards partners, and 28% having ever raped. We know that certain beliefs about manhood contribute to […]
Policy Support for Engaging Men in Positive Parenting in Ethiopia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe
Positive parenting can change circumstances dramatically for children, especially when mothers and fathers are fully engaged. In this report we define positive parenting as a non violent and proactive approach to parenting that promotes gender equality between parents. However, positive parenting programmes and policies in Eastern and Southern Africa are mostly undeveloped or inadequate. Although […]
Talking Man-to-Man
Brothers for Life (B4L) is a multi-faceted campaign targeting men over the age of 30 years and younger men to impact on speci c areas of knowledge and practices in HIV prevention. With the largest community mobilisation component of any initiative yet undertaken by the USAID/JHU HIV Communication Programme in South Africa, Brothers for Life […]
Womenability Khayelitsha
On Saturday 17 September 2016, Sonke together with Womenability, a Paris-based collective dedicated to the promotion of gender equality in cities around the world, and Social Justice Coalition conducted an exploratory walk in Khayelitsha to raise awareness around issues of gender-based violence as well as the lack of sanitation and other basic services. Together with forty residents of […]
Public transport and the safety of women in South Africa
The development of transport infrastructure and services typically do not to take gender roles and needs into account and the lack of transport infrastructure that does not take women’s needs into consideration around safety, creates negative impacts on women’s income and safety. Women are at greater risk of violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault on […]
Progress towards prohibiting all corporal punishment of children in East and Southern Africa
This briefing highlights the human rights imperative to prohibit all violent punishment of children in all East and Southern African states. It summarises progress so far towards prohibition in each state and what remains to be done. Aiming to promote national action for prohibition, it emphasises the many immediate opportunities for working to fulfil children’s […]
Lack of gender transformation in the judiciary
The slow pace of gender transformation of the judiciary cannot be evaluated in isolation. The discussion must be placed within the larger South African context in which transformation (in its broadest sense) remains a difficult and contested issue. Considering the causes of the slow pace of gender transformation of the bench and reflecting on possible […]
Findings from The Sonke CHANGE Trial
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a leading cause of illness and death among one-third of women globally. Prevalence of VAWG is alarmingly high. Large studies among South African men found that 32% used violence towards partners, and 28% of men have ever raped. We know that some beliefs about manhood contribute to men’s […]
Baseline Assessment Results for Changing the River’s Flow for Young People
SAfAIDS in partnership with Sonke Gender Justice will be implementing a 2 year gender-transformative program that seeks to transform gender roles and promote more gender-equitable relationships between young men and young women to reduce HIV, GBV and promote positive SRHR entitled “Changing the River’s Flow – A gender Transformative Program for Young People (CTRF 4 […]
MenCare+ South Africa Outcome Measurement Report
This Outcome Measurement Report has been compiled by the Foundation for Professional Development’s Programme Evaluation Unit in response to a request by Sonke Gender Justice and Mosaic Training, Service & Healing Centre for Women (MOSAIC) to conduct the End Term Evaluation of the MenCare+ South Africa Programme. The purpose of this evaluation was to determine […]
Policy Scans on HIV and SRH
Results of Sonke Policy Scans find that very few NSPs engage with men. Most NSPs do acknowledge the importance of gender within HIV work, but very few expand this to include work with men. NSPs are more likely to mention men in relation to PMTCT and Medical Male Circumcision, but men are hardly ever mentioned […]
SANAC Men’s Sector National Strategic Plan Implementation Audit Report
As the convenor of the Men’s Sector, in September 2011 Sonke hosted a summit to prepare the Men’s Sector’s submission for the development of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2012-2016. As a result, the final NSP 2012/2016 document includes men’s involvement in HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment as a key priority area. The overall […]
Sexuality, Poverty and Law
Religious doctrine shapes and informs decision-making at the individual and collective levels, and sexuality and gender rights advocates must therefore work with faith-based organisations and religious activists to challenge harmful and discriminatory sexuality and gender norms and practices. The Religion, Gender and Sexuality workshop provided a space for faith leaders and those engaging with faith […]
Gender Transformation of the Judiciary Project 2013–2014
The Democratic Rights and Governance Unit (DRGU) of the University of Cape Town, together with Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) hosted a series of legal sector meetings on gender transformation of the judiciary between 2013 and 2014. Four meetings were hosted in the Western Cape (25 February 2013), Gauteng (9 November 2013), the Eastern Cape (29 […]
Situation des pères en Afrique
Comme pour toute jeune fille, mon père a eu une grande influence dans ma vie. Avec ma mère, il m’a inculqué le sens de la responsabilité sociale, de la justice sociale et m’a donné la ferme conviction que chaque personne a de la valeur. Comme lui, je suis devenue enseignante et, à partir de là, […]
Faith and Sexual Pleasure
This report is based on a ground breaking workshop conceptualized by Sonke Gender Justice in partnership with the South African Council of Churches Youth Forum that brought together Muslim Scholars, Christian Youth Pastors, practitioners of African Traditional Religion and traditional healers from across the country to speak about their own sexual pleasure with a view […]
State of Africa’s Fathers 2015
This report is an adaptation of the global State of the World’s Fathers Report, which was produced by MenCare, a global campaign to promote men and boys’ involvement as equitable, non-violent caregivers. With activities in more than 30 countries, MenCare partners carry out joint advocacy initiatives, research, and programming to engage men in positive parenting, […]
MenCare Annual Report 2014
MenCare+: Engaging men in a 4-Country Initiative – is a three-year (2013-2015), four country collaboration between Rutgers WPF and Promundo-US, working with long-term national and regional partners. Girls’ and women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights are critically hindered by rigid gender and cultural norms for women and men. Women often lack decision-making power and are […]
Towards safety and equality for women and girls
Central to the concept of gender are the notions of power, decision-making, control and ownership. Historically, gender relations have always been grossly unequal, often to the extent that women are reduced to second-class citizens or even harmed or killed on the basis of their gender. The initial part of this study, divided into three chapters, […]
MenEngage Alliance at the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women
The 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place from 9-20 March 2015. It was a historical session as it commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, which marked the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. MenEngage was well represented through the […]
Scorecard on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) policies in Africa
This scorecard provides an assessment of whether national policies from twelve African countries attempt to engage men and boys in the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The countries are: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.10 The Scorecard […]
MenEngage Tri-Country Project Review
Gender-based violence (GBV) takes centre-stage in this project review, which draws on project activities for GBV prevention conducted by Sonke and MenEngage Africa’s partner organizations in Kenya, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, namely the Men Engage Kenya Network (MenKen), the Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre (RWAMREC) and the Men’s Association for Gender Equality – Sierra Leone (MAGE-SL). […]
How to influence the development of the Post-2015 Development Agenda
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were established in the year 2000, aimed to improve the life for the world’s poorest and the most vulnerable by the year 2015. The MDGs have been a milestone in global and national development priorities. In the past 13 years the world has seen great strides towards achieving these […]
