This paper seeks to outline the policies and laws in place that are focused on the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS and the prevention of sexual violence in South African detention centres. Each year, 360,000 people circulate through the correctional system. The mistreatment, trauma, and illnesses that inmates are exposed to violates their human rights and has an impact on the public health of the communities to which they return. Violations of prisoners’ rights to health and physical integrity are not only a failure to inmates, it is also a violation of the government’s responsibility to aid in the promotion of the public’s health as contained in the Bill of Rights, international agreements, and domestic legislation and policy. Key policies to address prison sexual abuse and HIV are lacking, leaving South African correctional facilities without a framework to guide their approach to these issues.
Publication Type: Reports
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Red Card Campaign Against Child Sexual Exploitation
The “Red Card Campaign” (RCC) aimed to reduce children’s, and especially girls’, vulnerability to sexual exploitation during and after the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa by increasing awareness regarding sexual exploitation and increasing the ability and willingness of people to intervene to prevent and/or report it.
This evaluation of the Red Card Campaign aimed to 1) determine the reach of the RCC, 2) assess the initial impact of the RCC workshops on participant attitudes towards and knowledge about child sexual exploitation, and 3) examine the implementation of the RCC from the perspective of the NGO staff and volunteers. The findings and results of the evaluation are outlined in this report.
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The Menengage Africa Network Regional Organisational Capacity Survey
The MenEngage Africa Network Regional Organisational Capacity Audit, conducted in October and November 2010, assessed the existing capacity, focus areas and challenges facing organisations in the gender justice sector in the African region. Findings from the capacity audit serve to inform future interventions to build the capacity of the MenEngage Africa Network to promote work with men and boys for gender equality in the continent.
The survey contained questions in the following categories: (1) organisational demographics; (2) organisational strengths and weaknesses; (3) training provided by and needed by organisations; (4) knowledge of laws and policies pertaining to gender equality more broadly, and specific to working with men and boys; (5) interest in working with parliamentarians to promote work with men and boys on gender equality, and (6) assistance organisations need or could provide to members of the MenEngage Africa Network.
Based on the findings of the audit (as outlined in this report) and building on respondents’ willingness to support the MenEngage Africa Network, the MenEngage Africa Network plans to: (1) provide training in areas of weakness; (2) develop programmes and strategies that build on its strengths; and (3) design initiatives to meet identified needs, such as addressing gaps in policy and engaging with parliamentarians. These activities will build the capacity of individual country networks and the MenEngage Africa Network, and will add to the momentum for increased engagement of men and boys for gender equality.
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MenEngage Africa Regional Update
This update provides an overview of the progress made since the last report was submitted in September 2010. This includes meetings held, materials developed, an organisational skills audit, an overview of the consultation meeting on the MenEngage Africa Training Initiative, regional policy scan conducted, and the fundraising proposals submitted for their regional work during this period.
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An analysis of how National Strategic Plans on HIV/AIDS in five global regions address the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality and reducing the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS
While the need to engage with men and boys in work to prevent HIV and AIDS work and promote gender equality is clear, and the steps that have been taken by a small number of countries to include men and boys within their HIV and AIDS National Strategic Plans are encouraging, much progress is still required. Strategies that have been outlined need to be strengthened; and work which interrogates and challenges negative masculine norms needs to be developed. The proposed work outlined within NSPs must be monitored and evaluated to gauge its effectiveness so that successful interventions can be taken to scale. Other countries need to be encouraged to recognise the importance of including men and boys within policy work and program design and implementation, not only for the benefits which will be derived from women but also to ensure that men are engaged in work to achieve gender equality.
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Beijing Plus 15 Progress Report for the 2010 UN CSW
This report assesses the South African government’s progress in implementing international and national commitments to engage men and boys in achieving gender equality in five key areas:
• Gender equality and the equal sharing of responsibility
• Gender-based violence
• Promoting male sexual and reproductive health
• HIV services and facilities which encourage men to use them
• Work with boys and youth, in and out of schoolsThe report covers implementation and progress in each of these areas. At the start of each section, the relevant clauses of the instruments are outlined to show what government has committed to doing, followed by a review of progress in implementation by key government departments. Gaps and challenges are identified and specific recommendations made for improvement. The report does not focus on work conducted with women to advance gender equality, nor on the significant work done by civil society with men and boys for gender equality. It focuses solely on government efforts to engage with men and boys.
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“It looks like men are competing with rights nowadays”
This report presents findings on formative research as well as an initial impact evaluation conducted for the “One Man Can Campaign” (OMC) in seven South African provinces: Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mpumalanga, the Free State, Gauteng and North West. The One Man Can Campaign was developed by Sonke Gender Justice Network and promotes the idea that each one of us can create a better, more equitable and just world. In addition to taking action in our personal lives, the campaign encourages men to work together with other men and women to take action in our communities – to build a movement, to demand justice, to claim our rights and to change the world.
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Men for Change, Health for All
Men for Change, Health for All is guided by a commitment to develop policy for gender equity in health that both engages men and works for women and men. In doing so, the paper seeks also to reflect the range of lives of men. While all men may enjoy male privilege, this privilege is deeply shaped by other factors and forces, such as class, race, age, nationality and sexuality. “Men” are not a homogenous group and nor is “masculinity” a monolithic concept, and men’s diverse experiences of health reflect this. Engaging men in work for gender equity in health must also necessarily be work that is guided by a broader agenda for social justice in health.
This is a discussion paper that forms part of the commitment by the Department of Health to develop national policy guidelines on men, health and gender equality, with a specific emphasis on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Integral are recommendations for policy action that can engage men in efforts to improve the health of both women and men. The recommendations are primarily, but not exclusively, located in the health sector and have clear implications for action by government and civil society within health and other sectors.
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Masculinities and Public Policy in South Africa
This report identifies a number of focus areas in which notions of masculinity are key in South Africa, either because they are causally implicated in the twin epidemics of violence and HIV/AIDS, or because they contribute to gender inequality by reinforcing patriarchal privilege in the family and schools, or because men show up unequally as victims in gender statistics relating to homicide, occupational injury and disease and incarceration rates. For each focus area, the gendered nature of the issue or problem is identified and its manifestation in South Africa described. Policies designed to address the problem are then identified and discussed. Not all policies will be explicitly gendered in content, but all will have some implications for gender or masculinity and consequently for men and boys in society and are thus included in this report. The key focus areas are: men and violence; men and HIV/AIDS; men and the family; boys, men and schools; men at work; men and risk: alcohol and substance abuse; men, crime and punishment.
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The Role of Men in our Lives
Sonke Gender Justice Network will extend their programme in the Nkandla (Northern KwaZulu-Natal) and Mhlontlo (Eastern Cape) areas during 2008. In order to inform the work in these areas a participatory research process was conducted with a sample of children in both these areas. The aim of the research was to explore and document how children in these areas experience and perceive the role of the men in their lives. The research focussed particularly on the role men play in the children’s lives in relation to the issues they face such as the need for psycho-social support in the context of HIV/AIDS, vulnerability to violence and support for school-going.
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Literature Review on Men, Gender, Health and HIV and AIDS in South Africa
Social constructions of manhood have strong effects on men’s and women’s health. They affect women directly, for example, via male violence against them causing physical and psychological harm, and indirectly through men’s risky behaviour increasing their female partners’ vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases. And they also affect men, for whom expectations of risk-taking and taboos around health seeking heighten exposure to injury and illness.
Although attitudes are changing, many South Africans of both sexes see men as superior to women and believe that men should dictate many decisions that affect health, including sexual decisions.
Gender roles are not set in stone, however, and there is evidence from South Africa and other countries that efforts to increase gender equality can have significant effects on health by promoting more gender-equitable attitudes. Involving men in such programmes is now seen as vital to success.HIV/AIDS infection rates are higher among women, in part due to gender-driven behaviour. Gender norms allow men to dictate the terms of sex, including whether or not to use condoms. Levels of rape are among the highest in the world (and conviction rates among the lowest), while domestic violence is widespread. Constructions of masculinity also encourage men to have multiple concurrent sexual partners, which increases the risk of HIV infection both for their casual and long-term partners as well as for men themselves.
Much innovative work has been done in South Africa and elsewhere to shift these gender norms and thereby improve the health of men and women. ‘Stepping Stones,’ a community training and dialogue programme, has worked in multiple countries to reduce the acceptability of violence and promote discussion and awareness of HIV/ AIDS. Sonke Gender Justice Networks ‘One Man Can’ campaign uses a human rights framework to help men and boys take action to stop domestic and sexual violence, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and promote healthy, equitable relationships. These programmes have had significant impacts on behaviour and attitudes, with men becoming more involved in family health care and parenting as well as less likely to commit violence and more likely to protect themselves from health threats. They have found men willing to become more gender-equitable and to share the health care burden with women. Much of the work with men on gender and health has been small-scale, however; expanding it will have large benefits for the health of all members of society.
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The 2010 Soccer World Cup
Sports for development (S4D) initiatives have emerged in recent years, in an attempt to offer developing countries alternative strategies to tackle a variety of issues relating to development (individual, economic or social), peace building, post-disaster relief, gender equality, health promotion and disease prevention. With the upcoming 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa in sight, this piece looks at the use of sports to promote social change, particularly in the areas of working with men to achieve gender equality and to address issues related to gender based violence and HIV. The latter assumption is validated by the growing evidence base of programmes that work with men and boys and their significant impact on increasing men’s support for gender equality and in reducing a range of health problems.
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Working with men on sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality
This Desk Review consequently aims to provide an overview of the status of men’s reproductive health, especially as it relates to HIV, in South Africa. The role which gender plays in impacting on both women’s and men’s health is a key aspect of this overview. The review frames the discussion in the context of sexual and reproductive rights and opens with a brief discussion of rights in the South African context. Moreover, it hopes to provide an overview of current research that addresses the needs of men in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, as well as providing an overview of current policy and guidelines which, explicitly or implicitly, address the reproductive health of men by addressing attitudes and behaviours.
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Policy Approaches to Working with Men to Improve Men’s Health and Achieve Gender Equality
This National Department of Health policy initiative has its origins in the publication of the South Africa Country Report to the UN Commission on the Status of Women on progress made in involving men and boys in achieving gender equality since 2004. The findings of this report made clear the need to develop a coherent national policy with regard to engaging men in work for gender equality. In particular, the report noted the importance of health, as both a critical entry point and focus for such policy.
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Men Health & Gender Equality
This Men’s Imbizo successfully brought together stakeholders from eight provinces to discuss and recommend policy responses to the related challenges of improving men’s health and promoting gender equality. The mix of presentations on bio-medical and psycho-social aspects of gender and health in the lives of men raised key issues for discussion, and in the process revealed not only a deep hunger among men for more information on their health and their bodies, but also some of the key tensions that policy must address. The meeting made clear that policy on men, health and gender equality must address both male power, and its influence on women’s health, and gender norms, and their influence on men’s health, in a twin-track approach. This report provides an overview of the key topics and outcomes of this Imbizo.
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Addressing gender inequalities driving the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS on farms in Hoedspruit, Limpopo Province, South Africa
In partnership with the Hoedspruit Training Trust (HTT), IOM set up the Commercial Farm workers HIV Prevention and Care project in mid-2005. Operating on 18 commercial farms in the Hoedspruit area, the project provides a holistic approach to tackling HIV and has four components.
- In the workplace
- Care and support
- Behaviour change communication
- Addressing gender issues
Since May 2006, Sonke Gender Justice has been the key partner working on the gender component of this project, in conjunction with HTT. This component is designed to redress gender imbalances that contribute to problems in dealing with the HIV epidemic on commercial farms.
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Understanding Men’s Perceptions of Their Own and Government’s Response to Violence Against Women
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?; and 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.
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. This report provides an overview and the outcomes of the survey.
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‘By the Grace of God’
‘We run a trouble free centre only by the grace of God.’
— DCS official at South African correctional service centreCorrectional centre staff are vital for the safety, security and rehabilitation of inmates and detainees at South Africa’s correctional centres. Their role is pivotal in ensuring that conditions in correction centres meet the legal standards, and the treatment of inmates and detainees while incarcerated accords with their legal rights. Despite the pivotal importance of their role, very little research has been done on the conditions in which correctional centre staff must perform their functions. The importance of understanding the impact of appropriate staffing, and the problems that understaffing introduces, was heightened with the Department of Correctional Service’s introduction of a new staffing system in 2009, which dramatically impacted how correctional centre staff fulfil their mandate.
Low staffing numbers have negative consequences for the lives of inmates and the work of DCS staff members.
‘By the Grace of God’ is a research report commissioned by Sonke Gender Justice that reveals the impact that the Department’s new staffing roster and shift pattern has had on the daily lives of inmates. The report shows that shift patterns profoundly impact the safety and security of inmates and detainees. The new system has negatively impacted on-duty staff numbers (as the new roster results in more frequent short-staffing) and on staff morale, resulting in many staff members leaving the correctional services, further exacerbating issues related to understaffing.