Battle against GBV hindered by lack of funds

Gender-based violence, which is South Africa’s second pandemic, is a multifaceted scourge.

Social investment specialist at Tshikululu Social Investments Ali Channon said there were too many gender-based violence non-profit organisations (NPO) lacking funding.

“I would like to see the private sector coming more on board here.

“I think what is critical is investment in gender-based violence (GBV) has to be sustainable.

“It can’t be that it’s a trendy issue because it’s in the headlines and the funding is not consistent because that can be more damaging to a sector that is already struggling,” she said.

Channon added that corporates often invested through multiple channels towards social impact, and many communities were required to have community trusts.

“I think it’s important for social investors to not let those be separate pockets of funding that don’t speak to each other.

“Separating that reduces the chance to achieve impact and especially with something like GBV.

“We need to be more deliberate and move towards sectorial partnerships, including civil society and the state because a lot of these gaps in services are the state’s responsibility,” she noted.

Founder and executive director of Gender-Based Violence Monitor South Africa Omogolo Taunyane-Mnguni said: “One of the functions of the organisation is to evaluate the rural criminal justice system.

“Our recent work includes an online GBV tracker. There are 89 cases on our website we are tracking. The purpose of the tracker is to tell the viewer what experiences citizens go through with the criminal justice system.

“The tracker will have details of a perpetrator and gives location of where the incident took place, whether it was reported at a police station or not and what charges were made.

“These output where necessary for our research purposes because we can go back and analyse trends according areas to a specific matter; we want to know what the factors are that perpetuate the high attrition rate,” she said.

Sylvia Luneta, country representive for Kinderfonds Mamas Alliance, said in the communities they worked in GBV was linked to poverty.

“GBV is a multifaceted problem but one common link we see is poverty.

“Due to poverty, some women don’t have a say or are dependent on men for survival.

“Poverty is not only a link in the communities we work in but leads to other social ills which made women and children vulnerable,” she said.