Women’s Organisations In South Africa Need Better Funding In the news Funding is perhaps the single biggest challenge facing women’s shelters and anti-gender-based violence organisations in the country. By Shaazia Ebrahim
Perspectives #01/2018: The Quest for Political Accountability: Change Agents, Openings and Dead Ends This edition of Perspectives seeks to explore how actors in the state, political parties, and civil society have been able to make those in government less certain about the future balance of power through and outside of the ballot box. pdf
People’s Tribunal: Implicated parties given three months to respond Open Secrets - Secretariat of the People’s Tribunal - has invited 38 implicated parties to respond to the evidence submitted against them at the first People’s Tribunal on Economic Crime. By Open Secrets
Old Beginnings - The Political Context of Zimbabwe and Biometric Voter Registration Zimbabwe’s electoral processes have long drawn criticism and have failed to receive universal recognition as being ‘free and fair’. There have been multiple factors contributing to this, and the various elections since 2000 in particular have been extensively written about by civic organizations in Zimbabwe.
Think of Those the Fiscus Forgot Opinion In his 2018 budget speech, Minister Gigaba emphasised the need to “lend a hand in addressing society's most pressing challenges”. Among a myriad of social challenges facing our country are the ever-present, persisting rates of violence against women and children. Shelters play a critical role in providing women with reprieve from domestic violence - women who, by and large, are economically disenfranchised. It is with this in mind, that the minister's budget must be interrogated. By Claudia Lopes and Thokozile Madonko
Funding of Shelters for Abused Women is Still Uncertain Post-Budget In the news Social protection is an important safety net for the poor yet not all will benefit from this. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba recently announced government’s plan to increase its spending on social protection from R193.4 billion in the next financial year to R223.9 billion by 2021. Civil society organisations, however, questioned if this commitment to social protection will include sufficient funding for non-profit organisations, including shelters that provide services to vulnerable women and children who fall victim to domestic abuse. By Alicestine October
When Love Hurts and There’s No Money to Help In the news Health-E News's Kerry Culinan reports on research findings and discussions had at the HBF and NSM's recent public debate on funding of shelters for women. By Kerry Cullinan
Shelters Save Abused Women's Lives - So Why Aren't They Funded More? In the news While February is widely regarded as the month of love, statistics suggest that for this month alone approximately 84 women may be murdered by someone they [had] loved. Recent research by the HBF and NSM reveals that shelters are an effective strategy to the prevention of intimate partner violence, with less than a quarter of women returning to an abusive partner, yet, research has also found that serious funding gaps significantly undermines the efforts of shelters. By Natasha Adonis and Claudia Lopes
Women's Shelters Hamstrung by Funding Challenges In the news While government has set minimum standards for shelters housing abused women, it fails to offer adequate support to uphold these requirements. The Weekend Argus recently spoke to some shelter managers and survivors of abuse to shed more light on their experiences of providing/accessing shelters. By Yazeed Kamaldien
Beyond the Individual: Redefining Icons in Africa Interview Mukoma wa Ngugı sees hope in new, horizontal social movements that may bring to the fore a new iconography that transcends the individual and depoliticised “saviour”. By Mukoma wa Ngugi and Richard Oduor Oduku
