Where is the money to address gender-based violence?

Authors: Budlender,D. ; Kuhn,J.

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains a pressing concern in South Africa, with levels of rape, domestic violence and femicide unabated during its fourteen years of democracy. Despite this, civil society organisations (CSOs) working in the sector find themselves facing a deepening funding crisis. This report examines the trends and patterns of funding for CSOs in South Africa that address gender-based violence and offers recommendations.

Key findings from the report include:


GBV activists reportedly left the sector, and whilst funding cuts were not the only reason for this movement, the cuts were perceived to have contributed. The departures of key workers led to fragmentation in funding processes
Rivalries and competition resulted in, among other things, duplication of programmes. This has influenced the perception of some donors that poor quality programmes were being delivered with minimal impact
Organisations that found it difficult to raise funds reported that internal reasons for this included the lack of sufficient human resources, management being uninvolved in fundraising, and a poorly defined fundraising strategy.

The report offers recommendations to both CSOs and donors. These include:


CSOs working in gender need to raise awareness among donors that levels of funding for GBV have been declining in recent years and that GBV is a significant issue
CSOs need to make donors aware that meaningful work in the sector is by nature long-term and is therefore contingent on healthy funding of the operational costs of GBV organisations and provision of funding for at least three years
Instead of forcing GBV programmes into donor's HIV/AIDS agendas, CSOs need to motivate for separate GBV funding while clearly linking the objectives of GBV projects to the issue of HIV/AIDS
CSOs should diversify their funding bases by seeking more funding from local businesses
SANGOCO should lobby government to make funding more accessible
Donors need to undertake critical evaluations of their gender mainstreaming programmes and formulate sound gender policies in consultation with the sector. In order for policy to be effective, it must be backed up by strong budgets for the gender-relevant aspects and monitoring and evaluation of gender equity targets.


Available online at: http://w ww. eldis. org/cf/rdr/?doc=37455&em=170608&sub=gender

crossposted from Eldis