Thirty (30) stakeholders representing a diverse range of civil society, public, and private sector actors from Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe met between September 12th and 14th in Johannesburg. The event laid the foundations for a 10-month process aimed at sharing, mapping and developing innovative approaches for primary Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention.
In global comparison, the Southern Africa region experiences some of the highest rates of GBV, especially Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Not only is violence against women comparatively higher than in other countries of the Global South, but also its acceptance. The urgency to address GBV is shared in all corners of society. Governments have included GBV prevention among their top priorities, numerous grass-root organisations and initiatives have been established throughout the region, and the private sector is increasingly gaining standing in the fight against GBV.
The Social Innovation Lab is a unique platform to bring these change agents together in a long-term collaboration process that goes well beyond borders. The participants’ backgrounds span from policymaking to activism, through fundraising, education and social development programmes. Their different perspectives and expertise are the very grounds upon which new GBV prevention ideas will be created in the Lab, breaking the silos hampering cross-sectoral collaboration. Some of the sectors represented at the Lab are education, health and psychosocial support, positive masculinities, inclusion, research, etc. Each sector has a different focus and a different approach on GBV prevention, however, each one is important to tackle GBV at its very roots. The ideas thus conceptualised together in the Lab will be ready for implementation and the participants will pitch their investment potential at a final event with relevant donors and funders in the sector.
This kick-off event was the first within the Social Innovation Lab process. This event took the shape of a workshop, to identify areas that need strengthening and expansion for meaningful GBV prevention in the participants’ home countries and in the Southern Africa region as a whole. Reflecting on these dynamics with the help of tools borrowed from design and systems thinking approach enabled participants at the event to try out different sides of arguments, focus on listening and analyse underlining factors perpetuating GBV, as well as embracing the diversity of experiences that are shared within the GBV space. The next steps in the Lab methodology will see a series of in-country workshops in early November to report back the inputs of the regional dialogue into the national groups and to agree on meaningful areas of intervention for the new GBV prevention initiatives.