The Violence Prevention Forum in South Africa
My group and I are working with the Seven Passes Initiative (SPI)/SAPPIN for our NGO project this semester. The mission of SPI is, “To make a positive difference in the lives of people in the rural communities of Touwsranten and Hoekwil and in the Garden Route; and to contribute to knowledge about how we can bring about similar positive change throughout South Africa and beyond.” Additionally, their target groups according to SPI’s website are the children, youth, and caregivers in the communities they serve. For this post, I wanted to go straight to the source and chose an article written by my group’s direct contact to SPI — Wilmi Dippenaar who serves as the Director of SPI. Wilmi wrote an article last year on October 13th titled “Preventing Violence in South Africa”.
This policy brief was actually really interesting because it detailed the creation and facilitation of a forum called the Violence Protection Forum (VPF) which serves as a multisectoral group of people that met across a period of five years in ten different meetings. The main goal entails supporting implementation of evidence-based intervention programs to prevent violence in South Africa on a large-scale.
Originally, this program’s focus was on the violence experienced by children, and later on, women and children. Ultimately, it evolved to focusing on and talking about interpersonal violence. What I appreciate about this program, and actually this is something I appreciate about The New School as well, is its ability to grow with its people and its research. It is held in our evolving society as a tool to utilize for the greater good. It facilitates conversations and insights into how to better the society and communities they affect.
Over the course of the six years of meetings from 2015–2020, 10 government departments, 16 research institutes, 14 NGOs, and 2 development partners participated in these discussions. I love how inclusive and how representative these discussions were across the professional world who have the ability to enact these impacts and changes.
These forum discussions are thought out well and planned to maximize opportunities for full participation and engagement, despite the varying levels of professional status. Participants sit in a circle layout and each meeting lasts for two days, twice a year. Participants brag about the information presented, including how government budget processes work, challenges that NGOs face regarding program implementation and more. This provides a great opportunity to share information with people who otherwise would not have access to it. The article outlays what specific information was discussed within each meeting, and I would encourage everyone to check it out to learn more (linked below).
Humbly, the article and the forum recognize that there can be room for improvements moving forward such as achieving even representation. Being that I am from North Carolina and have no experience or familiarity with South Africa, I appreciate the context the article provides. They explain how provincial representation is uneven and there are some researchers who are leading in the field who do not participate. Furthermore, they are exploring ways to strengthen political support. I look forward to seeing what else the VPF can accomplish moving forward and how this can impact the communities I will be working with.
