Stop the Bus! I Want to Get On
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Stop the bus! I want to get on Lessons from campaigns to end violence against women in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ghana October 2008 MUSASA PROJECT Stop the bus! I want to get on u u u Stop the bus! I want to get on u u u Lessons from campaigns to end violence against women in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ghana October 2008 Contributors: Kathleen Dey Judith Chiyangwa Netsy Fekade Odoi Rachel Carter Kanwal Ahluwalia Edited by: Editors 4 Change Ltd Also available to download from www.womankind.org.uk MUSASA PROJECT Published by WOMANKIND Worldwide © WOMANKIND Worldwide and Rape Crisis Cape Town WOMANKIND Worldwide Development House 56-64 Leonard Street London EC2A 4LT www.womankind.org.uk UK Registered Charity No. 328206 Rape Crisis Cape Town 23 Trill Road Observatory Cape Town 7925 South Africa www.rapecrisis.org.za South African Registered NPO No. 044786 Designed by Valerie Phipps-Smith, Cape Town Printed by Idea Corporation Cover picture: Day 1 of the ‘Stop the Bus’ campaign to change hearts and minds about rape in Western Cape. Acknowledgments u u u A number of people who have worked to pro- Acknowledgment should also go to Dr duce this document deserve our thanks and Neddy Matshalaga who undertook the initial appreciation: Kathleen Dey, Kholeka Booi, research on WOMANKIND Worldwide’s Small Meaka Biggs and Nazma Hendricks, Campaign Grants Programme, which helped us concep- Co-ordinators at the Rape Crisis Cape Town tualise this work. In addition, our thanks go to Trust; Judith Chiyangwa and all the staff at the Brita Fernandez-Schmidt and Mary Breen for Musasa Project as well as the staff at the Gen- their input on shaping the document, as well der and Human Rights Documentation Centre as Kanwal Ahluwalia and Rachel Carter who and Netsanet Fekade Odoi. Their tireless com- project managed the process and helped edit mitment to fighting for women’s rights and the document. Thanks also to Jane Lanigan gender equality as well as their enthusiasm, at Editors 4 Change Ltd for her editing work patience and willingness to share lessons from and Valerie Phipps-Smith for her design work, their violence against women campaigns has both often at breakneck speed! helped make this document what it is. Our Finally a special thanks to New Field Foun- special appreciation goes to all the women and dation Fund of Tides Foundation for their finan- men in the communities who were involved cial support for this project. in the campaigns in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ghana during 2006 and 2007. Glossary CSVR Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation CSO Civil-society organisation CHRAJ Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice CBO Community-based organisation CEDAW UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women FBO Faith-based organisation FGM Female genital mutilation GBV Gender Based Violence IDASA Institute for Democracy in South Africa M&E Monitoring and evaluation MDGs Millennium Development Goals NGOs Non-governmental organisations RCCTT Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust SAPS South African Police Service VAW Violence against women WK WOMANKIND Worldwide WASN Women and AIDS Support Network ZNFPC Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council ZWLA Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association ZWRCD Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network Foreword _ _ _ Strategies to tackle violence against women This report encapsulates the lessons from have evolved over recent years and there is three organisations working to achieve wom- now increased visibility of the problem and en’s rights in South Africa, Zimbabwe and greater knowledge and awareness of its causes Ghana in their annual campaigns to raise and consequences. However, huge challenges awareness about and contribute to a reduction remain. The scale of this global phenomenon in violence against women in its many forms. is enormous, but the level of investment in This document offers lessons and guide- suitable interventions and the political will lines to non-governmental organisations to tackle the problem remain low compared (NGOs) and community-based organisations to other human rights violations. Aside from (CBOs) to encourage community awareness the devastating impact on the lives of women, and understanding of gender-based violence, their families and communities, the pandemic as well as to help those organisations build threatens to undermine efforts to bring about campaign strategies — and monitor their im- sustainable development. pact effectively. Contents u u u Introduction 1 Background 1 Framing campaigns: United Nations and African Union frameworks 2 Who this publication is for 3 u How to set up a gender-violence campaign 5 Introduction 5 Violence against women campaigns 5 Seven steps for a successful campaign 5 u True stories: violence against women campaigning in Africa 11 Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust 11 The Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre 19 The Musasa Project 27 u Summing up 35 u Appendices: links and resources for campaigners 36 Appendix I: General information on contributing organisations 36 Appendix II: Legal instruments and frameworks 37 Appendix III: Useful links and documents 37 vii Introduction u u u Background long-term monitoring and evaluation than programmes with existing long-term partners WOMANKIND Worldwide and, therefore, discontinued this grant pro- WOMANKIND Worldwide is a leading inter- gramme in 2006. national women’s human rights and develop- ment organisation. The need to monitor and evaluate Our vision is of a world where women are VAW campaigns equal, secure, respected and proud. We work In 2005 WOMANKIND commissioned research with women’s organisations around the world to help us make progress in monitoring and to reduce violence against women, support evaluating VAW campaigns. It became clear women to play an active role in society and that we needed to create more meaningful support them to fight for their rights. relationships with grant recipients, mirroring WOMANKIND works to eliminate violence the way WOMANKIND engages with long- against women, increase women’s participa- term partners. We decided to take forward the tion in civil and political processes, and mo- following recommendations: bilise political will and resources for women’s rights and development. WOMANKIND should: Small Grants Programme to support u Take a leading role in capacity building both new and existing 16 Days of Activism Campaigns partners to monitor and disseminate learning from VAW WOMANKIND supports a number of partners strategies and campaigns to undertake various campaigns around the u Learn from organisations illustrating best practice in terms of world. In addition, under its Small Grants Pro- their monitoring processes and impact assessments gramme, WOMANKIND previously provided annual grants to grassroots women’s organisa- tions in Africa to support their campaigns dur- The research highlighted the lack of capacity ing the 16 Days of Activism Campaign, a global and the challenges facing organisations work- initiative aimed at raising awareness and reduc- ing on VAW in terms of their assessing both ing the prevalence of violence against women.1 the short and long-term impacts of VAW cam- Grant recipients embarked on a variety of ini- paigns. According to the Centre for the Study tiatives to raise awareness on VAW, share strat- of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) based egies, lobby governments and strengthen the in South Africa, monitoring and evaluating of solidarity of women tackling this issue. How- VAW programming ‘has remained a great chal- ever, WOMANKIND acknowledged that the lenge or gap for VAW organisations in Africa2’. nature of the Small Grants Programme, which The research highlighted the need to identify provided small, short-term grants for women’s clear VAW campaign monitoring and evalu- organisations, afforded fewer opportunities for ation (M&E) indicators, tools and systems. 1. Running every year from the International Day for 2. Matshalaga, Dr Neddy, July-August (2005) Violence the Elimination of Violence against Women (November Against Women in Africa: Initial Research on Learning 25) to International Human Rights Day (December 10), and Evaluating Campaign Strategies, unpublished. the 16 Days of Activism is timed to coincide with dates historically linked to women’s rights and empowerment. 1 STOP THE BUS! I wanT TO GET ON It suggested that WOMANKIND could learn Framing campaigns: United Nations and collaborate with organisations that have and African Union frameworks undertaken campaigns with demonstrable re- The impact of violence against women is sults, with the aim of working with them and now well documented. It denies women their partners to collate a participatorily designed most basic human rights, such as the right to VAW campaign monitoring and evaluation health, and is a major threat to the social and manual. This then could be adapted for use by economic development of communities and organisations in Africa and beyond. whole countries. In development terms, VAW directly endangers the achievement of the Mil- Lessons from three WOMANKIND lennium Development Goals (MDGs) related partners undertaking VAW campaigns to gender equality and women’s empower- WOMANKIND reflected on how to learn more ment, poverty reduction, infant and maternal about effective campaign strategies to combat health and mortality, educational attainment VAW and how to support partners to evaluate and combating HIV and AIDS. their work on campaigning within their local Governments’ obligations to prevent