Question NW569 to the Minister of Social Development:
14 April 2023 - NW569
Bilankulu, Ms NK to ask the Minister of Social Development:
Considering that the President of the Republic, Mr M C Ramaphosa, has re-affirmed the commitment of his administration to deal with gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) through the Emergency Response Action Plan on GBVF, and declared a commitment to 365 Days of Activism Against Violence on Women and Children, in what ways will the National Development Agency support the (a) civil society organisations that are focused on GBVF in order to support communities and victims and (b) enhance the existing plans of her department on GBVF?
Reply:
a) The NDA, through the Department of Social Development (DSD), was allocated R95 million from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Criminal Asset Recovery Account (CARA) fund to fund 312 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to support victims of GBVF in communities across all 9 provinces. To date, a total of 297 CSOs have received funding for implementation of the project of supporting victims of GBVF. Each CSO received funding up to R300 000 depending on the experience and capacity to implement the GBVF support programme. During the assessment of CSOs capacities, seventy-eight (78) of these CSOs were found to be lacking capacity in governance, financial management and project management. These CSOs have been put on a mentoring and coaching programme to build their capacity on these areas. Special effort by the NDA and CSOs have been made to ensure that the GBVF hotspots Districts are all covered by the interventions provided by the CSOs.
The CSOs approved were through request for proposals (RFP) nationally, without a condition that they must be operating in hotspots identified by the SAPS. However, some of the CSOs who responded to the RFP were based in some of the hotspots identified by SAPS. The funding was based on preventative programmes which includes, awareness, workshops, home visits, referrals, shelters, paralegal support, abuse of grant recipients, counselling, therapy, child violence and court cases. To date, a total of 913 952 victims of gender-based violence have been reached through the Programme.
The table below indicates the number of funded CSOs and the number of GBVF victims supported by the programme per Province:
Activities |
KwaZulu Natal |
Limpopo |
Free State |
Gauteng |
Eastern Cape |
Northern Cape |
Mpumalanga |
Western Cape |
Total |
Awareness/Advocacy |
27290 |
15747 |
73 |
792548 |
1825 |
3341 |
8464 |
1370 |
850 658 |
Child Victims |
1069 |
614 |
50 |
171 |
316 |
23 |
61 |
37 |
3781 |
Therapy |
2335 |
521 |
34 |
291 |
16 |
15 |
20 |
549 |
3422 |
Counselling |
3630 |
1664 |
247 |
1015 |
761 |
167 |
1582 |
139 |
9205 |
Referrals |
964 |
1703 |
167 |
221 |
423 |
167 |
321 |
75 |
4041 |
Home Visits |
1536 |
2500 |
58 |
618 |
1329 |
20 |
1531 |
30 |
7622 |
Workshops |
619 |
533 |
28 |
686 |
97 |
28 |
1890 |
1192 |
5073 |
Ex-combatants |
0 |
13 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
Shelter |
89 |
1298 |
12 |
101 |
48 |
21 |
42 |
17 |
1998 |
Paralegal |
2 |
592 |
107 |
44 |
61 |
14 |
0 |
317 |
1137 |
Trauma |
1244 |
609 |
30 |
8 |
93 |
21 |
53 |
170 |
2228 |
Emotional Abuse |
1441 |
799 |
99 |
340 |
282 |
7 |
196 |
268 |
3432 |
Financial/Grant Abuse |
146 |
341 |
0 |
199 |
141 |
0 |
67 |
10 |
904 |
Physical Abuse |
685 |
1019 |
138 |
180 |
216 |
6 |
176 |
130 |
2188 |
Substance Abuse |
1537 |
285 |
0 |
68 |
238 |
4 |
56 |
10 |
2188 |
Sexual Abuse |
571 |
333 |
62 |
64 |
376 |
28 |
159 |
17 |
1610 |
Economic Programme |
301 |
88 |
0 |
284 |
30 |
0 |
45 |
10 |
758 |
Domestic Violence |
33 |
57 |
91 |
35 |
45 |
64 |
12 |
337 |
|
Conflict & Mediation |
7 |
35 |
47 |
67 |
33 |
101 |
189 |
||
Uncontrollable Child |
4 |
171 |
175 |
||||||
Social Media |
12983 |
12983 |
|||||||
Nutrition |
171 |
171 |
|||||||
Total |
43 499 |
28 751 |
1 247 |
796 838 |
6 354 |
17 265 |
14 828 |
4 353 |
913 952 |
The NDA appointed VPK Business Venture (Pty) and Makhophila Training service providers through SCM process to render mentorship and coaching to CSOs identified and funded in the programme.
The table below indicates the number of approved CSOs per Province and the rand value of the funding by Province:
Province |
No. of CSOs approved by Board for funding |
Total value of approved funding |
Gauteng |
60 |
17 200 000 |
*Eastern Cape |
67 |
15 900 000 |
Western Cape |
23 |
6 900 000 |
Mpumalanga |
37 |
10 500 000 |
Free State |
20 |
5 700 000 |
Northern Cape |
13 |
3 400 000 |
North West |
9 |
2 300 000 |
Limpopo |
57 |
16 200 000 |
KZN |
26 |
7 500 000 |
|
312 |
85 600 000 |
* Adjusted approval |
85 700 000 |
An additional 36 CSOs have been verified and recommended for funding to provide additional support for GBVF. These will be funded from the balance from the funding that the NDA received from DSD for this project. The 36 CSOs will commence with the implementation of the project in April 2023.
The additional 36 CSOs recommended for funding comes from all nine provinces and are listed in the table below:
Province |
No of CSOs |
Gauteng |
6 |
Eastern Cape |
6 |
Western Cape |
3 |
Mpumalanga |
5 |
Free State |
3 |
Northern Cape |
4 |
North West |
2 |
Limpopo |
1 |
KwaZulu Natal |
6 |
Total |
36 |
b) The NDA undertook an evaluation of the programme in the current financial year to evaluate all the aspects of the programme, a draft report was submitted at the end of February 2023, we are currently finalising the report which will be concluded by the end of March 2023. The recommendations of this report will be used as lessons to improve and enhance the quality of services to GBVF victims as we continue with this programme. In addition, the Department of Social Development has integrated the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on Gender Based Violence and Femicide into its Annual Performance Plans and Operational Plans which allocated the budget accordingly. We are in the process of engaging the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to request for another CARA funding to sustain the funded Civil Society Organisations for provision of GBVF services has commenced. Furthermore, DSD is engaging more donors and private businesses to fund Gender Based Violence and Femicide related projects in line with National Strategic Plan on Gender Based Violence and Femicide. Donors such as the European Commission and First Rand Foundation have responded positively to this call and the process of finalising the funding agreements are underway.