The case study discussed in this Evidence Report explores the value and limitations of collective action in challenging the community, political, social and economic institutions that reinforce harmful masculinities and gender norms related to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). As such, the concept of structural violence is used to locate SGBV in a social, economic and political context that draws histories of entrenched inequalities in South Africa into the present. The research findings reinforce a relational and constructed understanding of gender emphasising that gender norms can be reconfigured and positively transformed. We argue that this transformation can be catalysed through networked and multidimensional strategies of collective action that engage the personal agency of men and women and their interpersonal relationships at multiple levels and across boundaries of social class, race and gender. This collectivity needs to be conscious of and engaged with the structural inequalities that deeply influence trajectories of change. Citizens and civil society must work with the institutions – political, religious, social and economic – that reinforce structural violence in order to ensure their accountability in ending SGBV.UK Department for International Developmen

Black, G

Cornelius, R

Mills, Elizabeth

Shahrokh, T

van den Heever, L

Wheeler, J

English

IDS OpenDocs

                                                                                                                                
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                 
 
TURNING THE TIDE: THE ROLE OF 
COLLECTIVE ACTION FOR 
ADDRESSING STRUCTURAL AND 
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN 
SOUTH AFRICA 
 
Empowerment of Women and Girls   
Elizabeth Mills, Thea Shahrokh, Joanna Wheeler, Gill Black, 
Rukia Cornelius and Lucinda van den Heever 
February 2015 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
TURNING THE TIDE: THE ROLE OF COLLECTIVE ACTION 
FOR ADDRESSING STRUCTURAL AND GENDER-BASED 
VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA 
Elizabeth Mills,a Thea Shahrokh,a Joanna Wheeler,b Gill Black,b                   
Rukia Corneliusc and Lucinda van den Heeverc 
a Institute of Development Studies, UK 
b Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, South Africa 
c Sonke Gender Justice, South Africa 
February 2015 
 
This is an Open Access publication distributed under the terms of the Creative 
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and 
reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are clearly 
credited. 
 
First published by the Institute of Development Studies in February 2015 
© Institute of Development Studies 2015 
 
IDS is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England (No. 877338). 
The IDS programme on Strengthening Evidence-based Policy works across seven key 
themes. Each theme works with partner institutions to co-construct policy-relevant 
knowledge and engage in policy-influencing processes. This material has been developed 
under the Empowerment of Women and Girls theme. 
 
Input was provided by Sonke Gender Justice and the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation 
(SLF). The authors would also like to acknowledge review on this publication from Lyndsay 
McLean Hilker, Pauline Oosterhoff and Jerker Edström. 
 
The authors would like to acknowledge the resources and energy contributed by the South 
African organisations involved in this project; without their exceptional levels of commitment 
over and above the scope of this work it would not have been possible. They would also like 
to express their deepest appreciation of the 11 community activists for their conviction and 
for sharing their stories so powerfully and openly. 
 
SLF colleagues provided invaluable research support throughout this process. Bathulile 
Ntshingila co-facilitated the digital storytelling (DST) and collective power analysis workshops 
and provided translation support for both. Mzodidi Tutuka co-facilitated the DST workshop 
and assisted with the translation and subtitling of the stories. Becky Hillier assisted with 
documentation of the DST and collective power analysis workshops. Cebisa Fubesi provided 
translation support throughout the DST process. The team at SLF also provided exceptional 
logistical support during the community engagement processes. Furthermore, colleagues at 
Sonke Gender Justice worked collaboratively and with such commitment throughout. Keegan 
Lakay provided support during the facilitation of the community engagement and stakeholder 
dialogue processes. Rodney Fortuin supported the digital storytelling process and provided 
excellent guidance and coordination in setting up the research interviews in the Matzikama 
area. 
 
The material has been funded by UK aid from the UK Government, however the views 
expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies. 
 
AG Level 2 Output ID: 119 
1 
 
Overview 
The case study discussed in this Evidence Report explores the value and limitations of 
collective action in challenging the community, political, social and economic institutions that 
reinforce harmful masculinities and gender norms related to sexual and gender-based 
violence (SGBV). As such, the concept of structural violence is used to locate SGBV in a 
social, economic and political context that draws histories of entrenched inequalities in South 
Africa into the present. The research findings reinforce a relational and constructed 
understanding of gender emphasising that gender norms can be reconfigured and positively 
transformed. We argue that this transformation can be catalysed through networked and 
multidimensional strategies of collective action that engage the personal agency of men and 
women and their interpersonal relationships at multiple levels and across boundaries of 
social class, race and gender. This collectivity needs to be conscious of and engaged with 
the structural inequalities that deeply influence trajectories of change. Citizens and civil 
society must work with the institutions – political, religious, social and economic – that 
reinforce structural violence in order to ensure their accountability in ending SGBV. 
Background and rationale 
South Africa, a democratic parliamentary republic since 1994 and formally classed as a 
middle-income country, has among the highest rates of inequality in the world. Economic 
inequality and high unemployment relate to legacies of colonialism and apartheid that 
maintain poverty and marginalisation. It is in the context of socioeconomic inequality that 
South Africa bears witness to an epidemic of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV): in 
the Western Cape, 39 per cent of women have experienced some form of SGBV in their 
lifetime. South Africa’s rate of rape, as a particular form of SGBV, has been found to be one 
of the highest in the world. The violent punishment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, 
queer and intersex (LGBTQI) persons is also of critical concern. 
 
The widespread violation of people’s rights, particularly linked to their gender and sexuality, 
runs alongside an attempt in policy to respond to SGBV; South Africa has implemented a raft 
of progressive and comprehensive laws, policies and support systems. Looking to the 
implementation of policy, several integrated approaches exist that involve both government 
and civil society in dealing with the prevalence of SGBV at national and provincial levels. 
Despite these efforts legal responsibilities on SGBV are not adequately met. In response, 
civil society has called for an effective National Strategic Plan (NSP) on gender-based 
violence. South Africa’s experience with HIV has shown that an NSP can be an important 
tool to gain the political commitment and funding required for a multisectoral response to 
address large social challenges. 
 
The Evidence Report draws on the notion of structural violence to bring into perspective a 
long and deep history in which violence was closely tied into a particular order in which 
gender, race, class and sexuality were normatively constructed and enforced. Within these 
constructions harmful interpretations of masculinity are recognised as endorsing the use of 
violence as a gendered practice. An aim of this study, and one of the major challenges in 
post-apartheid South Africa, is identifying those actors and institutions responsible for the 
proliferation of these historic forms of structural violence in their contemporary form as 
SGBV. In turn, the case study aims to understand some of the ways that people are working 
collectively, to challenge these inequalities and forms of violence through their interpersonal 
relationships and collective and political action.  
 
 
2 
 
In this research, we explored the intersection between politics and power, social norms, and 
networks of actors to try and understand how transformative social change to end SGBV can 
be achieved. The research questions for this study are twofold:  
 
1. What are the perceived structural factors (social, political, economic) that contribute 
to people’s experiences of SGBV? 
2. How do (i) individual agency of men and women, and (ii) collective political actions 
(public, institutional, etc.) interact to engage certain kinds of processes that aim to 
prevent and address SGBV? 
 
Overall, the study was conducted with the aim of providing insight into how citizens and civil 
society organisations find meaningful ways to engage with each other, and with the 
government, to challenge oppressive social norms and structures and to build transformative 
strategies to end SGBV. 
Methodology  
This study used a multi-layered research methodology in order to generate policy-relevant 
research that was empirically grounded and action-oriented. The participants of this research 
study were diverse actors engaged in the issue of addressing SGBV in the Cape Town 
metropolitan area, and the Matzikama municipality of rural Western Cape. The methods 
themselves were established to ensure that the research process was responsive to 
emerging policy dynamics linked to the development of an NSP on gender-based violence. 
Furthermore, we formulated the study with the aim that it would be empirically grounded and 
ethically accountable to those people with whom we worked and who are addressing SGBV 
in their everyday realities. This was achieved through the use of dialogic and open-ended 
research instruments that supported participants to shape the direction of the research from 
the outset. An inductive and comparative approach to analysis, based on grounded theory, 
allowed the research material to be developed into findings through an iterative and 
consultative process. The research was conducted July–November 2014. The findings are 
based on three interlinked strands of research: digital storytelling and collective analysis with 
11 participants identified as community activists; qualitative research, through key informant 
interviews with 26 stakeholders dealing with SGBV; and policy engagement through a 
stakeholder dialogue event with 35 participants.  
Findings and discussion 
South Africa’s past is perhaps at its most harmful, and most visible, in the legacy of violence 
that its citizens continue to embody in their everyday lives. It is therefore impossible and 
even dangerous to de-link SGBV, as a very specific form of violence, from the broader 
dynamics of socioeconomic inequality that still characterises the lives of the people involved 
in this study. The first section of our findings describes how the persistence of this inequality 
was inscribed into the very spaces – townships, homes, bodies – in which most of the 
participants lived. This inequality, and the multiple forms of violence they experienced as a 
result, was articulated in particular by the community activists with whom we worked. The 
participants detailed the extent to which racial inequalities embedded in South Africa’s 
history, emerged in the present, for example in the form of ongoing economic struggle. A 
particular set of normative gender roles were articulated, in relation to these structural 
dynamics. Migration, for instance, was expressed as an action taken by men in order to earn 
money to support their families.  
 
The study findings also make visible the role of formal institutions and leaders in failing to 
address, or sometimes in maintaining, structural inequalities that underpin SGBV. These 
institutions include political institutions, such as government departments and the judicial 
system, as well as religious institutions and leaders. Participants explained that without 
3 
 
providing clear leadership on gender justice, and without transforming government 
departments to better respond to SGBV, the government would continue to fail in its attempt 
to promote gender equality. Political institutions, particularly those related to law 
enforcement, were also described in the study as negligent or ill-equipped to deal with the 
needs of people experiencing SGBV. The participants in the study described, too, how 
religious leaders used their power to sanction heteronormative relationships and sexist 
characterisations of men and women’s ‘roles’.  
 
The findings demonstrate that gender transformative collective action can provide an 
opportunity for different actors and organisations to work together across social issues 
towards change, bringing alliances and partnerships between people and across 
organisations. The strategies for change outlined within this case study are framed as gender 
transformative approaches, because they seek to change gender roles and create more 
respectful and egalitarian relationships. These initiatives emphasise the full participation of 
men, whose role is seen as essential in the transformative process. Further, community-led 
initiatives that work at the personal and political level providing support structures and 
spaces to engage diverse stakeholders have the potential to transform attitudes, behaviours 
and mechanisms that support male dominance and power. Collaborations between 
organisations and institutions can enable coordination across interventions engaging 
different ecological levels and addressing the multiple intersecting influences to reduce and 
prevent violence. 
 
Pragmatic limitations to collective action, and to social transformation, were also raised 
through the case study and relate, specifically, to a lack of funding for those organisations 
working to provide resources to people affected by SGBV. Most often, it was those same 
organisations that did not have funding, who were doing the work of government 
departments in providing support to survivors of SGBV. The work of civil society 
organisations has not only been to provide this basic support, but in South Africa, it has also 
historically been to call on the government to be accountable to and take greater 
responsibility for the wellbeing of its citizens. 
Policy and practice recommendations 
Citizens’ initiatives and social activism 
 
 It is important to recognise informal ways of collective action in people’s lived 
realities. Continued work is needed with communities to understand their innovations 
in addressing gender inequalities and to mobilise this knowledge into policymaking. 
 Collective action (informal and formal) does not necessarily translate into a ‘gender 
transformative’ collective or movement; citizens and affiliated organisations need to 
invest in the work of gender equality. In doing so the political power dynamics of 
challenging patriarchal privilege must be recognised. 
 Working with citizens to develop and share practical legal knowledge about their 
rights, and avenues for recourse and resources on SGBV is crucial to enable them to 
shape and hold accountable the policies and programmes that affect their lives.  
 Sustainability of collective action in ending SGBV at the community level is important; 
more understanding is needed on what drives citizen action, enables ownership of 
the process of change, and the resources needed to support this. 
 A focus on mobilisation has highlighted the significance of engaging with men and 
women in positions of power and holding them to account in their responsibilities for 
working to end SGBV; as power holders in these contexts, men have an important 
role to play in holding each other accountable on gender equality. 
4 
 
Civil society partnerships 
 
 Partnerships across social movements working for gender equality – engaging men, 
women, LGBTQI persons – are important for accountability within movements. 
Furthermore, these relationships can enable collaborative learning on gender issues 
and help ensure a collective response to SGBV that promotes social justice for all. 
 A clear vision and purpose needs to be built for gender transformative collective 
action. Where this reflects a partnership between state, social actors and citizens, 
then possibilities of accountability and work to enable citizen action and rights claims 
at the local level will be strengthened. 
 Civil society needs to develop clearer strategies and policies for mediating and linking 
across actors to strengthen networked ways of working to address SGBV across 
multiple levels and social and political spaces. 
Government institutions 
 
 Recognising citizens and civil society organisations as effective partners in ending 
SGBV, working collaboratively to support policy reform on the issue of SGBV, and 
importantly in enabling effective implementation. 
 Political decision-makers and champions are critical for driving institutional change. 
Entrenched patriarchy in political and religious institutions needs to be challenged in 
order for these institutions to more effectively address the root causes of SGBV. 
 Multi-sectoral consultations and citizen participation are required to develop and 
implement a fully-costed and funded National Strategic Plan to end SGBV that aims 
to fill the existing gaps in: laws and policies, services for survivors of SGBV, funding 
for strategies that prevent violence, and oversight and impact mechanisms. 
 The government needs to make information on SGBV funding more transparent 
(including funding criteria, recipients and budgets). Ideally, this information should 
also be made available retrospectively, for organisations to be in a better position to 
lobby national and international donors for funding.   
International community 
 
 International donor agencies must meaningfully engage in learning from specific 
country contexts, to develop agendas on SGBV that can be sensitively, and 
effectively, implemented.  
 The international community can play a role in ‘the collective’, as part of a global 
alliance that supports and enables national-level, contextualised responses to SGBV. 
 Using the effective work being done by collective actors at local and national levels to 
contribute to the global dialogue and frameworks on ending SGBV. 


Turning the Tide: The Role of Collective Action for Addressing Structural and Gender-based Violence in South Africa

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Turning the Tide: The Role of Collective Action for Addressing Structural and Gender-based Violence in South Africa

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