A coalition of NGOs working in the area of violence against women and children has called on the government to recognise the scourge as a hindrance to development and to establish a special fund to fight it.
The fund is to be located in the Department of Trade and Industry, which has called for submissions for special funds for developmental purposes.
”In the development field the link between gender violence and development is being recognised,” Lisa Vetten, gender coordinator at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation told the Mail & Guardian in the second week of March. ”If the government establishes this fund, it would be a first formal recognition and a significant step,” she said.
The centre has joined forces with seven other organisations, including the National Institute for Crime and Reintegration of Offenders, Reproductive Rights Alliance, Sexual Harrasment Education Project and Women against Women Abuse.
The submission reiterates South Africa’s high incidence of rape and violence against women, noting that 52 860 rapes were reported in 2001, and that a Medical Research Council study had found that only a quarter of raped women report the offence.
It notes three ways in which violence against women is a development issue. It says that women who have been abused can become wasted resources in providing capacity for development. Abuse can ”jeopardise their health and constrain their participation in the labour force”.
The submission also highlights the direct and indirect financial costs to the individual and the state. It cites a 1999 study undertaken in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, which found that between 63% and 92% of abuse victims have sought medical attention for their injuries. The study estimates the cost to the three provinces’ departments of health at R29-million.
The submission says violence is a barrier to participation because of changed social behaviour caused by factors such as Rape Trauma Syndrome, which causes anger, depression and increased use of drugs and alcohol.
Finally, violence is described as a contradiction to the notion of human development as defined by the United Nations Development Project. The report notes how rape, even the fear of rape, influences decisions on where to work, mode of transport and interaction with others.
This leads the organisations to conclude: ”Rape is not only a problem for the courts but for those engaged in development work, including poverty alleviation and job creation programmes.”
The centre conducted a study to assess government support for NGOs and found that between January 2000 and May 2001, 141 organisations received R11,3-million. Sixty-three percent of the funding went to Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal and 2% to the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga. More than half of the grants were less than R100 000.
The organisations recommend the formation of a fund that will separately cater for established and new organisations, helping to facilitate transfer of skills and capacity building.