Joint winner — Non-profit Organisations Award: Gender Links
Gender Links has taken its campaign to promote gender equality to the people — to a groundswell of support at local level. Working with local government associations and councils, the gender-rights non-profit organisation (NPO) spent the past two years and R2-million on launching its local government and gender justice summit and awards.
The project was initiated at the start of 2009 and the first summit was held in Johannesburg from March 22 to 24 this year. Its aim is to harness the energies of local government and community-based organisations to end gender violence and empower women, says Abigail Jacobs-Williams, the gender and governance manager at Gender Links.
“Local government is where the decision-making is happening. It is women who are accessing the services at local government and it is important to have women, who are closest to these issues, in positions of power to ensure delivery,” she says.
Women constitute 52% of the population of the Southern African Development Community but a Gender Link’s study, “At the Coalface, Gender and Local Government”, showed that gender barely features in local government discourse.
“Despite the overall grim picture, there are islands of success,” says Jacobs-Williams. “For instance, Lesotho has a 60-40 split, with the majority of positions at local government level now held by women.”
The inaugural summit drew 103 entries from 10 countries in a variety of categories. Under the banner “Score a goal for gender equality, halve gender violence by 2015”, it brought together journalists, local government authorities, municipalities, NGOs and representatives of ministries of gender and local government from across the region.
Jacobs-Williams says the project is not just about numbers: “We need to see a shift in how women are perceived and recognised. It is extremely difficult if government doesn’t view gender as an issue that cuts across departments. “This is not just about education campaigns. Gender equality should be viewed as an integral part of all aspects of society and government.”
Based on the input from the first summit, Gender Links has identified 100 local councils across the region, which it calls centres of excellence, for mainstreaming gender at local level. It is developing gender action plans with these councils, which will be shared with participants at the second summit in 2011.
Jacobs-Williams says the project is building the capacity of more than 2 000 councillors and local officials to become agents of change in their
communities.
The Investing in the Future judges lauded Gender Links for the vision and innovation involved in the project. The organisation has won numerous awards over the years, they said, but deserved to be rewarded again for this important intervention at ground level.