Monitoring violence prevention

This research paper examines the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems used to track violence-prevention interventions in South Africa, specifically focusing on the interface between the Department of Social Development (DSD) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The author argues that current M&E practices are driven by financial compliance and audit requirements rather than a desire to measure long-term policy effectiveness or community impact.

• South Africa lacks a shared national results framework for measuring the progress of violence-prevention policies, leading to fragmented reporting across different government levels and sectors.
• Government monitoring of violence-prevention programmes focuses primarily on access and output indicators, such as the number of people reached, rather than qualitative outcomes or the actual reduction of violence.
• The monitoring and reporting requirements for NGOs are largely driven by the Public Finance Management Act of 1999 (PFMA) and the need to avoid negative audit findings, turning M&E into a compliance exercise.
• NGOs face a significant financial and administrative burden to comply with government reporting requirements, costs which are often not covered by state funding.
• There is a systemic failure to integrate the outcome data and implementation lessons from community-based NGOs into national reporting, such as the Medium-term Strategic Framework (MTSF).
• The rigid nature of government funding and service level agreements hinders the ability of NGOs to remain agile and respond to emergent community needs, such as those arising during the Covid pandemic.

APA

Amisi, M. M. (2021). Monitoring violence prevention. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ monitoring-vp-rev.pdf

Chicago

Amisi, Matodzi M. Monitoring violence prevention. Institute for Security Studies, 2021. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ monitoring-vp-rev.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Amisi |first1=Matodzi M |title=Monitoring violence prevention |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=November 2021 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ monitoring-vp-rev.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{amisi2021monitoring, author = {Amisi, Matodzi M}, title = {{Monitoring violence prevention}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2021}, month = nov, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ monitoring-vp-rev.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }