Reducing violence in South Africa

The document argues that while South Africa has extensive research on the causes of violence and several effective small-scale interventions, there is a significant 'implementation gap' in translating these into national practice. It advocates for the use of implementation research—the study of how to improve the uptake and translation of research findings into routine practice—to ensure programmes remain effective when scaled. The authors recommend establishing an 'implementation hub' to coordinate government, NGOs, and researchers, ensuring that real-world challenges such as staff burnout, participant retention, and inadequate referral systems are addressed in the planning and delivery of violence prevention services.

• South Africa faces a persistent 'implementation gap' where progressive policies and legislation are not effectively translated into practice due to the complexities of real-world settings.
• Implementation research is proposed as a tool to understand how interventions work in real-world settings, allowing evidence-based programmes to be adapted to changing contexts and needs.
• Scaling up violence prevention programmes is hindered by a lack of knowledge regarding how to maintain programme effectiveness when delivered by lay staff or in different community contexts than where they were originally tested.
• Practitioners of positive parenting programmes identify three primary implementation challenges: recruitment (overcoming stigma and timing), retention (addressing unemployment, safety, and childcare), and referral systems (navigating the child-protection system).
• Staff well-being is critical to programme quality; high burnout and a lack of clinical supervision can lead to high staff turnover and poor delivery of violence prevention services.
• The authors recommend the creation of an 'implementation hub' to facilitate communication and a shared vision between government, researchers, and civil society to coordinate the scale-up of interventions.

APA

Hsiao, C., Gould, C., Loening, H., Burton, P., Lewaks, A., & Shai, N. (2017). Reducing violence in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/plicybrief108-v2.pdf

Chicago

Hsiao, Celia, Chandré Gould, Heidi Loening, Patrick Burton, André Lewaks, and Nwabisa Shai. Reducing violence in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies, 2017. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/plicybrief108-v2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hsiao |first1=Celia |last2=Gould |first2=Chandré |last3=Loening |first3=Heidi |last4=Burton |first4=Patrick |last5=Lewaks |first5=André |last6=Shai |first6=Nwabisa |title=Reducing violence in South Africa |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=2017 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/plicybrief108-v2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hsiao2017reducing, author = {Hsiao, Celia and Gould, Chandré and Loening, Heidi and Burton, Patrick and Lewaks, André and Shai, Nwabisa}, title = {{Reducing violence in South Africa}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2017}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/plicybrief108-v2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }