What will it take to prevent interpersonal violence in South Africa?

This policy brief, produced by the Dialogue Forum for evidence-based programmes to prevent violence against women and children, identifies six systemic barriers to preventing interpersonal violence in South Africa and provides corresponding recommendations for government and multi-sectoral stakeholders.

• There is a lack of coherence and agreement regarding the definition of violence prevention in South Africa. Different sectors use conflicting terminology—such as 'social crimes' used by police versus 'child sexual exploitation' used by the justice sector—which creates 'silos' of action and prevents the prioritisation of violence prevention in public discourse and budgeting.
• South Africa lacks a comprehensive national, provincial, or local database to track existing violence prevention services and programmes. This gap makes it difficult to identify service gaps or avoid duplication of efforts, which is critical given that NGOs are responsible for running more than 98 per cent of the country's social welfare facilities and attending to over 71 per cent of clients.
• There is no cross-sector agreement on which evidence-based interventions should be prioritised or what constitutes sufficient evidence of effect. The document notes a need for a methodology to determine a 'basket of services' essential for different settings and a requirement that these services be consistently named in national and provincial budgets.
• The workforce delivering health and social services is heavily impacted by exposure to violence and trauma, leading to burnout, compassion fatigue, and absenteeism. This affects the quality of care, as some providers maintain a 'detached, business-like demeanour' with survivors, limiting empathy.
• Resource allocation for violence prevention is inadequate and inequitable. For example, provincial social welfare spending averages R622 per poor person in the Western Cape compared to only R220 in Limpopo. The current funding model often only partially funds services, forcing NGOs to cover shortfalls, which undermines their stability and effectiveness.
• While research on what works to reduce risk factors for violence against women and children is growing in South Africa, there is a lack of knowledge on how to scale up these interventions across different community contexts. The document recommends developing a research agenda focused on implementation science and credible indicators to monitor progress.

APA

Gould, C., Mufamadi, D., Amisi, M., Dartnall, E., Moruane, S., Abdoll, C., Connors, J., Naicker, S., Shai, N., Malek, E., Rezant, B., Edelstein, I., Mabunda, A., Mayet, Y., Frost, K., Dippenaar, W., Kader, Z., Lewaks, A., & Moeketsi, J. (2019). What will it take to prevent interpersonal violence in South Africa? Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/policybrief122v2.pdf

Chicago

Gould, Chandré, Diketso Mufamadi, Matodzi Amisi, Elizabeth Dartnall, Sinah Moruane, Carmen Abdoll, Judy Connors, et al. What will it take to prevent interpersonal violence in South Africa? Institute for Security Studies, 2019. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/policybrief122v2.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{gould2019what, author = {Gould, Chandré and Mufamadi, Diketso and Amisi, Matodzi and Dartnall, Elizabeth and Moruane, Sinah and Abdoll, Carmen and Connors, Judy and Naicker, Sara and Shai, Nwabisa and Malek, Elmarie and Rezant, Blanche and Edelstein, Ian and Mabunda, Annah and Mayet, Yusuf and Frost, Katharine and Dippenaar, Wilmi and Kader, Zainab and Lewaks, Andre and Moeketsi, Joan}, title = {{What will it take to prevent interpersonal violence in South Africa?}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2019}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/policybrief122v2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }