Costs and benefits of preventing violence

The report finds that community-based organisations (CBOs) in South Africa provide violence prevention and youth development services at a low cost—under R7,000 per family per year—while generating significant tangible and intangible social benefits. Using case studies of Net vir Pret and Seven Passes Initiative, the analysis suggests a benefit-to-cost ratio of more than 2:1. The authors highlight the adaptability of CBOs compared to state institutions and call for the South African government to develop funding benchmarks to sustainably support these organisations.

• Violence prevention and community development programmes delivered by community-based organisations (CBOs) provide benefits to stakeholders that exceed costs by a ratio of more than 2:1.
• The annual cost for NGOs to deliver a suite of services, including youth development, after-school care, and parenting support, is estimated to be less than R7,000 per family served.
• Specific evidence-based parenting programmes are highly cost-effective; for example, one trained facilitator delivering four programmes for children aged 0 to 18 costs R967.80 per family.
• A cost-benefit study of the PLH teen programme showed a return on investment ratio of 1:3.7, with input costs of R12,007.52 to prevent one case of abuse against savings of R44,615.40 per case.
• CBOs demonstrate greater flexibility and adaptability than state institutions, as evidenced by their ability to pivot to WhatsApp support and innovative food security measures during COVID-19 lockdowns.
• Conducting cost-benefit analyses for social programmes in South Africa is hindered by the difficulty of monetising intangible social goods, the lack of benchmarked NGO salaries, and a shortage of long-term data on impacted families.
• Comparisons with United States programmes, such as the Nurse-Family Partnership (which has a 2.73:1 benefit-cost ratio), indicate that the costs of US-based interventions are significantly higher than those of NGO-delivered programmes in South Africa.

APA

Gould, C., & Mufamadi, D. (2021). Costs and benefits of preventing violence. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-47.pdf

Chicago

Gould, Chandré, and Diketso Mufamadi. Costs and benefits of preventing violence. Institute for Security Studies, 2021. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-47.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gould |first1=Chandré |last2=Mufamadi |first2=Diketso |title=Costs and benefits of preventing violence |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=December 2021 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-47.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gould2021costs, author = {Gould, Chandré and Mufamadi, Diketso}, title = {{Costs and benefits of preventing violence}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2021}, month = dec, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-47.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }