Preventing Violence Against Women and Preventing Violence Against Children: How to Work at the Intersections

By Athraa Fakier and Phiwe Nota

May 2025

On 7 and 8 April 2025, practitioners and stakeholders from across South Africa gathered in Johannesburg for a workshop to engage on the new publication titled Preventing violence against women and violence against children: a toolkit for practitioners, authored by Aislinn Delany, Professor Shanaaz Mathews, and Lizette Berry. Hosted by the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town (UCT), the two-day workshop focused on supporting practitioners to deepen their understanding of violence prevention programming to shape their ongoing efforts to tackle violence against women (VAW) and children (VAC).

With representatives from various non-governmental organisations in the women’s and children’s sectors, the event provided a space to deep dive into the practical considerations of violence prevention programming when working at the intersections of VAW and VAC and provided participants the opportunity to share practical experience to foster knowledge exchange and collaboration.

Day one of the workshop opened with a sobering reflection on the persistent nature of gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa. Despite years of programmatic focus on GBV by government and civil society organisations, femicide rates have remained high. The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has tracked female homicide rates in the country since 1999 , and South Africa continues to report some of the highest rates of both femicide and infanticide globally.

Professor Mathews (UCT) highlighted how VAW and VAC are deeply interconnected and begin even before birth, when intimate partner violence (IPV) affects the unborn child during pregnancy. Violence occurs across the life course, with experience of or exposure to violence in childhood increasing the risk to both victimisation and perpetration of violence during adolescence and into adulthood. As such, experiences of violence is cumulative and drives an intergenerational cycle that influences parenting practices that affect the next generation.

While drivers of VAC and VAW are often addressed separately, they share common factors such as harmful gender and social norms. Aislinn Delany (independent consultant) presented the importance of developing a Theory of Change (ToC) for all programmes to map the drivers targeted by an intervention and develop a pathway to achieve the intended outcomes. In addition, working at the intersections of VAC and VAW means that shared drivers can be addressed across different socio-ecological levels and therefore have the potential to reduce multiple forms of violence. The toolkit: Preventing violence against women and violence against children: a toolkit for practitioners was thus developed to support practitioners in the development and delivery of programmes addressing the intersections of VAC and VAW.

The toolkit provides an overview of evidence-based prevention strategies from the African region, that are relevant to the South African context. Furthermore, it tackles understanding violence, preventing violence, elements for good violence prevention programmes, promising joint prevention strategies, consideration for adaption and scaling up, and practical consideration in programme design and implementation – all from the perspective of VAC and VAW as intersecting problems. In essence, the toolkit is intended as a practical guide to encourage practitioners to consider how programmes can be adapted or designed to better address the shared drivers of VAW and VAC, drawing on existing research evidence to address these problems.

The workshop was thoughtfully designed to be participatory, providing multiple moments for small-group reflections and activities, practice-based inputs, and interesting discussions. Practitioners engaged critically with the toolkit, asking about how it’s guidance could be applied to their contexts, sectors, and various communities. One of the key messages was the need for programmes and interventions at the intersection of VAW and VAC to be gender transformative – not just inclusive, but actively committed to addressing and uprooting the harmful gender norms and patriarchal structures that perpetuate violence.

Nina Digalo (Prevention Collaborative) expanded on the need for gender transformative parenting programmes (GTPP) that intentionally seek to address the root causes of gender-based inequalities and to challenge harmful gender roles, norms, and power imbalances between men and women, and boys and girls. GTPP recognise that these harmful norms and power imbalances can undermine parents’ capacity to provide nurturing care, restrict children’s opportunities, and be risk factors for VAC and VAW. GTPP are guided by the shared principles grounded in gender equality and women’s rights, engaging men as equitable parents and caregivers, engaging communities in programme design or adaptation, applying a strengths-based approach and meeting parents where they are, and promoting women’s and children’s safety and rights.

In reflecting on the workshop, we are reminded that preventing violence, especially when working at the intersections, is not about working in silos. It requires building bridges across sectors and disciplines and coming to collectively understand what it means to work at the intersections of violence against women and children, so that no woman or child is left behind. The toolkit and the discussions sparked a step forward in that direction, leaving most of us who had attended inspired and challenged, and even more committed to ensuring we address the intersections of violence against women and children.

A special thanks goes to Tarisai Mchuchu from MOSAIC and Lina Digolo from Prevention Collaborative for their contributions to the workshop.

Glossary:

Femicide: the intentional killing of women or girls because of their gender. Intimate femicide is the most extreme form of IPV in South Africa. Abrahams N, Jewkes R, Martin LJ, Mathews S, Vetten L, Lombard C. Mortality of women from intimate partner violence in South Africa: a national epidemiological study. Violence and Victims. 2009; 24(4): 546-556.

Infanticide: the intention killing of a newborn child.