Diketso Mufamadi’s research while affiliated with University of Cape Town and other places

What do we mean when we speak of preventing violence? This policy brief presents definitions of violence prevention as expressed by children, researchers, non-governmental organisations, government officials, development partners, donor agencies and a private sector partner. These definitions show that preventing violence is a collective, long-term undertaking that requires time, knowledge, energy and funds to redress poverty, inequality and prejudice. It will only be achieved when there are common goals and a shared commitment. POLICY BRIEF By the Violence Prevention Forum

Human security is the right of all people regardless of sex, religion, ethnicity, gender and other axes of oppression. There is growing global recognition that gender equality is a major prerequisite for achieving it. Human security relates not only to personal and community safety during times of violence, war and conflict, but also includes access to education, health and economic life, and political representation. Through perspectives from Africa, specifically Nigeria, the Central African Republic (CAR), South Africa and Liberia, this monograph explores security-related gender inequalities for women and current responses to them.

Reducing and preventing violence is critical to national development and to achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. This policy brief reviews current expenditure on the criminal justice system and what that spend has achieved. It also looks at spending on violence prevention and shows that while South Africa spends over R126 billion a year on criminal justice, only R9 billion is spent by the state on programmes that can prevent violence. This must change if violence is to be reduced.

This policy brief presents an analysis of six factors that stand in the way of effectively preventing interpersonal violence in South Africa, and suggests how they might be overcome. It is a product of the Dialogue Forum for evidence-based programmes to prevent violence against women and children. The forum is a multi-sectoral group of researchers, community based organisations delivering evidence-based primary violence prevention interventions, government officials from seven departments and international development partners. POLICY BRIEF South African Dialogue Forum What will it take to prevent interpersonal violence in South Africa? What Will it take to prevent interpersonal violence in south africa? 2 Key findings The following six factors stand in the way of preventing interpersonal violence: A lack of coherence and agreement about what constitutes violence prevention. A lack of knowledge about existing violence prevention interventions and programmes. A lack of agreement on what interventions should be prioritised for implementation. A workforce in need of healing. Inappropriate resource allocation. A lack of knowledge about how to scale-up interventions that work. Recommendations A clear articulation of the factors that contribute to violence, and how these can be addressed, must be developed and provided to provincial and local government, and communities, to enable them to develop safety plans as envisaged by the White Paper on Safety and Security.