South African Women as Champions of Change

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The publication of this book forms part of a civil society programme of action for the African Women's Decade, coordinated by South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID). It reports on the main issues facing South African women, namely: 1) poverty eradication in the context of gender; 2) early childhood development (ECD) in the context of gender; 3) violence against women; and 4) co-ordination of civil society initiatives. A fifth theme which cuts across all the others is employment creation.

List of figures and tables v

Preface vii

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction ix

Abbreviations and acronyms xi

1. Poverty eradication in the context of gender
   • Engendering poverty
   • Poverty in South Africa
   • Unemployment in South Africa
   • Best practice models of poverty eradication
   • Challenges and opportunities from a civil society perspective
   • Proposal of best practice model for poverty eradication in South Africa
   • Recommendations and policy implications for poverty eradication
   • Conclusion
2. Early childhood development in the context of gender
   • Understanding early childhood development and definitions
   • Legal and service delivery framework for ECD in South Africa
   • Contextualising ECD within a gendered framework
   • Access to early childhood development in South Africa
   • The role of CSOs in promoting and addressing ECD
   • Best practice civil society models for engendering ECD
   • Challenges for civil society in advancing gender equity goals through ECD
   • Opportunities for civil society in advancing gender equity goals through ECD
   • Recommendations on ECD in the context of gender
   • Policy implications of advancing gender equity goals through ECD
   • Conclusion
3. Violence against women
   • Definition of key terms
   • Causes of gender-based violence
   • Costs of violence against women
   • What works to prevent men’s violence against women?
   • Experience from global practice on violence prevention
   • Best practice in South Africa
   • Challenges and opportunities for civil society organisations
   • Recommendations and policy implications for violence against women
   • Conclusion
4. Civil society coordination
   • Definitions and the idea of civil society
   • Best practice models for civil society efforts at coordination
   • Challenges limiting effective coordination of civil society
   • Civil society coordination models and experiences in South Africa
   • Impact on employment creation through civil society coordination
   • Challenges and opportunities arising from civil society coordination
   • Recommendation of best practice model for civil society coordination
   • Conclusions and policy implications
5. Conclusions and policy implications
   • Recommendations for poverty eradication in the context of gender
   • Recommendations for engendering ECD in South Africa
   • Recommendations to reduce violence against women
   • Recommendations for civil society coordination
   • Appendix: South African CSOs featured in the study
6. References
7. Contributors
8. Index