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>View discussions about this entry Country: South Africa
Organization: Sonke Gender Justice Network (Sonke)
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2006
Project URL: http://www.genderjustice.org.za/onemancan/
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Describe your program or new idea in one sentence. - The One Man Can Campaign recognises that many young men want to act on their convictions that they can create a peaceful, gender equitable world.
What makes your initiative uniquely positioned to create change in your community? - The One Man Can Campaign was informed by extensive formative research including a desk review, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and a staff with many years experience working across South Africa. The campaign recognises that men are not inherently violent and can instead play a vital role in challenging destructive gender roles. Unlike other male involvement initiatives that focus primarily on running workshops, the One Man Can Campaign uses a broader range of social change strategies including: advocacy, policy formulation, creation of new media, community mobilisation and ongoing action research to bring about change. For instance, we have participated in developing submissions to parliament to address prison rape and demand better health services and we have spearheaded efforts to develop and support implementation of progressive national policies that increase men's commitments to health and gender equality. For example, we are currently working with the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation to develop new policies on men, gender and health.
Describe how you organize and carry out your work? - The initiative is rooted in local communities and staffed with young men from those communities. The campaign uses a human rights framework to promote active citizenship and works closely with national and local government to support implementation of South Africa's progressive constitution and when necessary also to hold government accountable. OMC materials and priorities also reflect ongoing dialogue with women's rights and youth focused organisations and gain from ongoing interactions with colleagues from across the world--especially in the global South
What is your plan to scale and expand your innovation into your community and beyond? - In the last 18 months we have expanded into all of South Africa's nine provinces and 8 neighbouring countries. This year we will focus on developing new updated materials and on staff development to ensure that our work is implemented effectively and has real impacts. We have been asked to expand our work into East and Central Africa and are attempting to build staff and organisational capacity to do this. This will require translating existing materials into at least French and Swahili. We also plan to develop clear membership criteria and structures so that we are able to sustain a strong network of One Man Can activists across the continent.
In 2008, we plan to implement two new projects: a youth leadership institute and an expanded rights based advocacy initiative to support/demand implementation of our new Sexual Offences Act and the various SADC protocols on gender transformation. What other resources, institutional, or policy needs would be necessary to help sustain and scale up your idea? - We are currently working with our board on a 2008-2011 strategic plan, revising our HR and standard operating procedures manual and, following the assault of one of our staff members by her partner, developing additional policies to support staff affected by violence and HIV/AIDS.
To ensure an organisational culture of reflection and learning, we will be strengthening our staff development plans and ensuring full implementation of our monitoring and evaluation plan. As a new organisation, the organisation would benefit from additional core support funding to support the development of comprehensive operations systems and to provide additional opportunities for staff development--especially youth leadership opportunities. Describe your impact in one sentence, commenting on both the individual and community levels. - Preliminary impact evaluation shows that we are changing men's gender and HIV related attitudes and practices---and sometimes in dramatic ways.
What impact has your work achieved to date? - The Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) were commissioned by the IOM to conduct an evaluation of their Partnership on HIV and Mobility in Southern Africa (PHAMSA). This evaluation offered encouraging feedback on Sonke’s role in leading PHAMSA’s gender component and reported that Sonke’s OMC workshops “had a very high impact resulting in reported behaviour change. Statements like: ‘people have changed their high risk behaviours’ and ‘the gender component has taken off amazingly’ are evident of the difference this component has had in the community. There is high dynamism as participants develop community action teams on how to put the training into action. The farmers are passionate about addressing gender and there is a need to build on this response... ”
What measure do you use to gauge your impact and why? - We use a range of research methods: we track media coverage, we conduct pre and post tests at all workshops, we conduct gender audits with partner organisation and we plan to conduct longitudinal impact evaluations of both our advocacy and training work. Successful work requires rigorous and ongoing evaluation to inform programme development.
How is your initiative currently being financed and how would you finance further expansion and/or replication? - Over 18 months we have raised more than US$1 Million from over 15 donors. We currently receive funding from a range of private, foundation and government donors. We hope to secure more core support funding to allow us to strengthen our operations and core organisational needs.
Provide information on your current finances and organization: - a. annual budget
b. annual revenue c. sources of revenue (please provide percentages if known) d. number of staff (full-time, part-time, and volunteers) We have 19 full-time staff, 3 part-time staff and do not use volunteers given the need to provide paid employment in South Africa. Based on contracts in place or agreed in principle, we anticipate doing more than R5-million worth of work in 2008. Funders List Christian Aid Who are your potential partners and allies? - We work closely with the following: Treatment Action Campaign; AIDS Law Project; Artist Proof Studio; People Opposing Women Abuse, Hope Worldwide; Umtata Child Abuse Resource Centre; Sizanani; Realistic; Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit; UNHCR, IOM, Instituto Promundo, the WHO; UNAIDS; Open Society Foundation; the MenEngage Alliance; the Athena Network; the GBV Network; Men Can Stop Rape; Men's Resources International; EngenderHealth, International Women's Health Coalition and many others.
Who are your potential investors? - National and global donors including corporate social responsibility donors in South Africa
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - The One Man Can Campaign was launched in Johannesburg and Cape Town on November 25th 2006 to mark the beginning of 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women, and then also in Geneva at the UNHCR headquarters a few days later.
The campaign was created to promote the idea that all men have a role to play, that, in the language of the campaign materials, “each one of us can create a better, more equitable and more just world. It encourages men to work together with other men and with women to take action, to build a movement, to demand justice, to claim our democratic rights, and to change the world”. South Africans have a rich tradition of working for social change and social justice. We’re pleased that the OMC campaign seems to resonate with that history. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - Dean Peacock is co-founder and co-director of Sonke. Dean has developed many projects on gender and HIV/AIDS including founding the Men Overcoming Violence Youth Program and Students Talking About Non-Violent Dating. In 2003 he was selected by the UN to attend an expert group meeting on men and gender equality in Brazilia. His writing has been published widely, and together with Sonke Co-Director Bafana Khumalo he was selected by Men's Health Magazine as 2007 "Best Man" in the Public Service Category.
Contact Information:
Dean Peacock
Co-Director Sonke Gender Justice Network (Sonke) (NGO) Discussions about this entry
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