A Summary of the Virtual Symposium on Shifting the Economic Power
A Feminist Economic Strategy to Address Gender Based Violence.
It was a pleasure and an honor to be your host in the online presentation and dialogue held on Tuesday, June 29th, 2021; attended by nearly 90 participants. Special thanks to the collaborating partners who made this possible, Masimanyane, NIISA Institute for Women’s Development, Teddy BearClinic and The Wise Collective for leading the effort to deepen our understanding and help popularize the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF).
As promised during the session, we are pleased to share the resources and highlights through this summary; and for those who missed it we hope you will find this information useful and plan to join us for future conversations. The overall agenda and short biographies of speakers can be viewed here; in addition, we invite you to view the full session recording on our Wise4Afrika YouTube channel.
You may also access the full presentation given by Research and Economist, Busi Sibeko, an accomplished feminist economist who gave an insightful analysis of the NSP’s pillar 5 on Economic Power. Ms. Sibeko later joined a conversation moderated by Advocate Brenda Madumise-Pajibo, a Director of The Wise Collective, in dialogue with the acclaimed financial economist Duma Gqubule, all of whom collectively gave us the following nuggets:
NSP Pillar 5 Proposed Interventions - There are major gaps in the proposed interventions for addressing gender economic inequality and their expected impact on gendered violence. See above link for Busi’s presentation which highlights these for each indicator in pillar 5 of the NSP. There’s more work which needs to be done for this pillar to meet the aspirations of the NSP.
Economic Instruments - a common sentiment amongst the economists was that GDP is a false measure of wellbeing, it certainly is in the context of South Africa and its extreme inequalities.
Feminism - Feminism by its very nature is a critique of capitalism and should be centered in how we go about fixing the economy.
Leave No One Behind - Conversations on the economy must include everyone, it is Duma who reminded us of the famous adage that “the economy is far too important to be left up to economists.” We were challenged to look at strengthening civil society’s engagement in budgetary discussions especially at the municipality level where there’s still promise for visible and much needed impact.
Mobilizing Beyond Politics - was a common call to center issues in how we mobilize to prioritize (1) quality education and healthcare, (2) subsidized and mass public transport and housing, and (3) financial stability through exploring ideas such as the Universal Basic Income (UBI), etc. - tune in to the session recording video to hear this robust discussion on income.
Budgeting for GBV - remains out of sync with the declarations the country has made on this crisis.The recent reports on the failures of the R1.6 Billion Emergency Response and Action Plan (ERAP) to directly address and impact GBVF were highlighted. In addition, there is a need to advocate for adequate and transparent funding of the NSP.
The following resources were referenced and some shared during the session.