VISUALISE

Improving service delivery for women, children and youth in informal settlements in Cape Town through active citizenship, co-ordination and multi-stakeholder engagements, as a contribution to the improvement of the capacity and provision of social services and development-oriented services for the poor at a wider level.

Domestic Violence is by far the most widespread form of violence in the area, counting for at least 25% of the whole cases treated in the trauma room of the Police Department of Philippi East. Among their priority mandates, the Victim Empowerment Programme (VEP) forums at Provincial level (Western Cape) have to co-ordinate victim empowerment support services in the province; develop provincial victim empowerment strategies/plans; facilitate joint programmes, training and campaigns between members; and collect data for management and research purposes. At Regional level (Metro South for Philippi), they have to: ensure provision of direct trauma support and assistance to victims of crime and violence; develop referral networks and procedures to ensure effective referral of victims to appropriate agencies/resources; provide training to upgrade and develop services in line with standards available to the community; encourage service providers to network with all community groups and organizations assisting victims of crime and violence; and arrange quarterly meetings with stakeholders.

This project supports the main mandates of the VEP Forums at the sub-regional and community levels, where such fora do not exist, engaging and linking the actors of Philippi society that can contribute to fulfil them in the field of domestic violence: the most proactive citizens groups (Citizens Action Groups, CAG), the organised service providers of the civil society and the most relevant Local Authorities.

The Department of Social Development of Philippi established a satellite office in the House of Smiles (HoS) compound in 2014 to provide referral services and advisory support to the other service providers located at HoS. Altogether, the 5 service providers of the HoS (DSD office, Sizakuyenza, Ons Pleck, Mosaic and Inyanda), provide services in the community for prevention, protection and reintegration for victims of domestic violence. Nevertheless, the HoS organisations needed to improve their coordination and quality of services to become a real hub, capable of providing coordinated support to the domestic violence victims at a local level and of networking with the other service providers and authorities at higher level to integrate such services.

HoS – Khanyisa Centre functions as a co-ordinated service hub for victims of domestic violence

Dedicated to the improvement of the internal coordination of organisations located in the HoS, achieved through the coaching of experts and the action of a community coordinator. The hub organisations will develop a strategic plan for the implementation of joint initiatives, based on their own assets and resources, in order to enhance the quality of their services, increase their networking with the community and their visibility with other services providers and potential donors. They will create joint communication and reporting tools, including tools for evaluation of client satisfaction by the victims in line with the standards set by the Uniform Protocol for the Management of Victims, Survivors and Witnesses of Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences – Nat. Prosecution Authority of SA. The action will also support the production of awareness and visibility activities. The combined action of the 5 partners together is expected to achieve around 10000 community people with improved prevention, protection and re-integration activities over two years.

The organisational and technical capacity of public and private SP and CAG dealing with domestic violence in Philippi is strengthened

This is the action component to improve the knowledge and proactivity of active citizens and public and private service providers on domestic violence, through training under the main responsibility of Community Connections. Basic Asset Based Citizen Development (ABCD) courses re-activate those CAG that can play a major role with the households and communities, especially in the provision of awareness messages and in the identification and first referral of victims.

Improved civic and local authorities engagement for delivery of services on domestic violence

This is the component designed to put the different stakeholders in action, finally becoming the drivers of their own development. The component will be under the main responsibility of Cordaid. An initial mapping will identify domestic violence actors at different levels, designing the connections that interlink them when interacting with a domestic violence victim. A service directory database will be shared among stakeholders and updated. In interactive multi-stakeholders meetings, all the different stakeholders, from the most active citizens to the main local authorities on domestic violence, will be engaged to determine a joint strategy to improve domestic violence services for Philippi. They will also elaborate and model a system for a public-civic engagement at a sub-regional level, to be submitted to the Regional levels for eventual application and replication in other areas of Metro South.

A multi-stakeholder committee, reflecting the composition of VEP forums, will elaborate a pilot initiative for such improvement, to be sub granted and implemented through the HoS organisations. The joint strategy will be presented at the Regional VEP Forums. The inter-stakeholders relationships triggered, supported by the lobbying activities of the co-applicants, are expected to induce new public-public or public-private partnerships for the sake of multi-stakeholders service delivery on domestic violence. Regular bi-directional communication flows between the Regional VEP forums and the institutional stakeholders at Philippi levels are expected to take place, at least to share non-financial data related to service delivery, impact and gaps. The whole project approach, best practices and methodologies are finally modelled into a comprehensive study, disseminated in a national conference to induce potential for replication in other contexts of the country.

STRATEGISE

The methodology used to develop the Domestic Violence Strategy in Philippi has been focused on a combination of key processes:

• Mapping of key domestic violence stakeholders and production of a local service directory
• Multi-stakeholder meetings to define a joint strategy to improve domestic violence services in Philippi
• Sub-granting for development of multi-stakeholders pilot initiatives to improve domestic violence services.

Mapping of key domestic violence stakeholders and production of a local service directory

Philippi has a wide range of stakeholders that are involved in the field of domestic violence, but each had its own directory list, comprehensive of just those stakeholders logistically and directly connected to the direct activities of the organisation. All agreed that a more comprehensive and integrated information on stakeholders should be available. Also, many of the citizens group that are or can play a more active role in the prevention and response to domestic violence are not involved enough.

The first step in working towards an enabling environment was to do a mapping of the stakeholders that make up the community. The outcome of the stakeholder mapping is threefold:

• Production of a comprehensive services directory;
• Production of a ‘Pathway for Victims of Domestic Violence;
• Selection of stakeholders for further training and the Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Meetings

Stakeholder mapping is a collaborative process of research, debate and discussion that draws from multiple perspectives to determine a key list of stakeholders across the entire stakeholder spectrum. Information was gathered for the mapping exercise using interviews. Once the interviewing was complete, they were then transcribed. All information was then gathered for analysis. Information drawn out from the interviews allowed the identification of the existing pathways followed by domestic violence victims in Philippi, gaps in service delivery, challenges of domestic violence, access to information and information sources, as well as challenges of the Victim Empowerment Programme.

The data collected has been structured into a service directory and was also presented to the Department of Social Development.

A key outcome of the interviews has been the development of a map showing the pathways that the victims of DV in Philippi can follow when relating with the different institutional SP (SAPS, health institutions, Justice), identifying gaps and constraints that may lead to secondary victimisation.

Multi-stakeholder meetings to define a joint strategy to improve multi-stakeholder’ services on domestic violence

The aim of multi-stakeholder engagement processes was to promote better decision making by ensuring that the views of the main actors concerned about a decision are heard and integrated at all stages, through dialogue and consensus-building. For its MSE processes, Cordaid Urban Matters makes use of methodologies developed by the Centre for Development Innovation, part of Wageningen University and Research Centre.

The MSE was an organized face-to-face assembly engaging the different interest groups in a process of problem analysis, vision building, strategy development and action planning. Each meeting targets people from Citizen Actions Groups (home-based carers, CBOs, youth groups, police forums, school governing bodies, and Street Committees) and targeted local authorities and service providers. Several different tools were used to enable participants to really hear each other, to expand and deepen their understanding of the issues involved and to engage together to identify the best ways their community might address those issues.

The MSE methodology was used to stimulate participants to work on the following questions:

• what strategy, engaging the different actors, shall improve the domestic violence service delivery in Philippi;
• what model/system in Philippi can be developed for public-civic engagement in the delivery of domestic violence services

The outcomes of the various meetings have been structured into a joint vision, which is then translated into a strategy for multi-stakeholders delivery of domestic violence services, including a model for engagement of public and civic stakeholders in the delivery.

Sub-granting for development of multi-stakeholders pilot initiatives to improve domestic violence services

The sub-granting was designed to engage the stakeholders in a common action, jointly agreed and sub-granted through the hub organisations, aiming at improving the service delivery for domestic violence in Philippi. The core team to apply for the sub-grant were from the House of Smiles partners working from this location. However, they had to identify and bring onboard new partners that they had met through the MSE meetings as co-applicants.

It is in the multi-stakeholder joint process for the definition of the proposal to be sub-granted that resides the greatest value of this methodology. The following activities have been the focus of the process:

• Constitution of a multi-stakeholder committee and design of a sub-granted proposal
• Sub-granting of one-two pilot multi-stakeholder initiative/s via the HoS-Hub
• Monitoring of sub-granted initiative/s

The serious gaming methodology is a tool to mobilize stakeholders around a shared agenda based on each stakeholder’s own interest. The win-win solutions that were identified and agreed upon have been put into action through the sub-granting projects. The tool is composed of two simulation games: The Collaboration Game and the Planning Game.

The objective of the game was to support the discussion between stakeholders involved in development; to make stakeholders aware of the need for collaboration; and to jointly work out projects (win-win situations) for, in this case, improving domestic violence services in Philippi.

The Collaboration Game is designed to make stakeholders aware of the power of collaboration. The game can only be won through a team effort. The players must jointly develop ideas for social development and the most promising areas for development, hotspots, play an important role in the game. The challenge for the stakeholders is to jointly realise facilities and services at these hotspots and fulfil their individual mission. This game was played with the HoS partners as they struggled to realise the value of collaboration with other stakeholders. They were concerned that they would have to share the resources allocated to the sub-granting with other stakeholders.

The second game, called the Planning Game, is designed to support the joint identification and planning of improvement projects for development. The players are stimulated to generate project ideas for development, but also to find innovative solutions. To realise the project, stakeholders need to pitch their ideas and acquire support from the other stakeholders. They can support a project idea through coordination, money, labour or materials. But they can also oppose a project. The game can only be won if at least one common project is identified. This game was used by the two sub-granting consortiums to develop their project ideas and to co-ordinate resource contributions.

ACTUALISE

The vision for the Domestic Violence Strategy is two fold:

• Improved Domestic Violence services in Philippi through partnerships
• Reduction of secondary victimisation

To achieve this vision, the domestic violence stakeholders in Philippi worked together through the process of the multi-stakeholder sessions to define the problems, and from this they defined four strategic objectives they would like to work in collaboration to implement towards improving domestic violence services and reducing secondary victimisation. Out of these four strategic objectives, the HoS partners selected partners they would like to bring on board to address the strategic objectives, of which they chose to address two. The two strategic objectives were then developed into two project proposals developed using serious gaming.

1. Establish a domestic violence forum that meets quarterly

Goals:

• Create one voice for DV.
• Ensure that community awareness around DV issues and services takes place regularly.
• Build capacity by agreeing what workshops are needed and integrating train the trainers into the quarterly meetings.
• Provide an opportunity for stakeholders meet each other regularly, and further discuss and strategise to achieve the vision.
  Improve cooperation between NGO’s and government.
• Networking with other stakeholders, and build lasting partnerships.
• To share and get information.
• To plan upcoming events and programs affecting DV.
• Improve collaboration with other SP who address issue of men and DV.
• To improve efficiency through better allocation and co-ordination of resources.
• Develop an improved understanding of the root cause and develop integrated approaches to address these.
• To understand different perspectives.
  Increase visibility and take the discussions to street level.
• Incorporate the street level into these discussions.
• Mobilize community through volunteerism to further empower the community.

1.1: Domestic Violence Multi-stakeholder Forums

Aim to co-ordinate forums to improve the coordination of Domestic Violence services within Philippi, strengthening the network and collaboration between various parts of the system. This is an important component integrating the efforts, strengths and capacity of the partners to work towards strengthening domestic violence services.

1.2: Booklet on Domestic Violence

The aim of this deliverable is to produce and distribute a book written by children for children focusing on domestic violence from their perspective. This is an important contribution to understanding the effects of secondary victimization. The content of the book will deal with the question of what domestic violence is, and what it looks like in your household. The book will be written in Xhosa.

1.3: Networking and Information Sharing

The book will be launched at an event held in a public space within Philippi area on the 25th November for the 16 days of activism. The event will be to raise awareness about domestic violence and the impact that it has on children within the home. The event is made up of three core components: the book launch, a theatre production and a marimba band.

1.4: Peer Mentoring Program :

Students capable of Identifying victims of Domestic Violence

The aim of this activity is to work to strengthen the capacity of school mentors to recognize domestic violence and provide advice to school children on where to go to get the necessary support.

1.5: Develop and Implement an M&E system for DV service providers, as per DV strategy.

One of the outcomes of the Domestic Violence Strategies was the request to establish a monitoring and evaluation system that could be used by all DV service providers that could feed into one collective measurement system to track DV in Philippi. This activity aims to address this through the implementation of an existing M&E system developed by Amandla. To initiate the system a series of 10 workshops, one per organisation that is part of the stakeholder forums. During the workshop the indicators relevant to that organisation will be developed. 3 people will then be trained in data collection techniques to work on the project for 6 months. The activity will include data validation and reporting.

2: Awareness project run for men by men (perpetrators)

Goals:

To empower victims, both man and woman.
To support perpetrators of domestic violence as an important strategy towards reducing DV.
To organise a Man Conference.
To make use of existing structures to achieve this objective.

Project 1: Connect Phillipi

To set up Domestic Violence Forums to continue with the Multi-stakeholder discussions that have been taking place through this project. These will take place on a quarterly basis. The purpose of the forums will be to build the capacity of CSO’s working with abused women and family, and strengthening community systems to respond to domestic violence and improve services through deepening partnerships.

The forums will seek to develop clarity between the various CSO’s about the various roles and responsibilities to improve referrals between service providers. Cesvi through these forums will provide capacity building related to monitoring the improvement of services.

Project 2: Engaging Men and Boys

The project focuses on the problem areas of culture and stigma, with a target audience of men and IPV clients.

The project will aim to impact 100 men and boys through direct interventions with males on Domestic Violence through workshops, counselling, public education and economic empowerment. There will be a focus on mentorship and the training will be directed by men, for men.

The program is currently being implemented in Lavender Hill and Mitchells Plain.

Project 3: Embetterment Program

The project focuses on the problem areas of culture and stigma, with a target audience on the perpetrators of domestic violence.

Before the final protection order is granted against the perpetrator, a court order forces the perpetrator into an embitterment program or process for anti-social behaviour. They are working to get this mandated. There is potential for the program to work with men who are held in the cells for 24 hours.

Project 4: Women in Upcycling

The project focuses on the problem areas of coping strategies, with a target audience of 50 unemployed women.

The project will set up income opportunities for 50 women through recycling, transferring business skills and learning opportunities. The project will also explore Public Private Partnerships and seek to improve the physical environment.