Joe Slovo Foundation and SALGA announce, “White Ribbon Community ‘100 Day’ Challenge”. – to empower and enable municipalities to make tangible and practical (evidence-based) interventions to prevent GBVF in their communities within 100 Days.

Joe Slovo Foundation and the South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA) announce, “White Ribbon Community ‘100 Day’ Challenge”.  – to empower and enable municipalities and communities to make tangible and practical (evidence-based) interventions to prevent GBVF in their communities within 100 Days.

The Problem

Worldwide, every country has at least 3 big problems; the Covid Pandemic; the impact of Global Warming (be it in the form of droughts, raging fires or devastating floods) and with increased Violence against Women and Girls.

South Africa is not alone in having to deal with Gender Based Violence Abuse and Femicide (GBVF) as we label it. To combat GBVF , South Africa is actually doing more than most other countries in that is has developed a strategic plan (the NSP on GBVF) but this plan requires practical implementation on the ground – in the schools, universities workplaces and Communities much of which has yet to be carried out.

The Solution

Drawing upon 30 years’ experience in over 60 countries of implementing successful prevention programmes, White Ribbon South Africa  powered by the Joe Slovo Foundation in collaboration with the South African Local Government (SALGA) Africa are providing the skills, tools  and support for local municipalities to take action and make a significant difference  to practically combating GBVF within 100 days  !!!

Branded the White Ribbon Community 100-Day challenge – the initiative was  formally announced at the recent SALGA Women’s Commission Symposium. End-to-end the programme takes around 200 days  commencing with intro workshops, training, skills transfer etc before the challenge proper and after completion evaluation, review, lessons learnt, leading to cementing the new best practices into everyday policies, processes and procedures so that momentum and success gained are embedded and extended.

The Ford Foundation initially sponsored a select number of Districts to receive 100-Day challenge training which includes using the White ribbon Community Toolkit around preventative measures for the NSP but the Joe Slovo Foundation and SALGA wanted to open up the training and support to all municipalities that were seriously interested hence the White Ribbon Community 100-Day Challenge was born.

About White Ribbon South Africa

Founded in 1991 in Canada, White Ribbon is now active in over 60 countries and its focus is on primary prevention programmes i.e. stopping the Violence and abuse before it happens both immediately and long term – so synonymous is the impact of White Ribbon programmes on preventing GBVF that in many countries around the world Nov 25th is known more as ‘White Ribbon day’ than as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women -as later adopted by the UN. Powered by the Joe Slovo Foundation, White ribbon South Africa is blessed to provide these programmes which are much more than social media campaigns and webinars but include Workplace Accreditation covering Equality , Diversity and Inclusion; Community Tool Kits that reduce violence in all its forms not just GBVF, and a soon to be released Universities e-learning programme developed in conjunction with and for South African students.

About 100 Day challenges

100-Day Challenges inspire those closest to the problem to set often unreasonable goals and to harness the intense levels of innovation, collaboration, and execution required to achieve these goals. The choreography places community teams at the forefront and supports leaders in leveraging near-term results into sustained, long-term systemic impact.

The 100-Day Challenge choreography was developed and pioneered by the Rapid Results Institute, often in partnership with I-Results, to enable progress on tough societal issues, including:

• Chronic, veteran, and youth homelessness in the US

• Justice system efficacy in Mexico and South Africa

• Health system redesign in the UK

• Service improvements in the Governments of the UAE and Kenya

• HIV/AIDS prevention in Eritrea and Sierra Leone

• Maternal and Child Health in Sierra Leone

• Community development in Sudan and Ghana

The work has evolved from helping communities and government agencies make a significant impact on outcome indicators in 100 days, to using their 100-Day Challenge experiences to question their assumptions, examine the underlying dynamics of their systems, and redesign these systems.

A recent South African project, conducted in partnership with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, focused on the issuance of GBVF  interim protection orders in 11 courts in 6 provinces, some with the highest backlog of cases nationally and involved stakeholders designing and implementing 100-Day Challenges in each court. This was all supported virtually due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The results were outstanding – in some courts the backlog went from over 500 cases down to almost zero – all within 100 days – overall 98% of backlog cases that were 90 days or older were resolved. This was achieved with no additional resources and in spite of the pandemic constraints and delays. This pilot was aimed at demonstrating what it takes to actually accelerate results in Pillar 3 of the NSP.

This White Ribbon Community 100-Day Challenge will involve numerous municipalities at the same time. The aim (elections permitting) is to kick these off on White Ribbon Day (November 25) which is also the start of the UN 16 days of activism. The challenge actually lasts almost 200 days as it includes preparation work , training, monitoring and evaluation – to embed successful practises learnt into day to day processes and procedures and the date was chosen to be the bridge between 16 days of activism to 365 days of action.

The 100-Day challenge is not for the faint of heart, however, support and guidance will be provided to the municipalities throughout the whole end-to-end process,

Each participating municipality will designate staff members who will be trained by I-Results and will have access to a specifically designed online toolkit They will also be supported by White Ribbon Subject Matter Experts who will share global Best Practises on Preventing Gender Based Violence

Communities and municipalities who are interested in being part of the White ribbon Community 100-Day Challenge either as participants or as observers are welcome to express their interest via the link below– the first workshop is scheduled for September 15^th 2021.

To register your interest please click on the link below and complete the form:

https://joeslovofoundation.org/100daychallenge/