NLV Jan-June 2013 External (2013)

Oxfam in South Africa

NO LONGER VULNERABLE INTEGRATED PROGRAM REPORT June 2013

Page | 15

Contents Guidance .......................................................................................................................................... 1 List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................................... 2 Section One ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Program Manager’s Overview .......................................................................................................... 4

Exploring Climate change programming ................................................................................... 4 Integrating WASH and DRR ....................................................................................................... 4 Reflecting on our work .............................................................................................................. 5 Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning ........................................................................................ 6 New tools and ideas emerging from the OCA merger .............................................................. 6 New Partnerships ...................................................................................................................... 7 Changes in the External/National Context ................................................................................ 8 Program Context Analysis ....................................................................................................... 10 Section 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 14 Program Reporting ......................................................................................................................... 14

Where we work ....................................................................................................................... 14 Partner list ............................................................................................................................... 15 Program Information ....................................................................................................................... 16

Progress against Program Objectives...................................................................................... 16 Progress against Management Objectives: ............................................................................. 23 Gender..................................................................................................................................... 26 Active Citizenship .................................................................................................................... 28 APPENDIX 1: Case Studies ........................................................................................................... 33

Guidance This format has been designed to address reporting needs specific to the new integrated program in South Africa – No Longer Vulnerable. As such, it has been organised according to the new program framework around the three program objectives and three management objectives of the framework. It has also incorporated the formats of past program reports (food security, CSPP, OHAP etc) with a view to minimise the disruption that a new reporting format can cause.

Page | 1

List of Acronyms CCA

Climate Change Adaptation

DRR

Disaster Risk Reduction

ECD

Early Childhood Development

GBV

Gender Based Violence

HCT

HIV Counselling and Testing

MEL

Monitoring Evaluation and Learning

NHI

National Health Insurance

NPO

Non-Profit Organisation

OAU

Oxfam Australia

OCA

Oxfam Canada

OVC

Orphans and Vulnerable Children

SANAC South African National AIDS Council SRH

Sexual and Reproductive Health

SMS

Single Management Structure

TB

Tuberculosis

TCB

Traditional Courts Bill

TWL

Transformational Women’s Leadership

WASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Page | 2

Page | 3

Section One Program Manager’s Overview Yet another six months has flown by bringing us another moment to reflect deeply and to share some of the achievements and challenges in this continuous and positive journey of change. The work was guided by an annual operational plan and it is good to note that a lot was accomplished by the team. The annual plan included: partner grants processing and management; various workshops/events across the thematic areas of the program; documenting and learning through case studies, providing media and technology support; hosting a Link and Learn event; the commissioning of a research piece that looked at understanding inequality in South Africa; and a number of internal reflection and learning processes. One of the exciting moments that happened in this annual plan period was the launch and hosting of the second edition of Duncan Green’s book “From Poverty to Power”.

Jacana Media and Oxfam jointly launched the book in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg and included some of our partners, helping to stimulate inspiring discussions in the sector. As is usual with a program of this complexity and scope there were a few activities that have had to be managed into the to 2013/2014 financial year.

Exploring Climate change programming The year July 2012 to June 2013 marked the first year of the implementation of the three-year “No Longer Vulnerable” framework. It was a learning year for everyone using the integrated framework model. To support our forward thinking and further exploring the integration of the work a research piece was commissioned to look at what a climate change adaptation (CCA) strategy would look like for the South Africa program. This work provided several platforms for engagement with individuals and organisations including our partners who have expertise in the CCA field to help in the drafting of the strategic plan.

In embarking on this work Oxfam wanted to position itself strategically and build a comprehensive map of what is happening in the adaptation space in South Africa. This process and the output, a strategic options document, will be used to develop a series of program concept notes for fund raising purposes. Detailed reports, including the process reports for the reference group and consultative workshop as well as the draft strategic plan document will be made available to all interested parties once the project is finalised in the first quarter of the 2013/2014 financial year.

Integrating WASH and DRR The integration of the water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs have added value to the program and the partners work. DRR programming has provided an opportunity to explore urban work particularly in the inner city and informal settlements, with an emphasis on safer spaces for vulnerable groups - communities of young women and refugees. The WASH work has also given partners the opportunity to respond holistically to issues related to better health and access to basic rights.

Page | 4

Reflecting on our work The reflection and planning processes undertaken during this period gave us an opportunity as a team to take a step back and reflect on the program content and practice and to deepen a shared understanding of our theory of change. This organisation-wide process included partners (HIV and AIDS Prevention Project, Umzi Wethu Project, Save the Children KZN, Refugee social Services, Project Empower and CATCH Projects) who shared their own reflections on where development/programming is moving towards in South Africa within the various sectors. Partner reflections were used to inform some of the forward planning for the new financial year and will be packaged and circulated as discussion documents throughout the partnership.

Notable amongst these was an observation from Project Empower in relation to women’s vulnerabilities – “the impact of increasing poverty, unemployment and inequality and the collapse of service delivery in poor rural areas has been to propel large numbers of people, especially younger people, into urban areas. Despite this trend being recognized by government and researchers, nothing is being done by the eThekwini Metro to prepare for the influx of very poor and vulnerable people. Consequently migrating people are forced to set up homes in flimsy shacks in marginal areas where they are at considerable distance from work opportunities, from health care and education, and where there are few essential services, and they are extremely vulnerable to the impact of floods and fire. The migration to route to survival remains establishing sexual relationships with wage earning men. Within the community environment and within relationships with male partners, women experience high levels of emotional, physical and sexual violence. All of these factors heighten women’s vulnerability to HIV infection”. The issues raised by Project Empower are deeply rooted in our theory of change (Vulnerability challenges us to respond meaningfully). These issues are reflected again in our urban DRR program work.

In the reflection we took a step back to look at our theory of change. The team explored the emerging questions and issues relating to our practice and its resonance with our theory of change: “Does your individual theory of change match up to Oxfam’s? What happens if the partner’s view is totally different from Oxfam’s? What does this theory of change mean for what we do, where we work and who we work with? What is ’my’ contribution in all of this?

How does Oxfam work with the Government? What is the role of NGO’s now? What is Oxfam’s role in the theory of change? Are we a protector or an inhibitor of change?”

There was debate, input and reflection for the team to think critically about these issues. No easy answers were apparent. Some of the discussion points and arguments were: “there is an internal debate around what one believes in and what the organisation follows; it is our theory of change; it is what we put out as a tool to engage with us; people must be at the centre of their own development and their voices are what drive change; we must not engage in a paternalistic way, but must provoke thinking and action”. This is the debate that has to continue within the team and partners as it is important for the future of our work.

Page | 5

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning The merging of the Oxfam Canada program with Oxfam Australia’s and the incorporation of staff allowed us to look strategically at our workforce and how different positions can add value. This reflection resulted in the establishment of the “Learning and Development Effectiveness Team”, who are tasked with managing internal learning and sharing. This team oversees and manages monitoring processes, documenting, research, and learning dissemination as well as providing partner support in these areas.

The program shared with the partners the integrated report for the period July to December 2012. This was then followed by a survey sent to all partners geared to collect feedback and views on how they think Oxfam’s reporting methods reflected their work. Although only a small percentage of partners responded to the survey the feedback received was useful, positively framed and provided much food for thought on how we ensure broader engagement with program learning and representation. The survey, which will be refined and conducted at the end of each reporting period, provided a useful downward and horizontal accountability mechanism. The results of the survey are provided in the report review document (see attachment).

A partner reporting template was revised and finalized after inputs from all the partners were consolidated and integrated. This revised format was then socialized back to partners in all the provinces through a series of provincial workshops.

An HIV results framework, developed specifically for our IrishAID and AusAID donor reporting is one of the tools that the program is using to ensure that we are better able to measure and provide evidence of our work. In April 2013 the first report was completed and provided us with a chance to revise and adjust some of the indicators to better improve the program representation. There are plans in place to continue refining the framework to make it more user-friendly and easy to monitor. The framework is an effective tool as it allows us to reflect on the risks that could impact negatively on HIV and AIDS programming in the country.

Emerging concerns include: failures in government health service delivery, the need to restimulate and update HIV prevention programs and potential short supply of antiretroviral therapy drugs in clinics where our partners are operating. These three risks are important for us to monitor and are discussed further on in the Changes in the external/national context section of this report.

New tools and ideas emerging from the OCA merger The work that started in 2011/2012 between OCA and OAU on Transformational Women’s Leadership (TWL) has gained momentum with more engagements between Oxfam partners and gender experts. A series of webinar sessions with partners were held covering four topics: Feminisms in South Africa; The transformational aspect of feminism in terms of practices at the level of the individual, organisation and society. These engagements continued to another level where a 3-cities video conference titled, “Approaching 20 years of democracy: Women, leadership and transformation”, was hosted by and in partnership with Agenda Feminist Media and the Human Sciences research Council (HSRC). As a result of these engagements we will see some important discussions being elevated to the agenda in the Commission on Gender Page | 6

Equality (a statutory body with a mandate from the government of South Africa) Gender Summit happening sometime in 2014. A number of interesting partnerships were established as a result of affiliates working together.

New Partnerships Two additional partners that are supported by OCA will also be receiving funding from OAU to pursue and strengthen our country program work. These partners are: Trust for Community Outreach Education (TCOE) and Triangle Project, both based in the Western Cape. TCOE’s main focus is to organize small-scale farmers, farm workers; landless people and fisher folk for access to natural resources, thus enabling them to become food secure and develop sustainable livelihoods. Triangle Projects (TP) is a human rights organisation that advocates for rights and the wellbeing of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community by working towards a society free of discrimination, prejudice, victimization, heterosexist violence and the oppression of gender and sexual minorities.

The DRR work has brought a realization that urban settings are becoming spaces of high vulnerability and that it is important for us to start engaging and partnering with other organizations’ that operate in these spaces. One of the organizations’ we will be partnering with to expand this area of work and to build our understanding of working in urban settings is the Usizo Lwethu Clinic at the Denis Hurley Centre. The organisation provides healthcare services and support to homeless people and refugees and other people who reside in the inner city and Durban CBD which include: HIV counselling and testing programs, ongoing support for people living with HIV and AIDS by assisting them to access ARVs, nutritional support, language services, care and other social services.

Another partner that was brought in during this period was Art for Humanity based at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), which works with young people in schools around Durban using art, music and poetry to engage with Human Rights issues. This has then increased the number of partners appraised and contracted to 44 for the financial year July 2012 to June 2013.

Page | 7

Changes in the External/National Context Has the dust settled after Marikana and the Mangaung1 conference? The nuclear and extended families in rural areas – and sometimes satellite “second” families in Marikana – were shattered by the violence in which their loved ones died, continuing to struggle materially as they are deprived of their breadwinner’s wages and remittances.

What then after Mangaung? Two important resolutions were boldly spoken by ANC at the conference. Resolution 1: “We are boldly entering the second phase of transition… This phase will be characterised by decisive action to effect economic transformation and democratic consolidation, critical both to improve the quality of all South Africans and to promote nationbuilding and social cohesion. Consequently, in pursuance of these objectives, we embrace vision 2030 and the National Development Plan as a platform for united action by all South Africans to eradicate poverty, create full employment and reduce inequality...” [Mangaung Conference Declaration]. Resolution 2: “Structural problems require structural solutions that transform the trajectory of economic growth, reindustrialise the South African economy and accelerate social development. The second phase of the transition should thus make a decisive break with unemployment, exploitation, inequality and poverty…” [Economic Transformation Resolution] Has the conference placed the country on track to engineer a radical economic shift required to stimulate faster and more effective development in the country? If not, then what needs to be done to achieve this shift? Our partners still report that their organisations and communities they work in are constantly stressed as these continue to be ravaged by poverty, unemployment and inequality. Will these two resolutions that were boldly spoken become a reality for ordinary South Africans or is it just another empty set of promises? With elections coming in 2014 we will have to wait and see.

Since 2009 the economic and political landscape has changed significantly. Many of the issues raised at that time have since visibly and urgently again entered into the national debate, as South Africa continues to seek an economy that is bigger, stronger and better. What is going to happen to the many red lights that are flashing: What conditions are needed for the success of the National Development Plan’s vision for 2030 so that it can be translated into reality? What will happen after the 2014 election? Will South Africa be able to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality identified by President Jacob Zuma? How is South Africa going to improve its global competitiveness and build on its strengths to address its weaknesses? These are the questions that all South Africans need to engage with.

The political turmoil is evidenced by a change in KwaZulu-Natal with Dr Zweli Mkhize, the Premier of the province, being redeployed to Luthuli House (the ANC headquarters) as the Treasurer-General. As a progressive and public advocate for improving the health system and HIV prevention treatment and care, what does his move mean for the health situation in KZN? And in turn, what does this political uncertainty mean for the broader health system in the country?

Page | 8

Besides the political dimension; operational, infrastructure and logistical issues also compound the problem. There are ARV and chronic medication shortages being reported in some clinics, cancer and dialysis patients are turned away from care, the closure of hospitals leaving patients not knowing where to go to access care, and in some extreme instances, hospitals and clinics not having access to safe water or electricity. Despite all of these challenges, and perhaps proving that the State may be capable, is the introduction and wide availability of single dose antiretroviral regimes now being administered in government hospitals and clinics, which will hopefully ease the delivery burden and limiting stock shortages. In this period South Africans were presented with new possibilities to exercise their democratic rights with the emergence of new political parties: the Economical Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Agang1 South Africa (Agang). EFF was started by expelled former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema and his allies. The EFF seeks to redistribute land and nationalise South African mines along with a host of other pro-poor policies. Agang was formed by anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele. Agang encourages reforms towards direct governance, striving to “build a stronger democracy in which citizens will be at the centre of public life” and also intends to challenge the ANC in the next elections.

Nationally, South Africa faces a massive backlog in service delivery. Some municipalities are unable to provide sanitation to its residents as most people do not have flush toilets. 5 million2 people, 10.5% of the total population, are still using the bucket system or have no access to sanitation at all. It is understandable in this context then that working class and poor people take to the streets in protest against poor and costly service delivery; it is these same people that are impacted most by insufficient and costly service delivery, corruption and municipal mismanagement. The March 2012, report3 on sanitation services in South Africa by the department of Water Affairs provides the full status of the situation in relation to sanitation issues.

Another crisis looming on the horizon is access to, and the quality of water. As more and more people migrate into the cities from rural areas the pressure for the cities to meet the water demands increases as well. In addition to migration of citizens to cities, climate change is another contributor to the growing crisis. Rains that usually replenish the country’s water sources come infrequently or in overabundance, resulting in drought or severe flooding and damage. Many municipalities are considering water restrictions and in the case of the Gauteng province, contamination from mines presents a huge challenge. In rural and farming communities, the preferential allocation of water for agricultural purposes also present challenges for potable water supplies.

1

The name “Agang” is a Sotho word meaning “to build”.

2

http://zabalaza.net/2013/02/10/municipalities-service-delivery-and-protest/

3

Sanitation Services – Quality of in South Africa - Report on the status of Sanitation services in South Africa http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=178724

Page | 9

There is still a long way to go for public service delivery in rural South Africa. The ongoing relegation of rural South Africa has created a rural backwater where poverty is entrenched and where people are simply abandoned and expected to fend for themselves. In rural South Africa, government institutions are few and far between and accessing their services is an ongoing challenge. The general infrastructure is appalling, often with little to no sanitation facilities available for those needing to engage with local government facilities. In some instances, people have to travel more than 100kms to apply for an identity document, birth certificate, or some other documents in order to access government services. People have no other alternatives but to travel to these services otherwise they would not be able to access social grants which are their main source of income given the high levels of unemployment.

Delays in accessing these grants have a profoundly negative impact on their livelihoods. There is a lack of access to water in rural South Africa, and the increasingly poor sanitation exposes people to the threat of water borne diseases.

Violent crime against people and on property is on the increase. In this period of reporting we have seen many xenophobic attacks targeting foreign businesses within South African informal settlements and townships.

In 2014 a national event is being planned which will include our partners and larger civil society organisations based in the country. The event aims to bring forth these issues for deliberation and reflection on what has happened and what needs to happen as South Africa reaches 20 years of democracy. This will allow civil society to put measures in place to hold to account the National and local government and the political parties, for the next five years following the 2014 elections.

Program Context Analysis One of the central issues to the success of the program in South Africa, which needs to be addressed across the spectrum of work, is gender. It is a fact that women are most affected by the lack of development opportunities; therefore gender is a priority for the program. This report will focus on the impact of gender as a cross-cutting issue in integrated programming.

Experience in South Africa has shown that there are clear gains for communities emerging from adopting an integrated programming approach. The evidence has begun to emerge that programs which can address a number of community needs at once are better placed to bring about sustained change on a number of levels, for example the provision of WASH services at household level will not only lead to gains in health outcomes due to improved hygiene practices but has the opportunity to increase nutritional levels, food security and livelihoods if communities also receive support in the set up of food gardens and other income generating activities.

Partners are acknowledging and responding to opportunities for cross-thematic programming in relation to gender, and are increasingly integrating more gender into existing program activities. The gender sensitive programming benefits from a multi-sectoral response that ideally cuts across the entire program framework (e.g. health, WASH, livelihoods, social protection and active citizenship). The focus on women in the program has provided this demographic with skills, knowledge and opportunities to take a leading role in livelihoods Page | 10

activities, has led to specific improvement in health outcomes for women (particularly HIV related outcomes and maternal health), and has resulted in significant economic gains and improved social standing for many program participants and the women peers in community.

The death of 17-year-old Anene Booysen in February 2013, who was gang raped, mutilated and left for dead, stirred the wrath of South Africans frustrated by a national epidemic of sexual violence. It is clear from this incident that South Africa’s progressive legislative framework is failing to adequately combat violence against women and that sexual violence against women is becoming more and more “normalised” in South African society and that proper implementation of existing laws, policies and frameworks is lacking. To combat this, civil society organisations have been calling for the re-introduction of sexual offences courts, after their abolishment in 2005. The sexual offences courts, when correctly resourced, have the potential to greatly reduce secondary victimization of victims and improve conviction rates, which will ultimately encourage victims to report cases. In the context of Oxfam in South Africa’s program, which is seeking to reduce vulnerability of people living and working in South Africa, it is imperative that partners continue to engage with the state and all other actors around gender based violence (GBV) and violence against women (VAW). Program work in this area needs to be reinforced and the unique opportunity presented by the integration of the OCA and OAU programs has provided a useful opportunity for us to do this more effectively.

Partners’ work clearly demonstrates that active citizenship is multidimensional, political, deeply rooted in context and determined by a complex interplay of political, social and economic identities and external forces. Whilst there is significant emphasis on the vertical relationship between citizens and the state, more emphasis should be placed on the horizontal relationships between various civic actors in order to build social cohesion to address poverty, inequality and vulnerability. To do this, we will need to invest more of our resources in building and strengthening relationships between civil society organisations and between State and civil society organisations for mutual accountability, accountability to the general public and stimulate general improvements in the delivery rate and quality of essential services.

It has become apparent through the work of partners (e.g. Project Empower and Justice and Women), that despite progressive policies and isolated good practice, women, especially young women, still find themselves on the margins of socio-political and economic discourse and unable to access the power necessary to exercise their social, political or economic rights.

Not only are the norms and standards of engagement, gender blind or inherently male-biased, but within both horizontal and vertical engagements the odds are stacked against women who are perceived as victims of circumstance at best, and are in need of capacity development in order for them to raise their voices. Such attitudes do not fully recognize or acknowledge the work done by women in both formal and informal circumstances, nor the inherent abilities of women. Women are not a homogenous group and it is important to use spaces to raise consciousness and attitudes towards marginalized minorities including lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women to challenge the epidemic of homophobic hate crime in South Africa. In

Page | 11

order to do this “…the program will [need to] recognise and respond to the need to place women centrally as both actors in development and as primary beneficiaries of our work4.”

It is well understood that gender inequality underpins almost every aspect of both boys’ and girls’ lives and affects the capacities, choices, opportunities and decisions made by both men and women. Partners understand the link between HIV, livelihoods, access to water, early childhood development and gender and in response to this shared understanding, have been working to address specific issues affecting vulnerable women and girls, especially in areas heavily impacted by HIV. Increasing knowledge amongst women, young girls and boys participating in partners’ programs and capacity building activities has resulted in individuals being better able to identify solutions and own processes for creating positive gendered change.

Women in contact with partner programs are better able to both identify and respond to rights violations as and when they occur, including seeking redress from duty bearers. Due to increasing gender knowledge and awareness these women are progressively able to voice their concerns and advocate for their rights and the implementation of policies that favour their livelihoods. Increasingly men, particularly young boys, through their increased knowledge and understanding of gender defined practices are becoming more open to act in solidarity with their mother, sisters, wives and daughters.

Despite this, there are still some challenges in educating them about changes to customary law and practice as evidenced in JAW’s work with women. Despite becoming aware that the status of women is no longer that of a legal minor and that they have equal status as men if they register their marriage under customary law, it is reported that some women express reservations as they believe that the law on paper would mean nothing at their homes where they are constantly abused and suffer inequality.

Gender is also being explored as a specific theme under the WASH program. Particular emphasis is being placed on the burden of care in this context and also within the context of the provision of health care in communities. Women are at the forefront of livelihoods work around the production and control of food resources at a household level and more attention is being paid to women in their role as purchasers of food and as the custodian of nutrition practices at a household level. Disaster risk reduction is providing us with interesting insights into the impact of gender based violence on women’s lives, with many program participants articulating this as a disaster or an ever present hazard or threat. Women’s work and wage is an emergent theme from both the OCA OWRAP work and from selected OAU partners (particularly home based care programs) and one which warrants further exploration.

The MEL work this year is focused on improving our gender analysis and will be informed by an external review of the gender components of the program and improving program indicators and data collection tools to better articulate our gender work. New areas for monitoring will include tools that can involve people living with disabilities and allow for a more nuanced disaggregation and statistical analysis. Some partners have started to acknowledge that such data enriches overall understanding of the direct and indirect impacts of programs on women 4

‘No longer vulnerable: The Oxfam Australia Program Framework for South Africa, July 2012 – June 2015, p8

Page | 12

& men, children, youth, households and communities and see it as an opportunity to use data to build local accountability for the delivery of essential services.

Over the coming financial year July 2013 to June 2014 the program will strengthen its gender work through capacity building of Oxfam staff and partners. This work will expand on the Transformational Women’s Leadership webinar series and establish a community of practice to examine and better articulate current TWL approaches, strategies and practices being implemented across various contexts to further social transformation. The monitoring of the National Strategic Plan for HIV, STI’s from a gender perspective will be strengthened, as will work to monitor the rollout of National Health Insurance policy and its impact on women and vulnerable groups. Supporting our program implementation will be a series of partner led projects to monitor farm worker’s wages and working conditions (particularly those of women), to conduct budget tracking and monitor the maintenance of essential social services using a variety of “active citizenship” approaches, and to continue to monitor the justice system in relation to gender based violence, particularly hate crimes committed against lesbian women and the provision of support services for survivors of domestic violence.

Page | 13

Section 2

Program Reporting Where we work

Limpopo

7

Total

46 KwaZulu-Natal

28 Eastern Cape

Western Cape

6

5

Page | 14

Partner list Western Cape AIDS Legal Network (ALN) Treatment Action Campaign(TAC) Women on Farms Project RAPCAN Rape Crises Cape Town Trust

Eastern Cape CATCH Projects Curt Warmberg “Haven Wellness Centre” Department of Social Responsibility(DSR) Loaves and Fishes Sophakama Community Based Development, Care and Support Organisation Wilderness Foundation South Africa (WFSA)

Limpopo CHoiCe Trust HIV/AIDS Prevention Group Bela Bela (HAPG) Keep the Dream Moletsi Community Radio Station Palabora Foundation

KwaZulu-Natal Advent Crèche Hluhluwe (HAC) Africaid Whizzkids UNITED (Africaid)

Thusanang Trust Vhutshilo Mountain School

Clermont Community Resource Centre (CCRC) CREATE Denis Hurley Centre Fancy Stitch Farmers Support Group (FSG) Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust (HACT) Isibane Sethemba (Isibane) Justice and Women (JAW) KwaMakhutha Community Resource Centre (KMCRC) KwaZulu Regional Christian Council (KRCC) Life Line Durban (Life Line) Maputaland Development and Information Centre (MDIC) LIMA OneVoice South Africa (OVSA) Operation Upgrade (OpUp) Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA) Pietermaritzburg Gay and Lesbian Network (PGLN) Project Empower (PE) Refugee Social Services (RSS) Save the Children KwaZulu-Natal (Save) Sinani/ KZN Program for Survivors of Violence Tholulwazi Uzivikele (TU)

Arts for Humanity (AFH) Biowatch SA Children in Distress (CINDI)

Page | 15

Woza Moya (WM)

Program Information Progress against Program Objectives 1. Improving health outcomes relating to HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and water related infections and diseases Partners continued to creatively engage communities in awareness activities reaching over 32,808 school going youths through recreational and outreach activities including football tournaments, motivational speeches, peer education, debates, book-clubs, and cultural and creative activities such as singing, dancing and poetry. Partners facilitated 8,919 prevention training workshops for both in and out of school youth that enabled them to make informed decisions about their health and lifestyles which significantly contributed to their uptake of sexual and reproductive health services, and claiming gender and human rights. As part of prevention activities, 2,425,600 male condoms and 20,290 female condoms were distributed during educational and awareness activities, training workshops, and walk-ins/foot traffic in partners’ offices. In recognition of the importance of women’s sexual agency and their challenges around condom negotiation with male partners, organisations have always, and continue to criticise the negatively skewed provision and availability of femidoms to male condoms. Condom-negotiation is not only important for women’s sexual autonomy, but also to curtail HIV and STI (re)infection, unplanned pregnancies and so forth. However, partners are committed to increase access to femidoms available as is shown by their distribution tactics.

Through the schools program with young people, OneVoice South Africa (OVSA) have provided young people with information about sexual and reproductive health in order assist them in understanding the sexual risks and dangers they may face. The girls and women, who participated in the Bela Bela program, are in a better position to deal with the challenges faced in sexual relationships, can articulate more clearly their sexual needs and desires, and feel more confident in insisting that their partners use condoms. Through educating women on the new changes in customary law, JAW has brought together discussions around SRH and tradition. This education has seen the elevation of the status of women to mayors with equal status as men, if they register their marriage under customary law5. It’s hoped that these changes will enable women to be able to inherit property and not be disadvantaged in decisions relating to their sexual reproductive health.

Through a range of targeted health and wellness support services: a 92% treatment adherence rate was observed during daily home based adherence monitoring visits to clients on treatment; 269 defaulters on TB and HIV treatment were traced by community care workers informed by local clinic patient monitoring data and assisted to re-establish their treatment regime; 42% of male patients seeking out partner services initiated anti-retroviral therapy 5

In South Africa polygamy is recognised in Customary Law but it does not necessary mean all wives have had equal legal status in the past. JAW’s program seeks to educate women about their legal rights and entitlements.

Page | 16

whilst 34% of these men also initiated tuberculosis treatment. Door to door home based visits created a safe space, especially for men to be more aware of communicable diseases and support services available in their local communities (both non-governmental and stateprovided services). Good relations and partnership with local government Departments of Health continues to be a strategic advantage to some partners’ home based care programs with evidence of a strong referral system with good quality services and improved access for patients being reported. Overall about 40,933 home based care visits were conducted across the program. These visits are instrumental in encouraging changes in behaviour and practices and improving knowledge levels, and are showing high success in recruiting new patients for HIV and AIDS, TB and lifestyle disease testing and treatment. In Pomeroy (KNZ), there has been an increase in the number of women accessing SRH services through the interventions of Project Empower. The uptake of reproductive health services at the Phelang facility linked to Palabora’s work, especially amongst girls and women has increased in numbers over the last six months. More men and boys are participating in health related issues including access to HCT. The increase in recorded numbers by Palabora indicates a change in behaviour of men and women and how they access services.

In the realisation that health is more than just the provision of quality health services; partners have been more comprehensive in their interventions by including issues of nutrition through the establishment of homestead and schools gardens, social security and WASH. Community care workers supported more than 4,518 beneficiaries to access social grants and continue to support beneficiaries to access birth certificates, identity documents and other important documents needed to access social service. Some partners have successfully engaged communities in hygiene and sanitation training with early indications of behaviour change.

Partners continued to integrate WASH into their programming, notably in the area of raising awareness among their staff as well as community members. Woza Moya in particular has been spear-heading the WASH demonstration site where they have implemented various WASH related innovations that have included rain water harvesting technology, tippy taps, and environmental loos. Fancy Stitch continued to increase water accessibility to communities within Ingwavuma community by reducing distances for fetching water and improving security among women and girls responsible for fetching water at risky, distant and unprotected water sources. MDIC installed water harvesting technology within schools and lobbied local government to supply water during the dry period. Save the Children with supporting materials developed by TREE6 continue to improve hygiene standards within Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector. Integrating WASH into existing partner programs may take some time before significant, deep impact is observed, however, communities have quite quickly understood the need to work on WASH, particularly developing good hygiene practices.

Facilitating and creating different approaches to increasing communities’ knowledge and understanding of HIV and TB treatment has continued through information-sharing and knowledge-building. This is shown through the publication of magazines, newsletters, articles and training materials by different partners. It is further evidenced by the high number of door

6

TREE ECD - Training Resources for Early Childhood Education

Page | 17

to door activities, outreach programs and innovative community engagement strategies being employed in different contexts.

Women’s issues have been placed at the centre of HIV policy and ensuring delivery of these mandates has been promoted through articles in TAC’s Equal Treatment magazine and the NSP Review. Women are also identified and supported to fill leadership positions that they would otherwise be excluded from, such as representing community members on AIDS councils.

Women’s vulnerabilities and risks are elevated on SANAC’s women’s sector reference group through ALN’s representation and participation. Gaps in women’s sexual and reproductive rights are highlighted through ALN's analysis of the new National Strategic Plan at the Durban AIDS conference 2013. This raised awareness among policy makers and other sectors.

The NHI consultation forums that were conducted with HAPG have confirmed the importance of the much needed public education that communities want. Providing information, and the right kind of information, is key to getting buy-in from communities. The various stakeholders that worked on the NHI are impatiently waiting for implementation as a result of successful consultation.

Key Learning: Gender inequality is a key influence on how HIV impacts the broader partner program in communities. In HIV affected households, poverty and gender combines to negatively influence resource use for women. Priority placed on addressing health issues, has generated potential to create positive change in gender norms. The HIV context focused attention on critical issues of rights, sexual diversity and women’s and girls’ resilience. Within the larger mandate of advancing rights and equality, integrated programming has provided opportunities for partners to tackle some of the underlying factors which impede development goal progress.

Integrated programming around health demonstrates the tackling of sexist and discriminatory gender practices within its framework. This allows for work around rights that does not only focus on services, but also personal\interpersonal relations and supportive rights. This is evidenced through partners’ work on sexual agency, autonomy and desire, as well as gendered work around men and masculinities, and LGBTI. Through integrating issues of nutrition, WASH and DRR, the need to look beyond just the provision of facilities and support services to the physical environment and women-specific risks has been highlighted.

2.

Increasing and sustaining food security and livelihoods options available to households

Different approaches to address food insecurity and vulnerability of communities are being used by different partners.

PACSA empowered local communities to resolve conflicts and lobby government, in particular the Department of Social Development, to resolve the land disputes. Subsequent to this action, community’s access to land has been used for the implementation of livelihood activities. Gardens were established and markets accessed for selling the produce. Farmer Support Group (FSG) continued to increase awareness, knowledge and capacity of farmers to Page | 18

produce crops for household consumption and cash crops for sale. There has been an increase in capacity development of farmers documenting their practices so that they are able to measure the impact of their project. FSG has taken a leading role in facilitating link and learn events for beneficiaries from across the partner organisations, allowing them to share practices and experiences. Partners like PACSA, Operation Upgrade, JAW and Women on Farms Project (WFP) saw community groups and cooperatives linked to them, developing their own community gardens. All groups were able to provide for their immediate households, extended families and increase income generation. The Hlakaniphani community group under PACSA’s project was able to ensure the food security of a total of 40 households translating to 280 people of which 112 are school children. This has assisted the group members to save some of their income to use for medical reasons and supporting their children at school. The continued lobbying of communities working with Biowatch has resulted in the government Department of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs (DAFA) drafting a National Agro ecology Strategy and implementation plan. The Farmer Support Group has been leading in the formation of networks that forms a collective voice in an effort to contribute to policy design and implementation. KRCC has taken a holistic approach where food security is addressed in the context of disasters. The organisation is raising awareness of the threat of disasters and has incorporated the adaptation strategies into their livelihoods programming. Sustainable water harvesting techniques have been implemented and impacting positively in the effort of the organisation to address food security. WFP engaged women on workshops and trainings where women discussed why land is important and the impact it will have on their livelihoods if they owned land. Furthermore, the trainings resulted in increased understanding of farming practises, their empowerment, increased capacity for leadership and knowledge of their rights.

WFP has used the knowledge from one cooperative to assist the other cooperative, resulting in collective learning and sharing. In this way, women were able to relate to each other and it was based on the actual experiences of women.

Cross-learnings - A three day cross-learning event, supported by Biowatch, took place between partner supported agriculture groups: one a Biowatch project from Mtubatuba, and PACSA’s Pietermaritzburg based community partners. The event provided opportunity for on-site mentorship on seed banking. The groups were also able to share their experience in dealing with the formal markets. Biowatch’s promotion of agro ecological farming methods has gained much preference in the communities they work with as it is closely related to indigenous farming practices. It further addresses the social, economic and environmental impacts on community livelihoods. Due to its success, the agro ecological farming methods has been welcomed and adopted by many organisations that work with impoverished communities.

Key Learning: Despite the poor socio-economic conditions and climate change impacts evidenced by increasing occurrences of floods, thunderstorms droughts and other severe weather events; partners continued to work with communities to better their livelihoods.

Community initiated livelihood activities have been shared, adopted and up-scaled in many areas where communities lacked knowledge of livelihoods options. Over and above this, communities are developing local coping mechanisms to adapt to the changing environment and to improve livelihoods. Communities that were negatively impacted by disasters reported Page | 19

improved livelihoods because of the integrated approach in the program that incorporated WASH and DRR. The focus on gender in the program has given women the skills and knowledge to take a leading role in livelihoods activities that have improved their overall wellbeing and the wellbeing of their families.

Food security and livelihoods work cannot operate in a traditional agricultural framework anymore. Programs should also be focusing on agro-ecology, the value of indigenous knowledge, and incorporate climate adaptation and mitigation strategies in order to maximise the development gains in this area. Peer-to-peer learning remains a good accompanying strategy to broader program interventions. This is evidenced through work by WFP, Biowatch and FSG. Obvious reasons for including such learning are: information sharing around practices, adaptation strategies, and conservation.

3. Increasing and upholding access to social protection and rights Social protection strategies have been designed with a preventative approach i.e. proactively increasing knowledge, skills and capacity of communities to ensure that they are able to advocate for the development of policy that supports their needs, and allows them to obtain and maintain access to essential social protections mandated under law. Partners have reported increased knowledge and awareness among men and women in health and ECD sectors and an increased awareness of, and advocacy for, the upholding of individual human rights. The program has continued to service a need as evidenced in the work of the CCRC paralegal clinic which reached a total of 16,463 people. Within the work of PE and JAW, awareness was raised around women’s right to protection from domestic and sexual abuse and women are now mobilised to the extent that more rape cases have been reported and followed up on with the police and monitored through to courts for prosecution.

A number of sexual rights issues linked to policy have been raised by partners like JAW, Woza Moya, PACSA, GLN, Lifeline, PE and HAPG during this reporting period. Partners working with sexual and reproductive health issues have continued to highlight the low standard of care available to most poor women, and that there is little access to female controlled prevention methods.

Corrective rape featured strongly in The Treatment Action Campaigns (TAC) magazine and Equal Treatment which traditionally covers health and HIV matters, thus opening spaces to feature issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersexed and transgendered persons and linking HIV to gender based violence (GBV). The magazine is used as an advocacy tool and to build consciousness on a gender focus.

Due to the increase of GBV in communities, organisations such as those community groups linked to PACSA, decided that it was important to find responses to GBV. This resulted in a greater prominence of gender justice work and initiatives focused on changing abusive and/or violent/destructive masculine behaviour, through the use of positive role models. The groups engaged with other stakeholders to find solutions in support of the communities. This has also led to the increased mobilization of communities to oppose gender-based violence and rape in Page | 20

several communities in the uMgungundlovu District. Lifeline has been undertaking awarenessraising sessions, public education and workshops on the Sexual offences Amendment Act with sex workers and youth at risk. For those youth who are harassed and exploited by police the impact of the workshops has meant that they are able to challenge police officials when they report rape incidents to ensure successful prosecution for those who are in contravention of the Act. Partners such as CRCC and Vhutshilo Mountain School have interventions targeting men. CCRC have increased the knowledge and awareness of men on gender and GBV. Vhutshilo have noted that the dialogue meetings with men have resulted in a shift in the attitudes and knowledge of men who are primary caregivers for some of the children in the program. This has improved family relations and the organisation has reported that men are more comfortable in talking to their teenage children on safer sex. This indicates a shift in the traditional reproductive roles which have normally been assigned to women and a change to involve men in reproductive health efforts. It would be interesting to investigate whether the work of CRCC leads to what the MRC study suggests, that in order to prevent rape, prevention programs must focus centrally on changing social norms around masculinity and sexual entitlement, and addressing the structural underpinnings of rape. In our March 2014 report we will try to report if the assumption if true.

KRCC has seen an increase in requests from men to be included in the saving’s groups that have formally targeted women. Interestingly, a responsive men’s forum within the work of KRCC engaged in dialogue on gender roles. This allowed male participation in discussions about domestic violence and how they can intervene to prevent it. Are men’s needs shifting or are we seeing a reaction due to women’s increased access and control over their income? This will be tracked and reported in the March 2014 report.

Women’s ability to read and write through the Operation Upgrade program is leading to changes in traditional norms that disadvantage women and give women the right to choice in terms of reproductive health. Increased knowledge and information is also giving women skills, hence the widening of various livelihoods options for women.

Other interventions of lobbying and advocacy were facilitated by Project Empower through Women Rights Mobilisers. These women lobbied the municipality to take an active role in the prevention of disasters. Few organisations focus their work on urban people, giving urban residents, including refugees, skills to advocate for better service delivery from the government.

Early childhood development programming within the work of Thusanang advanced the skills of 85 practitioners towards effective children’s rights awareness. This means more children’s rights and protections have been realised. Similar awareness work on children with HIV and AIDS assisted Vhutshilo to reduce stigma in areas they work in.

RAPCAN in conjunction with the Teddy Bear Clinic welcomed a court ruling against the criminalisation of consensual sexual acts between teenagers. The judgment by the High Court in Pretoria in January 2013 was a victory. The judge was in favour of an application stating that Page | 21

the provisions in the Sexual Offences Act criminalised significant numbers of children for engaging in consensual sexual exploration activities which are commonly performed by children engaging in ordinary sexual exploration such as “French” kissing. Reporting the offence meant that there is a record against the child. Children having a record of consensual sexual violation for kissing or petting with your girlfriend at high school would be placed in the National Register for Sex offenders. Hence, RAPCAN as a partner has advocated for these sections to be removed from law.

The Choice of termination of Pregnancy Act 92 of 1996 which recognizes values of human dignity, equality, non racialism, non sexism in a democratic society, have been welcomed however this act also brought in many contentious areas especially when it comes to termination of pregnancy for adolescent girls. Whilst this is a progressive law it is recognised that confidentiality is needed, as often young girls children fall pregnant because of child abuse and molestation. So therefore no parental consent is needed, as the perpetrator and/or other family members may discourage girls to report because of shame, blaming the child and then keeping it silent, resulting in further trauma to the child. Further trauma is also attributed to under resourced clinics, hospitals and poor service delivery. These were some of the challenges that partners reported (JAW, HAPG, PE, GLN, and Lifeline).

Key Learning: The new Children’s law reforms are commended for providing a broader safety net for minors in sexual abuse matters to receive appropriate medical care. Also, deepening our focus on children and their rights, forces us to think of work around SRHR in a very different way that will challenge our partner’s deep-seated beliefs, and which may have moral and ethical challenges at various levels. But a learning here is also that increased rightsknowledge can lead to women reporting sexual assault cases more as in the case of JAW and PE. Additional learnings have stemmed from the approach used by Africaid to challenge gender norms where girls are supported to become involved in traditionally male sporting activities like soccer. Such interventions are important not only because they appear to be having positive outcomes in terms of gender equity, but because the interventions are delivered explicitly to challenge gender norms.

Page | 22

Progress against Management Objectives: 1. Strengthening community development approaches with a focus on supporting civil society organisations (both formal and informal groups of people) Strengthening civil society organisations to develop strong community focussed programming will remain the core focus of our work. Despite organisations using different approaches and methods it is important that Oxfam and its partners engage deeply in our development conversations and practices. A good example of this was the DRR workshop titled “Rezone” 7 that was held in February, 2013. The workshop space allowed our partners who currently work in the urban spaces (Project Empower, Refugee Social Services, and Sophakama) to engage with other Oxfam affiliates from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Kenya and a range of countries involved in urban DRR work who came together to share learning with the view to increase and expand understanding of programming in these spaces.

The growth of human population has created a range of new challenges, particularly for developing countries, including the steady movement to and increased numbers of people in urban areas. In the face of shifting weather and social patterns, this has often resulted in overstressed resources and services. The urban context within many developing countries presents multiple challenges to those responsible for the socio-economic development and healthiness of urban populations. These include migration, informal settlements, intra-urban inequalities, and in some cases, high HIV prevalence. In addition, the stresses placed on overburdened services leads to unsuitable land being used for settlement. This commonly results in those who are most vulnerable to hazards and less able to recover being placed in the most vulnerable spaces. In many ways these are the characteristics of the urban periphery in a city such as Ethekwini. This event was anchored by the urban DRR project in KwaZuluNatal, South Africa and geared towards achieving various learnings in urban DRR work, engaging with urban actors in the pursuit of partnership and sharing and providing a platform to discuss how urban DRR work could be strengthened.

During RAPCAN’s support to partners in development of child protection policies, partners were encouraged to look at the issues as not just about protecting children, but also about providing protection, care and support to the adults around them. One emergent theme was that organisational leadership can be a lonely space for these leaders who cannot go to the board to ask for support or cannot unload on employees as their employees look to them for security. Organisational heads felt that creating leadership forums could provide a supportive system for collaboration and simple communication. In these forums organisational leaders could approach each other as peers and share lessons around good governance, systems and structures and to render assistance to each other. This work allowed individual partners like Thusanang Trust, Palaborwa, Tholulwazi Uzivikele (TU) and Woza Moya (WM) to approach RAPCAN individually to assist them with deeper analysis of the organisational systems and structures.

Capacity building support continues to be a core component of our work. The ongoing process of capacity building allows Oxfam and its partners to learn and document good practices or 7

Full report – Rezone process report compiled by Nicholas Molver and Scott Drimie Page | 23

models so they can be shared for further replication. To avoid organizations’ “reinventing the wheel”, the capacity building process has a strong peer learning component allowing learning from those who have tried and tested the methods. Through Oxfam’s documenting work (using video, commissioning consultants to document case studies or commissioning institutions to conduct forma research) emergent learning is widely disseminated and hopefully goes on to influence practice beyond the partnership.

During this reporting period we were able to commission more detailed case studies for HIV/AIDS Prevention Group in Bela Bela (Bela Bela) and Wilderness Foundation South Africa through the Umzi Wethu project. These two in depth case studies have gone through the first phase of the documentation: to describe the two community development approaches/models that, from the perspective of the program, are realising high value for the organisation’s constituencies. The Bela Bela piece is framed as a story of “solidarity and transformation” in the Bela Bela community while the Umzi Wethu case study is described as an “extraordinary journey” developing and growing a youth program. Over and above the standard case study format, the Bela Bela case study will include a set of human interest stories of change to be accompanied by a video and a formal piece of research which will attempt to define a model for determining value for money. This documenting piece will be packaged to be presented at the next International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, July 2014.

The Umzi Wethu story will also be packaged and presented to government departments and other organizations that need innovative ways of working with young people.

The use of video technologies has had an immense impact on partners’ ability to showcase their work. Woza Moya is using video to deliver messages around water and sanitation in schools in the Ufafa valley in which they operate and to increase community understanding of disabilities issue. These products once finalised after testing in community will be shared widely through social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and at events where partners meet for exchange of ideas. Save the Children KZN also has a video in production about their crèche forum model and other aspects of their work in crèches to support a written case study that describes their work. These products will be shared with government departments and other organizations in the sector and to also be used to reach other rural parts of South Africa where forum model is not yet known.

During the course of the year we also piloted the Citrix GoToMeeting platform to support the rollout WTL work across the country as it was a cost effective and easy to use platform for webinars. A dedicated person was contracted to support the technical use of the platform for Oxfam staff, to invite partners to participate, to provide support and guidance to the contracted facilitator and presenters. As a result of the success of the trial of this technology, webinars are now being widely used by Oxfam in South Africa. The videoconferencing platform provided by the HSRC also provided an exciting opportunity for multi-site/city, real-time conversations and there were great attendance from Oxfam and Oxfam partners – at its peak nearly 150 people from across the country participated. The use of blogs, online survey tools and cell phone based tools continues to find favour with staff; however, more support is needed for people to feel confident around posting in public and open platforms and to manage the technical aspects of these platforms.

Page | 24

2. Supporting the sustainable delivery of, and increased community participation in, integrated development programs For the 2012-2013 financial year the Oxfam team and partners in South Africa aimed to strengthen networks and partnerships through building further linkages with other Oxfam programs in South Africa and other parts of the world, thereby strengthening gender justice work within the confederation and in the country. The work undertaken in 2012-2013 aimed to facilitate networking, sharing and linkages between the South African partners and other interested parties around the proposed topics relating to Women’s’ Transformational Leadership, and to contribute to continuous learning amongst partners and affiliates in and across countries. The further consolidation of our gender work and its integration into partner programs will be central to the ambition of the program and the outcomes this phase.

Other thematic areas for integration include:    

WASH in the HIV and AIDS and early childhood development partners’ work through the rollout of training materials for home based care workers and ECD practitioners in two provinces Disability inclusion into our WASH program and more broadly through the rollout of a policy development process for all partners Child protection policy development across the partnership Improving partner capacity to engage in local level influencing and advocacy work

Models of integrated programming are evolving and our current and future documenting work will highlight a few of these.

3. Creating and sustaining enabling environments with a focus on communities of vulnerable people.

Creating and sustaining enabling environments is an ongoing key element of our work. In March 2013 we reported about the support that RAPCAN has been providing to our partners in relation to the development of child protection policy. Through this process RAPCAN wanted to ensure that the policy development process was not only about compliance but also helped partners to grow and develop and became sustainable for the advancement of their organisation. For this reason good governance and rights based governance has been the core work of this process. The workshops that RAPCAN held with partners allowed engagement with organisational leaders stimulating immense interest in the topic matter.

In relation to disability inclusion, CREATE worked with partners who have home based carers to be trained in disability issues. As a result, Woza Moya (WM) saw an increase in the number of people sharing their stories of living with disability and what it has done to their dignity and self-esteem. Parents of disabled children have also begun to understand the importance of human rights and have become aware that they were depriving their children the right to human dignity and right to education. Home based carers have instilled confidence and trust in parents who are fearful of stigma and discrimination because of their children’s disability. WM has reported an increase in number of children now attending the special school. With this revolution sparked by CREATE, TU was also able to relook at their human resource policies and Page | 25

to their organisational structure, and as a result they have a non-discriminatory recruitment policy which allows people from designated groups to be part of the workforce TU now employs a disabled person.

Cross cutting issues:

Gender Gender has been included in varying ways in the work of partner organisations, ranging from the inclusion of women in programs; a body count indicating the increased number of women and men participating in programs; programs where women are consulted from the outset of the program; to programs where there are significant steps that are taken to change the rules (stated and implicit) that maintain women’s unequal position in society and to a lesser extent, including and engaging with lesbian, bisexual transgendered and intersexed persons. The question throughout is how to influence, build and integrate gender equality and women’s rights into all programming so that it becomes an integral part of programming to shift attitudes, values and ways of working?

It would be apt to assume that partners are recognising women as a vulnerable group. This assumption can be supported by the increased number of women that partners’ have included in activities, put at the centre of policy dialogues and analysis (health policy, NHI), as well as points of debate and discussion through face-to-face and other forms of communication (TAC, ALN, JAW, KRCC).

Although there is still a predominant tendency to use gender synonymously with women, it is good to see that some partners are starting to use the term gender by expanding work to also focus on masculinities (PACSA, Palabora), and realising that men are part of the solution to bring about gender equality. However, we are yet to see how the inclusion of men in debates and activities can further the women’s rights agenda, and open up various spaces for women’s agency, leadership, voice and claiming of rights.

Furthermore, partners are realising, through their work on sexual health that women are not a homogenous group, and that other intersecting identities like race, age, sexual orientation, health status and education can create further marginalisation. This is evidenced through some partners’ work consciously including issues of sexual orientation, sexual agency and autonomy, and sexuality of young women and men (Project Empower, TAC, ALN, JAW, RAPCAN, LifeLine). Partners work on sexual and reproductive health has also allowed for activities and debate to include issues of WASH and nutrition which makes for a more holistic approach to health and well-being. Through the inclusion of these issues, other considerations of gendered inequality and vulnerabilities could surface and partially be addressed. For example, conscientious programming that considers increasing women’s workload and time poverty, women specific risks in terms of utilising and accessing services (WASH facilities that are far from homesteads), and land for productive use (access to land and increased knowledge on farming practices – agro ecology).

Despite motivating evidence of conceptual development in terms of expanding the term gender, and recognising that “women” is not a stand-alone identity, certain concerns still exist Page | 26

around monitoring, evaluation and learning. Partners have been doing well in capturing sexdisaggregated data and relaying these in reports which is useful for monitoring purposes.

However, to deepen the program, partners and Oxfam will need to start bringing in more conscientiously the term gender as a category of analysis. Through using gender for analytical purposes, evaluation will be more rigorous in highlighting if shifts have been made in terms of unequal gender relations, attitudes and practices, and responding by revisiting and reflecting on activities/interventions and adjust to be more appropriate and equality-seeking.

Transformational Women’s Leadership Webinar series – The Transformational Women’s’ leadership (TWL) community of practice webinar series aimed to build on work undertaken by the Oxfam team in South Africa (then consisting of Oxfam Canada and Oxfam Australia staff) and some of the OCA and OAU partners in the 2011-2012 financial year. For the 2012-2013 financial year the Oxfam team and partners in South Africa aimed to strengthen networks and partnerships through building further linkages with other Oxfam programs in South Africa and other parts of the world, and thereby strengthening gender justice work within the confederation. This included facilitating networking, sharing and linkages between the South African partners and other interested parties around the proposed topics relating to TWL and to contribute to continuous learning amongst partners and affiliates in and across countries.

As part of this process three people consisting of two representatives of partner organisations and an Oxfam staff member were scheduled to participate in a Bangladesh exchange visit in March 2013. Unfortunately, this was cancelled the day before departure due to the political unrest in Bangladesh and has been postponed to November 2013 and therefore have to be rescheduled for the 2013-2014 financial year.

To replace these activities, the Oxfam team developed a TWL community of practice webinar series which consisted of facilitated online discussions which took place over six weeks with weekly webinars over four weeks and a three city videoconference mid way in the series. Each webinar had a different topic and was two hours in duration, being facilitated by an external facilitator. A summary of the session and the audio recording of the webinar was posted onto the blog “Informing Theory, Infusing Practice” which facilitated further dialogue by partners and Oxfam staff within and beyond South Africa.

Issues arising from this seminar series included: Issues around leadership need to be addressed at the individual level through the provision of opportunities to develop leadership identity, and at the organisational level to tackle the barriers and structures hindering women from accessing leadership; and what does transformational leadership imply and how does it make a difference? The answers to these two questions are at the heart of changing presence into power for women, and will form a core part of the work in this area going forward.

Key Learning: In recent years, there has been a growing sense of disillusionment with gender mainstreaming as a strategy for promoting gender equality and women’s rights. It would be good to learn from other affiliates in their work in gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming is not about technical quick fixes. So, while the gender training and checklists will be appropriate and needed in some situations, it is important to take a more dynamic Page | 27

approach to capacity building, involving accompaniment and mentoring, action learning and participatory reflection processes to mainstream gender firmly into organizational mission, values and strategies. Transformative gender mainstreaming is about supporting organizations to bring about the complex, long-term changes in organizational and societal structures and power relations needed to achieve gender justice (Reclaiming Gender Mainstreaming as a Transformative Strategy)8.

Active Citizenship South Africa will celebrate its 20 years of democracy by hosting its fifth general election in 2014. Whilst the South African government has made great strides in the last 19 years to address the injustices of the past and bridge the growing inequality divide, many South Africans are still experiencing the effects of the triple challenges to development: poverty, unemployment, and inequality. Over the last three years numerous service delivery protests have typified the way in which communities of people expressed their agency and engaged the state on essential service delivery. While there are several reasons while citizens have opted for, often violent, forms of protest as the preferred way of expressing dissent, one reason that has continuously been evidenced by partners in their reports and in discussions, is the failure by local government to facilitate participatory governance i.e. facilitating processes that enables people to be involved in decision-making processes, deliberate over and vote on the allocation of public resources and the use of state authority.

Given the highly volatile external context, an analysis of active citizenship within the Oxfam partnership illustrates the following: Oxfam partners’ programs are aimed at conscientising community members about their rights, responsibilities, disseminating general information about the challenges they experience, etc.

Such conscientising interventions are built on the premise that an informed individual can exercise agency and is premised on the principle that individuals have the power to influence all tiers of governments’ decision making processes. The majority of these programs, despite having a community wide reach, specifically target vulnerable groups such as women, youth, the members of LGBTI communities, children, people living with disabilities and refugees.

Successes in this area of work demonstrate that such knowledge transfer and information sharing is resulting in civic activism. This is clearly demonstrated in the work by the Energy Action Group (PACSA), ALN, PE, and KRCC and other partners. These partners employ a range of strategies to stimulate change including: campaigns, publications, marches, dialogues, awareness raising workshops, capacity building trainings etc. Enhancing participatory governance capacity in terms of participation and how development operates among individuals ensures that the knowledge obtained does not only sit with the active citizen but is rather transferred widely within the community. This component of conscientising work was not strongly articulated in partners reporting. This then raises questions at a programmatic level around “who determines what knowledge or information is needed by individuals?”, “Is the transfer of knowledge and information an activity or a process?”, “how is this knowledge 8

The power of gender just organisations: A conceptual framework for transformative organisational capacity building

Page | 28

or information being transferred so that it builds on citizenry?” and “How is this information or knowledge translated into action?”

Many Oxfam partners have positioned themselves to engage with local government and informal power bearers such as traditional leaders and church leaders. The documented outcomes of partners engagement with local government varies between “positive” and “challenging”, however there is strong evidence that indicates that partners find it easier to engage with informal power bearers who are responsive to addressing the challenges rather than municipal officials. PACSA, Project Empower, KRCC, etc. clearly demonstrated that they have achieved some gains in working with local government which resulted in improved or increased access to rights, resources and services. For example PACSA reported their interventions with the Electricity Action Group (EAG) resulted in free basic electricity increased to 60kWh and free basic water volumes increased to 7kl. In partner reports emphasis has been placed on individual’s or organisations’ engagement with local government and the power dynamics that exist within these relationships. However, what does not come out strongly from the reports is the fractured nature of communities and the challenges individuals or vulnerable groups such as women face in presenting a coherent, collective stance when engaging the state.

It is no secret that communities hold a high degree of power and are highly politicised and that such politics has the potential to be played out in democratic structures and platforms such as ward committees, etc. Having a better understanding of all the dynamics within communities and the relationships held with other community members will help partners and Oxfam develop further insight into the context under which activism and change takes place.

While the challenge of managing diversity has been on South Africa‘s agenda since before democratisation; building social cohesion amid people with different interests or between different vulnerable groups living together in the same space has not been an easy task for Oxfam partners. Despite the challenges experienced by partners, they have demonstrated the power that collectives have to influence change. Partners were able to build solidarity between the middle class and the poor (PACSA’s research that exposed the unfairness in the municipal billing system) and between individuals who have access to basic services and those that don’t. Partners are becoming aware of and don’t trust the undercurrents below the visible lines of power and conflict but are still able to navigate through these to build solidarity and a collective voice.

In spite of strong democratic institutions in place to protect people’s rights, systemic barriers to accessing services and resources and poor governance block people’s ability to access their rights and hold duty bearers to account. Whilst South Africa has a sound legislative framework it has fallen short in its implementation targets for the delivery of effective and efficient social services to its citizens.

While there are a number of reasons for the disconnect between policy and real world implementation, a critical impediment has been the low levels of public participation and engagement with policy development processes and the subsequent lack of adequate Page | 29

monitoring necessary to keep policymakers accountable. Save for a few Oxfam partners, who have been actively engaging with government in policy making processes, such as Biowatch’s engagement with the Department of Agriculture on the agro-ecology policy, most partners are not taking up the formal spaces created for policy making processes at a National level.

Partners’ limited engagement with the state in National policy making processes could be attributed to governments poorly designed and inadequate measures for user friendly information sharing, poor consultation and lack of open spaces for active citizen participation.

This could potentially undermine government’s relations with citizens. The consequences of low levels of participation in National level policy making processes has the potential to repeat the cycle whereby legislation is drafted that does not include the voices of people and does not articulate their needs thereby increasing peoples vulnerabilities.

However, most partners are using both formal and informal spaces to engage with local authorities in respect of IDP’s, Local and District AIDS councils, police forums, etc to address their challenges. The benefits of having partners engaging with these local authorities and structures improves implementation of service delivery, strengthening the relationship between communities and local service providers and improves practise, monitoring and accountability of state actors. There is opportunity for Oxfam to play the role of facilitator and strengthen the relationship between the state and its citizens.

Inclusiveness There is great improvement on the inclusion of people living with disabilities amongst our partners since the process of building this capacity had been initiated during the last program phase. A number of Oxfam partners became aware and successfully developed programs that are inclusive of people living with disabilities. Haven Wellness Centre, Africaid and KwaMakhutha Community Resource Centre have made their infrastructure more disability inclusive with ramps and hand rails installed at the entrances of their office spaces - this also includes the installation of disability friendly bathrooms. Partners such as Clermont Community Resource Centre conducted workshops sensitizing and educating the community about rights of people living with disabilities and how to assist them in accessing social grants and at their workshops gave them a platform to address and talk about the issues affecting them. DSR, Sophakama, Haven Wellness Centre and Palabora have built good partnership with various schools for children living with disabilities with the aim of collecting data and keeping a record of those children accessing their services, to create opportunities for them to benefit from their advocacy and awareness programs and to offer technical support. Also, it has a potential to enhance understanding of gender in relation women, men, boys and girls living with disability. This is of particular importance when one considers that people with disabilities are extremely vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse, more so if they have intellectual disability.

Although there is still lot of work that needs to be done on the inclusion of people living with disabilities within partner work, an increase in the number of both direct and indirect beneficiaries has been noted amongst partners since the previous reporting period. Some partners are also starting to include schools with special needs in their program planning.

Page | 30

Page | 31

Page | 32

APPENDIX 1: Case Studies Wilderness Foundation – Umzi Wethu “It has been an extraordinary journey,” Andrew Muir.

UMZI WETHU TRAINING ACADEMY FOR VULNERABLE YOUTH “To see how someone who was so-called lost to society, or highly vulnerable and unable to enter the job market, can now earn R8,000 or more and support their households, and even pay for themselves to do degrees and diplomas, that is rewarding.” Andrew Muir - Umzi Wethu Founder.

“Umzi Wethu, I believe, is the greatest idea Andrew Muir ever had, because this program changes lives. It has changed my life, it has changed the lives of my family, it has even changed the lives of customers as Umzi graduates offer good service.” Masixole Mbuqe, 27 – Umzi Wethu graduate, Port Elizabeth 2006 “I still believe in the program, even though I no longer work for Umzi Wethu. I believe in it because I have seen it work.” Claudette van der Merwe - Former trainer, current mentor.

“To meet a young person, destitute, raw, and to watch their progress over the year is incredibly rewarding. I often feel a sense of disbelief, listening to these students at graduation, expressing themselves confidently. They have become assertive. Umzi Wethu teaches them to speak their mind.” Pinky Kondlo – Umzi Wethu Program Director “At a very simple level, the project transforms young people from among the most impoverished and disadvantaged sector of society into effective, independent citizens. These individuals will serve as examples of opportunity and hope to their own families and to the communities from which they came. By proving that highly vulnerable and disadvantaged youth of today can become the leaders of tomorrow, Umzi Wethu sends a powerful message.”

Rolex Awards for Enterprise.

NTOBEKO NGCALA’S STORY Ntobeko Ngcala, 25, lived with his grandmother and older brother in Eastern Cape’s Kwanobuhle township. His mother lived and worked in Johannesburg. His grandmother did not work. He was introduced to Umzi Wethu through the Wilderness Foundation’s Pride program, a series of projects which introduces previously disadvantaged, primary and senior learners to a one-day, entry-level outdoor experience. The experience is designed to help stimulate the learners’ interest in their immediate natural environment and concern for its preservation and conservation. This is Ntobeko’s story: “My mother could only find work in Johannesburg and even though she sacrificed all her earnings to support us, we still struggled.

Page | 33

“I remember I was in Grade 10 when the Wilderness Foundation visited to collect students to do Pride on Saturdays. I was in the first group to go out. I had never been exposed to the bush, I had no idea about conservation. For me, bush did not equal fun. I had always loved watching wildlife programs, but I saw it as a ‘white thing’. Also, I had been taught that the bush was a sacred place for our ancestors, a place of witchcraft. There were many cultural beliefs attached to the bush. I never realized you could make a career out of the environment.

“I enjoyed the whole Pride experience, and myself and my two friends promised that we would sneak in to every other trail. We did, and I started chatting to the guides. Eventually they invited us to attend a one-week course so that we could volunteer on the weekends to do the Pride trails. We did.

“I finished matric. I am the first person in my family to ever get matric. I wanted to go to university, but my father, who does not live with us, refused to pay. I knew I needed to create a change in the family pattern, to improve our situation, I wanted to help better our lives.

“I managed to get a bursary to study computer studies. It was a one year course, and when I finished, I could not find any work. I tried hard to find work, or even to find a bursary to do some further studies, but I could not find anything. I saw myself not going anywhere. I was lost.

“Eventually I spoke to Lihle (Umzi Wethu Trail Guide) in frustration. She knew me, knew my determination, and she realized that I needed a break. She gave me my break.

“During the course we were deployed in different reserves. It was such a different experience.

As students we did get the nasty jobs, but Umzi had prepared us both mentally and physically to handle the challenges of the bush. I was psychologically fit, and I had the right attitude. I was well prepared to face the challenge.

“Today I work in Shamwari as a field guide. It is a hard career but I am lucky. It is who I am, what I am. I see my future in this industry, but perhaps not always as a field guide.

“My biggest challenge at the moment is to further my studies. I did start a management course, but it was too difficult to study with my work shifts. It is always on my mind that I need to get a degree. It is important to me. Next year I hope to study Nature Conservation through Unisa.

“My family is very grateful to Umzi Wethu. I am doing something very different, and they have been impressed with how professional my job is. I have been able to buy my own car, and now I hope to buy a house. Umzi taught me not to live in debt, so I am saving every day.”

Ntobeko says he is incredibly grateful to Umzi Wethu, and whenever he has time off he volunteers as a Pride guide. “Pride opened up opportunities I never could have imagined,” concludes Ntobeko. http://www.shamwari.com/propertyblogarticle.asp?id=251

Page | 34

Project Empower: The Personal is Political My name is Nompumelelo. I live in an informal settlement called Bhambhayi. It’s on the outskirts of Durban, close by is the Ohlange River, I think it may run through Bhambhayi. It is a huge river that floods whenever we have heavy rains. Lately, we don’t even know anymore, when those rains will come.

Most of us live in small rooms made of tin. All my possessions fit into my little room. When it rains, I can’t go to work and we are torn between leaving our homes with our possessions for fear of them being stolen; and staying back and risk drowning. We also risk our homes being taken over by others. Yes, that happens too.

Besides that, when it rains, I cannot go to work. This puts my job on the line. The rain has taken a lot from us. I lost two family members during the Irene rain. We were sleeping and they were wiped away by the rain in their sleep. Only one body was recovered after a few days, to date we have never been able to get help about recovering my cousin’s body. The community members tried to search for the body but it was all in vain. In other instances we have seen helicopters helping search for bodies but in our cases, nobody cares.

I sell vegetables and if it rains and wipes away our gardens we cannot get vegetables and if we already have our vegetables, we cannot get to places where we sell.

There’s this English saying, ‘water water everywhere but not a drop to drink.’ That’s what it’s like for us sometimes - though we have all this water close by, it is not always safe to drink. We have had cholera outbreaks in the past. These are all things that make you worry for your children. I can’t always keep an eye on my little girl because I have so much to do to try to make a better life for her. Sometimes that just seems impossible.

I am so scared that something could happen to her because I can’t watch her all the time. We have had fires in the past because of children playing with matches and paraffin. My child loves playing with the other children by the dump – the abandoned cars and furniture are so interesting to them. I guess they can pretend there to be in another place and time.

But I have other fears – maybe even more than the rains and fires. Women and children, especially girls, are in constant danger of being raped. Rape is like something normal here.

Women are not safe and can be assaulted walking home from a hard day’s work. I am HIV positive and can you believe that this makes me even more vulnerable to being attacked? The Woonga boys seek you out for your medication because they use this to smoke. It’s hard to believe but it’s true!

Some women think that being married makes you safer – it’s just not true. Many of my friends are married but few of them are happy. Their husbands feel that because they are married they can beat them and force them to have sex whenever they want it. These same men get drunk and sleep around with other women too.

As women we are at risk of the above disasters we are powerless and dependent on men. We also are not educated well to find better and stable jobs. The burden of care is on us and nobody cares about us. As a result we do not have time to take care and be in charge of our own health.

Page | 35

We shall always be at risk of all the above disaster because of our living conditions. The reality is that we will experience the same things over and over again as long as we live.

We do foresee disasters but we have no way of preventing them from happening because we do not have resources to better our lives We also know the dangers of living by the rivers or valleys but it the only land that we have access to. We stay there knowing well about the potential disasters but “hope� keeps us going.

Page | 36

Page | 38

Page | 39