COMMUNITY ACTIVISM

FEEDING THE HUNGRY

SANDY BUKULA, CEO of Operation Hunger, delves into why addressing issues around food insecurity is critical

Operation Hunger has been addressing hunger and the nutritional crisis for 42 years.

If we are to hope for an equal future for all and end a vicious cycle of poverty, then access to healthy, affordable food and quality nutritional care is vital. But, such access is hindered by deeper inequities arising from unjust systems and processes that are part of daily life. Inequities in food and health systems exacerbate inequalities in nutrition outcomes, this, in turn, can lead to further inequity, perpetuating a vicious cycle.

Operation Hunger, founded in 1978 to address malnutrition in South Africa, has witnessed fi rst-hand the impact of malnutrition on the vulnerable in society. With an intimate understanding of the toll and anguish malnutrition has on the nations, the organisation has developed a pro-equity systematic model that responds holistically to Unicef’s Conceptual Framework Determinants Malnutrition, prioritising undernutrition, especially to women and children. In line with WHO standards, Operation Hunger continues to champion the nutritional development of all South Africans. The organisation reaches over 2.4 million families annually through its sustainable projects, developed to meet the immediate and long-term nutritional needs of vulnerable communities.

However, the need for more equitable, resilient and sustainable food and health systems to address hunger is becoming increasingly urgent, especially during the current pandemic. Millions of people do not have enough to eat. Salary cuts and job losses continue to negatively affect the purchasing power of households.

Focusing on nutritional wellbeing provides opportunities for establishing synergies between public health and equity. Operation Hunger’s 42-year effort to address South Africa’s nutritional crisis is centred on redressing inequality in food and health systems, aimed at ending malnutrition in all its forms. This requires strengthened co-ordination, alignment, fi nancing and accountability.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OPERATION HUNGER

As the disruption to healthcare and the food chain as well as people’s livelihoods continues, due to the pandemic, social protection systems must be amplifi ed.

ABOUT SANDY BUKULA

Sandy Bukula has a strong sense of community development and empowerment nurtured in her youth while participating in community development and feeding programmes.

Working at Operation Hunger aligns with her values. Her passion for the empowerment of all who call South Africa home is amplifi ed at Operation Hunger.

The NPO provides her with a scalable solution that has a tangible and measurable platform. Sandy Bukula This enables her to make full use of her MBA in Sustainable Development. Through the donors, support of the board and colleagues, Bukula’s confi dence in Operation Hunger’s ability to change the nutritional status of South Africa is unwavering.

PERIOD POVERTY

Menstruation activist, speaker and academic CANDICE CHIRWA shares why we should fi ght the stigma around sexual, menstrual, and reproductive health

Aunt Flo. On The Rag. Girl Flu.

Period. There are so many codewords for a natural function that we have been conditioned to be ashamed of. We rarely think of the implications and impact this silence has on young girls and women. I recall vividly when I fi rst encountered period blood at the age of 10. This defi ning moment shaped the relationship I had with my body – and I admit that I hated my periods. All because I didn’t have the important conversations about what periods truly are: a transition between childhood and adulthood; that a young girl will experience hormonal fl uctuations bringing on a wave of different symptoms; and, most importantly, that it is normal and okay.

My passion for feminism and reading unlocked my awareness around period poverty. Using my belief in feminism and acquired knowledge, I educate young people and society about menstruation. My passion for menstrual activism comes from a lack of critical education when from a lack of critical education when I fi rst started menstruating. It was and I fi rst started menstruating. It was and still is interesting that there is so much still is interesting that there is so much embarrassment, awkwardness and shame embarrassment, awkwardness and shame around a bodily function that impacts around a bodily function that impacts half of the population. A menstruator will half of the population. A menstruator will menstruate for more than seven years – menstruate for more than seven years – that is a long time to feel ashamed for that is a long time to feel ashamed for existing. In South Africa, research has existing. In South Africa, research has found that up to 30 per cent of girls found that up to 30 per cent of girls miss school because of period miss school because of period poverty and being unable to afford menstrual products. embarrassed about.

Thus, in tackling period poverty, I started my nonprofi t company, Qrate, which focuses on enhancing critical thinking in young people about social issues. The company also hosts and facilitates fun and dynamic menstruation workshops as a way to provide young people with comprehensive menstrual and sexual education. It has been an uplifting journey to educate and empower the over 300 participants to date about a natural phenomenon. The Qrate workshops eradicate the fear a young person might feel when they fi rst see menstrual blood and lets them know that while periods can be a pain, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

ABOUT CANDICE CHIRWA

EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH WORK

Generation equality – realising women’s right for an equal future. A Q&A with Webber Wentzel managing partner SALLY HUTTON

How can organisations ensure that their policies and practices genuinely meet the needs of female staff DURING the COVID-19 pandemic?

Many women, particularly those with young children and/or ageing parents, have borne the brunt of working through the COVID-19 pandemic. This is no surprise – women have traditionally borne more than their fair share of caregiving responsibilities and the pandemic has just highlighted this. Societal norms need to change to enable a more equal world – a much bigger challenge. All organisations can play an important part in this shift though, by actively making workplaces more inclusive and flexible and adopting policies to allow all their people (including working parents) to balance competing demands in a more gender-neutral way. This may include adopting flexible working practices (and a hybrid working model), instilling values of collaboration and teamwork, and ensuring teams are properly resourced and work is evenly allocated. This is also important generally for enabling good mental health through better work-life balance and allowing people the time and space to recharge.

What is the best way to ensure accountability on a gender strategy?

Buy-in and commitment of time and resources from the most senior levels are vital. The Gender Strategy Working Group (GSWG), which I chair, oversees our formal, multipronged gender strategy, adopted in 2015, so it receives attention at the highest level. Structure and process are also important. Each year, we set targets and initiatives in various focus areas and regularly map and report back on our progress. A dedicated talent manager and transformation manager support us with the day-to-day operational work necessary to meet our objectives. These structures and processes facilitate accountability and ensure we are action-oriented and keep things moving forward.

What progress has been made in retaining and promoting women lawyers?

For some time, we have been a South African “Big Five” law firm with the highest proportion of women partners. We aim for a 50/50 split of our total partner body by 2025 and have made significant progress already. Currently, 43 per cent of all our partners are women – a 23 per cent increase since 2015 – and 41 per cent of our equity partners are women – a 32 per cent increase since 2015. We have a strong pipeline too: 57 per cent of our legal services team are women. We have deliberately increased diversity in all our leadership structures over several years and women now comprise more than 40 per cent of our senior leadership team. We can see the positive impact of this in our decision-making and in the firm’s success – diverse teams find more robust and creative solutions.

Sally Hutton

How important is role modelling?

Role modelling is critical to organisational change – and we all need role models at all stages of our careers. As Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic woman to become a US Supreme Court Justice, said “a role model … provides more than inspiration; [their] very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying ‘Yes, someone like me can do this’.” As the first woman elected to a senior leadership role in a major South African law firm in 2015, I felt the absence of female role models in leadership roles keenly. This is all changing – several large South African law firms now have senior women leaders, and in only six months, four major global firms (Ashurst, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills and, most recently, our alliance partner Linklaters) have appointed women to senior partner or chair roles for the first time.

Can you outline some other areas of progress?

We were the first South African firm to introduce parental transitional coaching in 2016 (for which we were awarded the African Legal Awards Diversity Award) – this has been very successful. We introduced a flexible working policy three years ago and are currently workshopping a hybrid working policy for the post-COVID-19 world. We conduct regular pay analyses and have reviewed all the firm’s policies (including our parental leave and bonus policies) to eliminate any gender biases. Every quarter, the GSWG compiles a transformation profiling report, focusing on the business development and profiling of women fee-earners. We are making a deliberate effort to be more inclusive in the way we pitch for work and profile our lawyers. We regularly conduct unconscious bias workshops and awareness sessions, including on race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and related issues. Most importantly, we have a values-based culture, which forms the backdrop for everything we do. Respect, transformation and diversity, collaboration and teamwork are all core firm values, which we insist are lived by all of our people.

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