Following widespread protests, consultations, and renewed commitments on the part of the South African government to end gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on GBVF came into effect in April 2020.
One of the many strengths of South Africa’s NSP to end GBVF is its holistic and multi-stakeholder approach, which includes feminist economics and an understanding that economic inequality and/or deprivation is one of the many systemic factors that facilitate violence.
Accordingly, the goal of Pillar 5 of the NSP is “to intentionally transform the structural foundation of GBV across local, provincial and national spheres in ways that reshape economic and social norms and value systems, to facilitate women and LGBTQIA+ persons” to “freely participate in”, and “navigate and change their lives”
To this end, Pillar 5 includes three key interventions, each with a list of key activities to be completed to enhance women’s (particularly GBV survivors’) economic power, thereby increasing their autonomy.
A volunteer feminist economist working toward the implementation of Pillar 5 is quoted in the End GBVF Collective Newsletter as saying that “the NSP on GBVF makes a clear link between GBV and access to financial power . . . [which is] a ground-breaking intervention that South African feminists and gender justice activists should celebrate because it’s the first time feminists have been able to link oppressive social construction and the role of economic power to the subjugation of those classified as invisible.”
Despite these achievements and the complexity of the content covered, it could be argued that Pillar 5 of the NSP (as expressed in the key interventions and associated activities) does not adequately address the challenges faced by women in the informal sector; nor of those faced by women in conditions of precarious employment such as domestic work. Rather, the document tends to emphasize formal employment in the private and public sector, and/or limits empowerment initiatives to survivors rather than women in general.
Nevertheless, the NSP is broad enough to include initiatives that specifically respond to the vulnerabilities of women in the informal economy and/ or in precarious employment. For example, one of the activities under key intervention three is “implement interventions to address GBV vulnerabilities of farm workers, mine workers and domestic workers”.
Expanding this latter activity to address the general employment-related vulnerabilities of women in the informal economy and/ or in precarious employment conditions, particularly focusing on domestic workers, could bring about substantial change in women’s socio-economic profile.
Overall, the plan could be strengthened by more specifically responding to the realities faced by women in informal or precarious conditions of employment, and particularly by overseeing the implementation of initiatives to empower domestic workers.
