Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Crowdfunding to enhance support for Gender based violence survivors
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
In 2023, Eswatini national news have been marred with numerous articles of gender based violence. This has led to public outcry and calls to declare femicide as a national disaster in 2023. The head of state His Majesty the King, in his parliament opening speech, made a call to action to the nation, to join hands and put an end to gender based violence. This has been followed by other leaders including the UN RC of Eswatini. In November 2023, a local women’s rights group called on the government to declare violence against women a national emergency due to rising incidences of brutal intimate partner violence, rape, and femicide.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
Eswatini has seen a rising scourge of gender based violence, of about 41 312 4 in four years. Cases of Sexual offences and domestic violence are said to have increased by 289% 2023. More cases are not reported or withdrawn due to various reasons including, fear of victimisation, lack of survivor psychosocial support that can see them through the processes of seeking justice and etc. There is a plethora of drivers causing these violations.
The current situation in the country has been attended to by police, civic society organisation and government to address the drivers of the spate of fatal incidences. The programmes include awareness campaigns and support groups for men, women empowerment programmes, projects have been set up by International agencies to support survivors receive recovery. The undesired effects produced by these cases are the displacement of women of children from their normal home. UNFPA has coined is a fundamental violation of women's human rights and has adverse economic and social consequences for men, women, their children, families and communities.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
It has been reported that in 2023 alone, 289% cases of violations have been reported. The world bank has reported that, Violence against women and girls remains a persistent challenge in the country, with approximately 1 in 3 women and girls experiencing some form of sexual violence by age 18, and 48 percent experiencing some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. The Afrobarometer survey notes that 43% respondents agreed that the issue of gender based violence is common in the country.
https://www.afrobarometer.org/articles/emaswati-perceive-gender-based-violence-to-be-on-the-rise-say-domestic-violence-should-be-treated-as-a-criminal-matter/
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Signals that we have spotted come from mainstream media observed over the past 10 months in 2023 alone. The links to the signals are taken from these sources:
http://www.times.co.sz/news/142632-shocker-41-312-gbv-cases-in-4-years.html
https://medium.com/@ncedilemancedyngwenya/the-second-pandemic-in-the-kingdom-of-eswatini-is-gender-based-violence-c9c2b6d4f9e6
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
There is a growing need for financial resources to implement various gender based violence prevention and survior recovery programmes. The Acclab has signed up to participate in a hands-on learning programme on crowdfunding as an innovative finance method to pool resources to fund initiatives. Eswatini UNDP country office is a very small office with huge funding gaps. The innovative finance through crowdfunding will serve as a resource mobilisation experiment on a matter that also is aligned to the UNDP governance portfolio on support to women and young girls receiving access to rule of law and justice. UNDP has joined hands with UNFPA in coming up with a programme to support survivors in collaboration with stakeholders such as CSO Eswatini Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) a non-governmental organization that has been working for over 30 years to end gender-based violence (GBV), Kwakha Indvodza, Deputy Prime minister's office. It is worth investing resources to this challenge as this is an ongoing: 1. its a focus area nationally, 2. UNFPA and UNDP are currently working together to set up a safe home for survivors 3. The funding for such an initiative is scanty yet the need for support grows based on the rising cases daily. 4. The areas of support that are currently provided to survivors needs to be further improved as it currently focuses on aftercare and little goes into supporting the survivors rebuild their lives to start a new life independently.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
Supporting survivors of GBV rebuild their lives
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Swagaa
What sector does our partner belong to?
Civil Society
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Survivor support institution that can host crowdfund and channel resources to survivor.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
If a local crowdfund is set up for locals to contribute towards programmes to support survivors of gender based violence, more people in Eswatini can contribute to enhance the available funding streams and initiatives. We need partnerships with CSOs, Private sector and civic society to come together and contribute to saving lives of fellow citizens on a known challenge.
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Explore, Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Pool resources for GBV through crowdfunding. Adds value to learning question to see the extent to which innovative finance from local citizens and new donors can be a solution to a national challenge that is normally supported with dwindling funding streams from donors.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Capacity of crowdfunds in the country.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
UNFPA as the leading agency on gender based offences programmes, Women, girls , CSO projects focusing of recovery and supporting survivors.
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3Good health and well-being
5Gender equality
16Peace, justice and strong institutions
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