Johannesburg - The cost of reacting to gender-based violence ran to R42 billion a year for the country, so the time to invest in prevention had come, said UN Women country director Anne Githuku-Shongwe on Thursday.
“We all know the cost to humans to be very big, but the economic results after the fact are bigger.”
According to Githuku-Shongwe, the costs stood between R28.4bn and R42bn, depending on how they were calculated.
She said the focus of this year’s 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign was on a push to invest in preventing the violence.
Friday marks the start of the annual global movement to conscientise citizens on the effects of gender-based violence.
Githuku-Shongwe is the multi-country director of South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Namibia.
She said violence was an equaliser all over the world, and it hit across all levels of society in South Africa.
The investment in reducing gender-based violence had to be implemented together with other programmes, among them the recruitment of men into campaigns to fight violence.
The He-She campaign was one such programme.
A programme to host dialogues in all districts of the country would also be launched. It would see her office working with the government and private sector in going to every community in the country to talk about the problem.
“There are gaps which allow violence to continue. Through these discussions, we are hoping to create a response that will inform us,” she said.
Githuku-Shongwe said they also worked with young people in high schools and universities to talk about gender-based violence, but it was in the communities where violence was perpetuated that change had to begin.
“We need six-year-old children to know what is wrong and what is right; what is acceptable and what isn’t. We need six-year-olds to know that gender-based violence is criminal and illegal.”
Traditional and religious leaders were in talks on playing their part. Leaders were big agents for change, said Githuku-Shongwe, as their actions influenced their subjects, and the sooner they were seen to be fighting violence against women and children, the sooner change would become visible.
The Star