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VIOLENCE PREVENTION FORUM

National VPF

We convene Violence Prevention Forums at national and provincial level; and apply our principles of inclusive dialogue at community level.

At national and provincial level, the VPF bridges the gap between evidence, policy, practice and resources by bringing people from diverse sectors together, led by multi-sectoral Driver Groups and convened by the Institute for Security Studies.

The Violence Prevention Forum is a collaboration between government, civil society, researchers, international organisations, development partners and the private sector. We are committed to building a society free of violence.

The Forum was started in 2015 to share knowledge and experience about researching and implementing interventions and programmes to prevent violence. To achieve this the Forum provided a platform to build strong relationships between policy makers, researchers and practitioners (implementers of programmes). By developing and sharing the body of evidence about how to prevent violence and its damaging impact, we are working to enable the expansion of successful evidence-based programmes and interventions in South Africa.

Today the Forum includes many experienced and committed people, including officials from 20 government departments and agencies, 56 NGOs, 27 research institutions, 27 development partners as well as donors, companies and international organisations.

South Africa cannot afford to spend state or donor funds on violence prevention programmes that are not effective or inadvertently cause more harm. The Violence Prevention Forum is therefore committed to finding new ways of communicating and collaborating, enabling government and civil society to identify and grow interventions that have evidence of effect, inform policy and increase advocacy for violence prevention.

We are building productive relationships across sectors with a deeply democratic process built on respect, empathy and active listening. The full terms of reference of the Violence Prevention Forum are available here.

Impact

Through networks developed at VPF meetings a group of NGOs delivering parenting programmes were inspired to form the South African Parenting Programme Implementers Network (SAPPIN). SAPPIN has grown from then into an NPO with a national footprint and innovative interventions delivered across their network – the impact link for this statement leads to the “Western Cape a Beacon of Hope”.