Launch of the new partnership on the Inclusive Violence and Crime Prevention Programme

High Commissioner for Canada Chris Cooter, Director-General of the Department of Cooperative Governance Avril Williamson, German Deputy Ambassador Dr Rüdiger Lotz and GIZ Country Director Thomas Schaef at the launch

4 March 2022

High Commissioner for Canada, His Excellency, Mr Chris Cooter, German Deputy Ambassador, Dr. Rüdiger Lotz, and Director-General of the Department of Cooperative Governance, Ms. Avril Williamson participated in the launch of the new partnership on the Inclusive Violence and Crime Prevention (VCP) Programme held on the 3rd of March 2022 at the Pretoria National Botanical Gardens.

The high prevalence of interpersonal violence in South Africa, including gender-based violence, is not only a major barrier to human rights and gender equality, but it also poses a threat to stability and social cohesion, and limits the country’s progress in overcoming the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

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Canada and Germany are delighted to be joining forces to intensify cooperation with South Africa in its ongoing efforts to address the underlying causes of interpersonal violence, in particular the “second pandemic” and one of President Ramaphosa`s national priorities of genderbased violence and femicide, through the VCP Programme.

Global Affairs Canada recently signed a co-financing agreement with GIZ (German development cooperation), which works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, to support the continued work of the VCP Programme. This new partnership will enhance cooperation on the three countries’ shared priority of empowering women and girls and promoting peace and justice, which are foundational for a strong, just and prosperous society.

The VCP Programme provides technical assistance to enable closer collaboration between government departments, municipalities, NGOs, faith leaders, schools, and researchers to address the causes of interpersonal violence and realize the goals of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and Femicide, and the White Paper on Safety and Security.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the German-South African VCP Programme, with the event on the 3rd March also serving as a celebration of the many contributions and achievements of the programme and its partners over the past decade.

These include:
-helping to establish a comprehensive national violence prevention policy framework, and developing evidence-informed implementation strategies,
-enhancing the capacities of cities and municipalities for building safer communities, through providing training, addressing system-level requirements such as funding mechanisms, generating data to guide evidence-informed plans, and demonstration projects,
-empowering young people to become changemakers for safety in their schools and wider communities, and
-creating various knowledge generation and exchange platforms, which have helped sustain and build the momentum behind a whole-of-society approach to violence prevention amongst a growing alliance of government and civil society partners.

Through these and other support measures, the VCP Programme has helped build a strong alliance of government and civil society stakeholders working together to advance preventative approaches as a more sustainable and cost-effective solution to crime and violence in the country.

High Commission of Canada in South Africa