About Sonke Gender Justice
Sonke Gender Justice, established in 2006, is an organisation that strives to prevent domestic and sexual violence, reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS, and promote gender equality and human rights. Sonke ’s work is in South Africa’s nine provinces and 24 countries across Southern, Eastern, Central and Western Africa through the MenEngage Africa (MEA) partnership. Globally, Sonke works in partnership with various development agencies, members of the Global MenEngage Alliance and other international networks and affiliates.
Programme Overview
The Inkanyezi (Zulu term for “bright shining star”) Project is a targeted gender equality project that aims to transform gender and power relations and seek institutional and societal change in support of gender equality and women’s leadership in decision-making. This four-year project (2021 to 2026) will build on existing interventions and partnerships in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga will promote the confidence and capacities of women in leadership roles and will foster supportive networks for women. Hence one of the project’s aims is to increase the number of women in positions of leadership. Using a feminist and human rights-based approach to achieving gender equality, the project will strengthen the ability of women leaders from political, traditional, and religious structures to influence local decision-making processes, especially with respect to laws, policies, and customs relevant to gender equality and GBV. Moreover, this project operates from the belief that empowering women (with increased rights literacy, strengthened critical consciousness, enhanced senses of individual and community self-efficacy and agency, and successful community activism) are all likely to produce activism on other social justice and community issues. Communities, and especially young women, with women leaders as their role models, will have an important role to play in becoming active citizens and holding local duty bearers accountable for the effective implementation of relevant laws and policies. At the same time, the project will work to shift the harmful social norms that drive gender inequality and Gender Based Violence (GBV) at an individual, community, and institutional level.
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