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Dear VPF Friends,
Welcome to the Violence Prevention Forum newsletter. We share research, resources, upcoming events and opportunities on a bi-weekly basis. We hope you find this a useful and valuable resource.
For any resources and events you'd like to share in this newsletter or queries, contact vpf@issafrica.org. You can also stay up to date with opportunities and research on our linkedIn page here
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Policy Brief: How business can help build a safer South Africa, lessons from the Violence Prevention Forum
Trust, not funding, is what lets businesses become real partners in preventing violence, and that trust takes deliberate work.
Violence affects employees, workplaces, supply chains, communities, profit and the wider conditions in which businesses operate. Drawing on the Violence Prevention Forum’s 2025 engagement with business, this policy brief shows how companies can contribute to prevention as partners, not only funders. It argues that research, practice-based knowledge with facilitated, sustained dialogue across sectors can build trust, deepen mutual understanding and enable businesses to meaningfully contribute to preventing violence. |
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Observations Report: South Africa’s Online Elections Narrative
This observations report by Tales of Turning examines online conversations surrounding South Africa’s electoral context. Observations of conversations on social media show warning signs that the election narrative is shaped by bot and inauthentic accounts. These are present alongside highly active social media accounts that hyper-post election related content.
The observations captured a digital environment in which public concerns about exclusion, unemployment, crime, governance and political accountability intersected with misinformation, allegations of electoral fraud, inflammatory rhetoric, and calls to boycott elections. Further analysis is recommended to establish the presence and extent of coordinated disinformation narratives. |
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Webinar: Preventing the Intersections of Violence Against Children and Violence Against Women and Advancing Gender Equality in Parenting Programmes
Violence against women and violence against children share common risk factors and tend to co-occur in households — yet prevention efforts still tend to run on separate tracks. This webinar makes the case for tackling both together.
Join the Global Parenting Initiative and the Affinity Group for the launch of a practical tool to help parenting practitioners strengthen their prevention of both forms of violence through a gender-equality lens. The session will set out the rationale for an integrated approach, showcase gender-transformative parenting programmes that have worked, and hear from the Institute for Security Studies on Free to Grow and what they learned applying the tool.
Date: 28 October 2026
Time: 11:00 (SAST)
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Webinar: Understanding Grade R provision under the BELA Act
The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act makes Grade R attendance compulsory and officially incorporates it into the formal schooling system. The policy raises important questions about its impact on the early learning sector.
Join Ilifa labantwana, RESEP (Research on Socio-Economic Policy) and DataDrive2030 as they unpack the evidence, examine the risks, and explore how South Africa can strengthen access to quality early learning without undermining the existing mixed-provision system.
Date: 11 November 2026
Time: 11:00-12:00 (SAST)
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NHS Violence Reduction Academy Symposium 2026
The theme for this year's symposium is Critical Trajectories, with a focus on key moments in life where violence and health needs may interact. With an interest in framing violence and health through the life course lens, the event will explore four key trajectories where health and violence interact, offering talks and workshops from a range of organisations and subject experts across the healthcare spectrum.
The event will provide an opportunity to examine violence through a public health and life course lens, exploring how health services can respond to and help prevent violence at critical stages of life.
Date: 5 November 2026
Time: 09:00 – 16:30pm GMT (+00:00)
Venue: Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, 108 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, United Kingdom
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Research paper: Firearm Violence and Violence Against Children and Young People, A Global Call for WHO and Member State Action
This report from the Global Coalition for WHO Action on Firearm Violence documents firearms as a leading, preventable cause of death and injury among children globally, especially in the Americas and South Africa. It highlights firearm suicide lethality, non-fatal injury burdens, school shootings, disproportionate harm to racialized boys and marginalized youth, firearm-enabled domestic violence affecting girls, and industry marketing targeting children through gaming and social media. Despite this, firearms remain largely absent from WHO, PAHO, and UN frameworks like INSPIRE. The report calls on WHO to integrate firearm risk into existing child-protection frameworks, invest in the social service workforce, and support a World Health Assembly resolution. |
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