Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, will on Tuesday host the Inaugural Transforming MENtalities Summit, which is aimed at engaging men and boys to address the root causes of violence against women.
The Transforming MENtalities Summit is based on United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Transforming MENtalities initiative, launched in 2015 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and later spread to a number of other countries.
The department said, the multistakeholder campaign and partnership, aims to champion a world free of gender biases, stereotypes, violence and discrimination, by changing cultural and societal norms through policies, advocacy and capacity-building initiatives.
“A 2013 United Nations Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence reveals that 10% to 62% of all interviewed men reported having raped a woman or girl in their lifetime, and in some places, more than 75% of women aged 15 to 24 thinks that there are conditions under which a man has rightful reasons to beat his wife.
“Socialisation processes are intrinsically linked to structural gender inequalities: violence, aggressiveness and sexual entitlement are too often considered as appropriate expressions of “how to act like a man” in different societies,” the department said in a statement.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2013, the lifetime risk of experiencing Gender-Based Violence (GBV) for South African women is 45.6%; well above the global average of 35%.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), originally known as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund Furthermore, also states that sexual Gender-Based Violence, and intimate partner violence are amongst the most prevalent forms of GBV affecting young women aged 16-25 years as they are vulnerable.
The summit is hosted by HIGHER HEALTH and the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) on behalf of the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Science and Innovation.
