In 2008, Hlanganisa established the Joint Gender Fund (JGF), a funding mechanism through which Hlanganisa has over the years been able to strengthen community level GBV responses. The basket fund which currently consists of Irish Aid, Ford Foundation and Raith Foundation, emerged from a commitment to enhance the impact of donor funding to civil society in the field of GBV in South Africa. Through the JGF, Hlanganisa seeks to strengthen the capacity of CBOs and NGOs to implement GBV focused programmes and thus amplify the voice of ordinary women, girls and community leaders in combating GBV. Key approaches include sub granting, capacity enhancement and strategic sector convenings. The fund also supports emergency grants which are aimed at supporting unplanned but strategic sector priorities and sometimes tied to urgent legal, medical and psycho-social support needs for women as a means to contribute to building their coping and resilience in times of acute GBV-related distress and economic vulnerability.
The vision of the Joint Gender Fund is a strengthened sector that is able to respond to GBV in the context of socio-economic inequality addressing key intersections and empowering women and girls. The Fund also seeks to enhance leadership and provide funding for innovative programmes that address the drivers of violence against women and girls in ways that respond to and transform the underlying causes.
In addition, the fund promotes improved donor and other stakeholder coordination which has been shown to be an attractive and efficient way of funding local initiatives. Through leveraging synergies, greater collaboration and increased cost sharing, the fund has been able to drive cost efficiency and cohesion in the GBV response.
Over the years, the fund has been successful in building leadership and supporting innovative gender transformative programmes that address the underlying cause of GBV and intersectionality such as poverty, disability, economic dependence and food security.
