Omogolo Tumelo Onalenna Taunyane-Mnguni writes an in-depth piece about the truly inspiring and collaborative GRRIPP Africa-DUT Final Event colloquium.
Recently, DUT Gender Justice, Health and Human Development and Gender Responsive Resilience in Policy & Practice (GRRIPP Africa) held a Final Event Colloquium in Pretoria. The objective of the Colloquium was to extract crucial learnings from our grantee partners located in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Sudan in order to share knowledge and assess the extent of our impact for gender positive social outcomes. A key focus of the occasion was to mark the end of a four-year global collaboration between Durban University of Technology’s Gender Justice, Health and Human Development Office, UK Research & Innovation, Global Challenges Research Fund, and University College London.
The three-day engagement was comprised of internal GRRIPP network activities, engagements with grantees and strategic stakeholders, panel discussions, a gala dinner, and a final dissemination event to showcase our deliverables.
Regional Advisory Council Chair, Advocate Michelle Odayan, chaired the proceedings of the inaugural day. Grantees delivered project impact presentations, sharing their experiences from collaborating with GRRIPP Africa and giving context to their milestones. Each presenter also discussed their project shortfalls, and how these can be mitigated to empower grassroots organisations. This was followed by a panel discussion focusing on “Community/Partner/Stakeholder Perceptions of Impact”, where one representative from each project contributed to the topic. The activities ended with a gala dinner, where Wits University’s Director for Transformation, Bernadette Johnson, joined as the Keynote Speaker.
Caption: MwanasikanaWanhasi Co-founder, Owen Makanga, giving a presentation. (Credit: GRRIPP Africa)
The second day was chaired by RAC member, Pravin Makan-Lakha, who reflected on the previous day’s activities before giving an outline of the coming day. We had the pleasure of a discussion with African Union Development Agency-NEPAD Head of Youth, Gender, and Women’s Empowerment, Jessica Annor. Her presentation was titled “Intersectional Approaches to Gender and Development”, where she delved into how the continental organisation practices intersectional development through their initiatives. She put it to the audience that intersectionality and feminism aren’t part of AUDA’s institutional lexicon, as the organisation prefers to position itself as champions of gender and women’s empowerment. “You won’t see the word feminism or patriarchy in any of the African Union’s documents, even though they are spoken about openly. These concepts are divisive because they are viewed as Western ideology being imposed on Africans. Our culture has always protected the dignity of women – we don’t need to be taught by outsiders who don’t have lived experience,” she elaborated.
Ms Annor’s presentation was received with adulation from attendees, especially grantees who now possess a first-hand account of how they can collaborate with the organisation based on shared objectives.
Caption: AUDA-NEPAD Head of Youth, Gender, and Women’s Empowerment, Jessica Annor, speaking on Intersectional Approached to Development.(Credit: GRRIPP Africa)
The latter part of the day was a panel discussion titled “Future Perspectives – A discussion and analysis on what different role players see as necessary for strengthening Gender Responsive Resilience”. Participants were GRRIPP Africa grantee representative, Maria Matui from Gender and Climate Change Tanzania Coalition, Prof Pablo Vega, Co-Principal Investigator and Project Lead for GRRIPP Latin America and the Caribbean Region, Prof Maureen Fordham, Principal Investigator GRRIPP Global, and Prof Cheryl Potgieter, GRRIPP Africa Project Lead.
The highlight of Day 3 was a panel discussion titled “Gender Based Violence Beyond the “Superficial “Interventions: Asking Different Questions & Contextualising Real Change across the African Continent.” In it, Prof Cheryl Potgieter was in conversation with Adv Michelle Odayan (GRRIPP Africa RAC Chair), Omogolo Taunyane-Mnguni (GRRIPP Africa Communications Lead), Jackie Osuna (FIDA Uganda), Stayah Fombe (Mwanasikana Wanhasi), and Dr Charity Chenga (Echoes of Humanities). The intention of the panel was to locate gender-based violence within the African context, and interrogate the factors behind it’s increasing trends in communities.
Caption: Participants in attendance at GRRIPP Africa Final Event Colloquium. (Credit: GRRIPP Africa)
Caption: Panel discussion underway at GRRIPP Africa Final Event Colloquium. Depicted (L-R) OmogoloTaunyane-Mnguni (GRRIPP Africa), Adv Michelle Odayan (GRRIPP Africa RAC Chair), Jackie Osuna (FIDA-Uganda), Dr Charity Chenga (Echoes of Humanity) (Credit: GRRIPP Africa)
In conclusion, the GRRIPP Africa Final Event Colloquium was a success in many ways. This was the first time that all grantees convened, enabling them to collaborate, glean crucial lessons from each other, and co-create in finding solutions based on contextual application of indigenous knowledge. All attendees benefitted from the engagement, remarking on the quality of submissions and level of engagement from participants [especially grantees]. Through the event, research and praxis on intersectional gender responsiveness coalesced to introduce a new language for development practitioners and scholars to define contemporary histories. Participants revisited the application, relevance, and impact of their knowledge through a decolonial and educational perspective.
Caption: group picture taken with Prof Cheryl Potgieter (GRRIPP Africa Project Lead) with grantee partners and beneficiaries.
Author bio: Omogolo is a feminist, activist-scholar working as Regional Communications Officer at GRRIPP Africa. She has dedicated her career as a strategic communicator, campaign manager, and media practitioner at GBVF Response Fund, eNews Channel Africa (eNCA), Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, and Talk Radio 702. Her most recent years involve media advisory roles for the mayors of Johannesburg and Tshwane respectively. Her opinion on developments unfolding in the current affairs and politics have appeared on local and international platforms such as Sowetan, City Press, Huffington Post South Africa, Al-Jazeera (UAE), Sky News (UK), and Women’s Media Center (USA).