While SALO works on countries affected by conflicts in the Southern African region and beyond, the organisation has several other initiatives that are designed to advance the attainment of peace and human security in South Africa. These comprises, inter alia, interventions in form of community dialogue platforms on the LGBTI issues, the rights of migrants in the Republic, xenophobia prevention as well as responses to real time issues that continue to emerge.
SALO continues to undertake pioneering work on LGBTI issues, using the Human Rights approach. It uses the systems model, an approach that has been widely recognised by various constituencies that have accepted, and therefore continue to work closely with the organisation. Some examples are Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, (GALZ), LGBTI unit of the PASSOP and the Department of Justice’s LGBTI National Task Team. This work has gone a long way in concientising stakeholders on gender and sexual orientation-based violence against such vulnerable and marginalised minority groups.
SALO also works in various communities, including townships, where, following the BIC model, it creates platforms for screening DVDs on themes related to these topical issues, followed by community dialogues. Such dialogues help to highlight and tackle xenophobia; migrant rights and related issues and attitudes towards the same; political rape by youth militia, especially in war torn countries and others in conflict situations as well as the urgent need for prioritising women and gender rights. One of the organisations that SALO works with is the Somali Women’s network. The achievements of such initiatives include drawing the attention of Oxfam, which has since requested SALO to be a core partner in a new network of women for peace and security in Africa.
SALO also works to deepen and widen stakeholders’ understanding of, and strives to influence South Africa’s foreign policy on an array of issues. One of them regards extractive transparency. In all its workshops, key speakers who comprise renowned experts and practitioners in this field are drawn from different countries in the region and beyond. A good example is the most recent workshop where, of the seven speakers, two came from Zambia and Zimbabwe, one from the Southern African Trust, one from Madagascar and the other one from South Africa.
More on this can be found on the link to the SA page on extractives and foreign policy work sections of our webpage.
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