South Africa's G20 Presidency is prioritizing efforts to combat gender-based violence and harassment in schools. Recent dialogues involving students and stakeholders aim to promote positive masculinities and respectful relationships. This comes amid a rising number of reported incidents in educational settings.
Schools in South Africa are meant to foster learning and respect, but for many children, they have become sites of fear due to gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH). As part of its G20 Presidency, South Africa has elevated this issue through the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group, where the GBVF Response Fund serves as a member. Over the past month, the group hosted a dialogue series to prepare commitments for the ministerial meeting on 30 October and the G20 Summit in November 2025.
GBVH in schools manifests as sexual harassment based on sex, sexual orientation or gender, bullying, threats, ridicule, and exclusion. These acts cause immediate trauma and long-term harm to mental health and relationships. Globally, Unicef reports that half of students aged 13 to 15—about 150 million—experience peer-to-peer violence in and around schools. In South Africa, there has been a 35.4% increase in reported cases of abuse and sexual harassment of pupils by teachers, totaling 111 cases in 2024/2025, alongside more than 500 bullying incidents in the first term of 2025, according to SABC News.
This crisis stems from harmful social norms, toxic masculinities, and weak accountability systems. The Department of Basic Education, in collaboration with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, the GBVF Response Fund, Unicef, and other G20 partners, convened dialogues with five schools across Gauteng, North West, Limpopo, and KwaZulu-Natal. These focused on 15- to 17-year-olds, promoting positive masculinities, respectful relationships, and early violence prevention discussions.
Additionally, the fund partnered with Constitution Hill and the We, the People South Africa campaign for an outreach at Teto Secondary School in Welkom. The program included workshops on the Bill of Rights, constitutional literacy, and the Respect GBV prevention campaign, featuring intergenerational dialogues with learners, parents, educators, and school governing bodies.
One participant in the G20 dialogues noted, "there is very little that children can do on their own to respond to GBVH. But if they are given safe spaces, they will speak up." The fund calls for dismantling harmful gender norms, strengthening justice systems for children, supporting frontline caregivers, and amplifying children's voices in global forums like the G20 to break cycles of violence.