Beyond the Pilot Project: Towards broad-based integrated violence prevention in South Africa

Twenty years post-apartheid South Africa continues to face unrelentingly high levels of violence throughout the country. Despite progressive policies influenced by international best practice and the recognition of violence as a complex social problem requiring holistic solutions, the implementation of integrated prevention policy remains weak. Through the employment of a qualitative research approach, this thesis explores the dynamic and complex interrelations between policies and practice that impact on the realisation of broad-based integrated violence prevention in South Africa. In-depth case study research into the institutional structure and implementation methodologies of an internationally supported integrated prevention initiative, the Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU) Programme, provides the basis on which this thesis discusses the contention that institutional misalignment in South Africa hinders the realisation of broad-based implementation of integrated violence and crime prevention. Extending from a research rationale, which suggests that the true value of this kind of internationally supported pilot programme lies in its ability to be transferred and implemented at scale, this thesis draws on the case study experience in order to conceptualise how broadbased programme transfer may be realised. In answering the primary research question what are the main challenges facing the implementation and transferability of the VPUU programme?, this thesis draws together the difficulties being experienced at national policy and local implementation level in order to provide new insights into what programme transfer constitutes in this context. The application of the theoretical framework that seeks to understand the epistemological complexity of the VPUU programme and the delivery of interventions results in an understanding of how the knowledge derived from the case study may contribute to the realisation of mainstreamed programme transfer in the future. Based on the results of the case study, this thesis shows that dealing with complex problems requires the development of institutions and professionals capable of coping with complexity. Furthermore, the research outcomes highlight the prerequisite for institutional alignment towards a common understanding of urban safety and suggest that a shift in mind-set is required in the way in which urban safety and crime prevention are conceived. It is argued that in order to realise the implementation of integrated prevention, urban safety needs to be seen not as a stand-alone, complementary development issue but rather as a systemic guide with which all sectors and institutions should proactively concern themselves. This kind of systemic integration is likewise argued to be reliant on the establishment of a common vision of what urban safety and prevention constitute. The core contribution of this research lies in the application of a new means of thinking about the complex interrelations associated with integrated prevention, providing in-depth understanding of the dynamics of delivery across the multiple spheres of intervention. The identification of robust intervention elements within more manageable problem spaces may aid in enabling various government departments to realise improved efficiency in the allocation of finite resources and capacities so as to contribute more effectively to the realisation of urban safety