The SAWID forum was initiated to provide a platform for ongoing dialogue on issues of national, regional, continental and international importance. Through our dialogues, we seek to establish a common agenda for the development of women and to ensure that women’s views are taken into consideration whenever decisions are taken on all issues that impact on our lives.
The aim of the WVLSA project is to create a network of South African Women committed to the implementation of an African Women’s Agenda. SAWID has pointed out that, although the family is the smallest and most central unit of development for the management of our planet, it is also the most neglected and debilitated unit of development in South Africa, due to our divisive history of colonialism, slavery, apartheid and migrant labour. The value of the family can however not be under-estimated, as the family is also the smallest peace-making unit of society, and the place where men and women first learn to adjust their antagonisms.
There are two outcomes of the project – to nurture the eco-system in which women live with insights from African feminism, and to empower women to use their collective knowledge, wisdom and leadership to become the agents of their own development.