Management structure

SaferSpaces is managed by the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service with the support and guidance from a cross-sectoral Advisory Group.

Site manager: Civilian Secretariat for Police Service

In May 2017, the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service assumed the responsibility for managing SaferSpaces as a support mechanism to the implementation of the 2016 White Paper on Safety and Security, which advocates an integrated approach towards violence and crime prevention informed by a sound knowledge base and active community participation. SaferSpaces is envisioned to support this approach as an integrated, cross-sectoral knowledge portal.

Advisory Group

The SaferSpaces Advisory Group is a core group of government departments and non-governmental institutions that are committed to strategically promote, contribute to and guide SaferSpaces. As such the Advisory Group performs an important support to the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service in realising the vision and mission of SaferSpaces.

The composition of the Advisory Group reflects the integrated, cross-sectoral approach towards violence and crime prevention as it is advocated for by the 2016 White Paper on Safety and Security. It is envisioned to be a core group with a balanced representation of government departments, civil society organisations and academic institutions.

As of May 2017, the following institutions are voluntary members of the Advisory Group:

The task of the Advisory Group is to guide and inform SaferSpaces by:

Promoting the portal

• Supporting building SaferSpaces into a key knowledge hub on community safety as well as violence and crime prevention by promoting its usage amongst policy-makers, practitioners and researchers from government, civil society and academia;
• Promoting knowledge sharing and exchange among the Advisory Group members;

Contributing to the portal

• Keeping the site up-to-date regarding latest news, processes, projects, events and publications about community safety & violence and crime prevention in South Africa;
• Contributing to SaferSpaces by actively sharing information and knowledge products based on an annual content plan;

Guiding the portal

• Informing the functional and strategic development of SaferSpaces to ensure continuous growth and that it meets the knowledge and information needs of practitioners.

This will ensure that SaferSpaces continues to provide the value envisaged in, and consistent with, the objectives and aims as set out above.

Technical support: GIZ Inclusive Violence and Crime Prevention (VCP) Programme

The Inclusve Violence and Crime Prevention (VCP) programme of the South African-German government cooperation supports SaferSpaces technically and financially. The technical support includes assistance in managing SaferSpaces as well as monitoring of the MoU with the CSPS, site growth and in the past the contracting of the Safety and Violence Initiative of the University of Cape Town as management support.