8 August 2019

South Africa is in the process of completing its first National Report within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in addition to presenting its Voluntary National Review at the UN High Level Political Forum in New York in July. The University of Pretoria has over the past six months been working with Stats SA to contribute to South Africa’s reports.

This symposium—organised by the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) and the Freedom from Violence programme—will specifically focus on engagement with SDG16, and is an opportunity for us to share something about the process and findings of the report. We further want to use this opportunity to invite others working on SDG16 related themes to share their work and engage in a dialogue together about reaching the goal of creating safe communities, just societies and effective governance in South Africa.

SDG 16 is particularly pertinent in South Africa at this time, as the State Capture commission continues to unfold, crime and safety continue to pose a challenge and inequalities continue to riddle our society. During this symposium, we’d like to engage with some of the following questions:

• what are the problems with the implementation of the White Paper on Safety and Security?
• what are the obstacles to access to justice in South Africa?
• how can we understand and/or measure corruption in South Africa’s formal governance structures?

If you are interested in presenting at this symposium, please send me your abstract and bio by 15 August 2019 at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Depending on the responses we receive, we will consider putting together a special issue of a journal or book volume on SDG 16 in South Africa.