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“A mechanism for alignment, implementation, accountability and collective action to ensure a Safer South Africa”
Violence and injury remain among the leading causes of death, disability, and social disruption globally. Their impacts extend far beyond health systems, affecting education, economic growth, social cohesion, mental wellbeing, tourism, investment, and overall quality of life.
The challenge is not a lack of knowledge. Across the world, governments, international organisations, civil society, researchers, and communities have generated a substantial body of evidence on what works to prevent violence and injury and promote safety. Many countries already have policies, strategies, action plans, legislative frameworks, and international commitments that address aspects of safety.
While South Africa has strong policy frameworks in areas such as gender-based violence and femicide, child protection, road safety, crime prevention, public health, disaster management and social development, many emerging and cross-cutting drivers of harm remain insufficiently integrated into existing strategies. These include digital harms and online violence, cyberbullying, misinformation, climate-related injury and displacement, heat-related health impacts, urban design and built environment risks, commercial determinants of health, workplace psychological safety, social isolation, youth mental wellbeing, migration and displacement-related vulnerabilities, online exploitation, gambling-related harms, and the safety implications of rapidly evolving technologies. Existing frameworks also tend to operate within sectoral silos, with limited mechanisms to coordinate action across government, communities, academia, civil society and the private sector.
Yet despite these efforts, implementation often remains fragmented. Programmes operate in isolation, accountability is dispersed, gaps persist between sectors, and communities most affected by violence and injury are not always meaningfully involved in decision-making.
The Cape Town Consensus Plan therefore does not seek to replace existing policies, but rather to identify these gaps, strengthen alignment across existing commitments, address emerging risks, and establish a whole-of-society implementation and accountability framework capable of responding to both current and future threats to safety.
A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity
The Cape Town Consensus Plan will be developed as a major legacy initiative of Safety 2026 – the 16th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion.
Hosted in Africa for the first time in nearly two decades and coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the World Health Assembly Resolution that recognised violence as a public health priority, Safety 2026 provides a unique opportunity to reimagine how countries, communities, and institutions work together to create safer societies.
Guided by the conference theme, Ubuntu: United for a Safer Future, the Plan recognises a simple but powerful truth: Safety is everyone’s responsibility.
Governments cannot achieve it alone. Neither can researchers, civil society, law enforcement agencies, health systems, businesses, or communities acting independently. Creating safer societies requires collective action.
The Cape Town Consensus Plan will provide: A Shared Framework for Action
A practical roadmap that aligns evidence, policy, and implementation across sectors involved in safety promotion, violence prevention, and injury prevention.
Identification of Priority Gaps
A systematic review of existing policies, strategies, programmes, and international commitments to determine:
A Whole-of-Society Approach
A framework that clarifies the roles and responsibilities of:
Priority Actions for Implementation
Practical, evidence-informed recommendations focused on implementation rather than policy development alone.
Accountability and Monitoring Mechanisms
Structures that support ongoing review, reporting, collaboration, and continuous improvement beyond the conference itself.
How the Plan Will Be Developed
The Cape Town Consensus Plan will be developed under the auspices of the National Action Group which will be inclusive including experts, policymakers, researchers, implementers, community representatives, young people, and people with lived experience. The National Action Group will convene a series of Technical Working Groups.
The process will include:
Reviewing Existing Evidence and Commitments
The first step is to understand what already exists.
This includes reviewing:
The objective is not to duplicate existing work but to build upon it.
Multi-Sector Working Groups
Specialist Technical Working Groups will bring together expertise from across sectors to analyse evidence, identify implementation barriers, and propose practical solutions.
These groups will focus on priority areas relevant to violence prevention, injury prevention, and safety promotion.
The Conference will serve as a global platform to refine, strengthen, and endorse the recommendations emerging from the consultation process.
The success of the Cape Town Consensus Plan will not be measured by the publication of a document. It will be measured by implementation. To support this objective, the Plan will establish mechanisms to promote accountability, learning, and sustained collaboration.
These may include:
The Cape Town Consensus Monitoring Framework – The accountability now dashboard
A set of measurable indicators that track progress against agreed priorities that is public facing and kept up to date.
Periodic Progress Reviews
The SA Violence and Injury Conference, a biannual event, to be launched at Safety 2026 with a view to providing a national forum for reporting on implementation progress, identifying emerging challenges, presenting emerging evidence and lessons learned.
Multi-Sector Collaboration Platforms
Mechanisms that bring together stakeholders from different sectors to maintain momentum and support coordinated action.
The Cape Town Consensus Plan represents an opportunity to move beyond fragmented efforts and create a more coordinated, evidence-informed, and accountable approach to safety. It recognises that safer societies are built through collaboration, shared responsibility, and sustained commitment.
Most importantly, it recognises that the solutions already exist in many places. The challenge is bringing them together, addressing what is missing, and ensuring that commitments translate into measurable action. Through the spirit of Ubuntu, the Cape Town Consensus Plan aims to create a roadmap for alignment, implementation, accountability and collective action to ensure a Safer South Africa
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Tel: +27 87 821 1109 / 012 110 4080
info@worldsafety.co.za