Panel discussion in gender gap in research: some initiatives and future directions

• Place artists in schools, promote and implement an oral history programme, and implement a national action plan against racism, xenophobia, sexism and related intolerances; • Promoting social cohesion across society; • Promote participation in sport and recreation; • Provide mass participation opportunities in sporting, music and cultural activities; • Advocate transformation in sport and recreation; • Develop new, upgraded and rehabilitated sport and recreation through the

Municipal infrastructure Grant; • Encourage communities to organize sporting events, leagues and championships; • Develop talented athletes by providing them with opportunities to excel; • Support high-performance athletes to achieve success in international sport; • Green public spaces; • Clean cities and towns; • Promoting active citizenry and leadership; • Improve participation in national and local government elections; • Improve participation in school governing bodies elections; • Improve participation in communitybased governance processes such as ward committee participation platforms/ meetings; • Promote citizen-based monitoring of government service delivery; • Promote social development structures like women’s forums, disability forums and youth forums; • Fostering a social compact; and • Craft a social compact for a more democratic, equal and prosperous society derived from a social cohesion summit. in building a movement for black women, it is important to promote the idea that indignity and insults can no longer be accepted – and to communicate this principle in line with the central position traditionally occupied by women in african communities. according to the precepts of indigenous knowledge, women and men are both pillars of society, with women spiritually at the hub of the wheel of existence.

in african society, women are further viewed as the custodians of education. rather than building a women’s movement around abstract ideas of transformation, the movement should be founded on african principles, which stress inclusivity and the actual agency of women. such an approach may entail women arriving first and taking the seats, so that the men are not at the head of the table. such a strategy would emphasize “womancentrism” – the central role that women play in african society – rather than feminism, in order to achieve practical impacts which effectively engage men on the ground. in this regard, it is important that ordinary women are encouraged and supported in choosing their own agency, their own space, in their lives instead of being lectured on their imagined shortcomings by modern feminists.