A vibrant diverse board is at the helm of Asante Gender Action! Gender representation shows half the board is made up of women.

“This is very much in line with the strategic direction of Asante which focuses on prevention, research and women’s empowerment. A huge part of prevention involves men taking action to turn the tide on GBV. And we believe that working on youth masculinity will have the most impact,” said Gil Harper, founder and executive director.

This is, in fact, representative of the 50% representation of youth on the board. This is key in shaping programmes that are relevant to youth and that young people can champion. Change needs to be innovative and young people are definitely needed to shape and drive this.

“It is important that when running programmes for young people that we do not just pay lip service to youth engagement in strategy and implementation. We need active participation of youth in decision-making spaces in the organisation,” emphasised the Chair, Neliswa Mncube who herself is still classified as youth at 35 years old.

The board is 75% black which is very much in keeping with the demographics of South Africa and also includes in this number, two board members who hail from Zimbabwe. While situated firmly in South Africa, Asante aims to take a multi-country approach to its operations.