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Media Advisory
For immediate release
Monday, 11 August 2025
Dr Silke Staab, a senior research specialist at UN Women, New York, will deliver the 20th Annual Helen Joseph Memorial Lecture 2025 at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), on Tuesday, 12 August 2025.
Dr Staab is the co-author of several of the United Nations’ world flagship reports. These include, most recently, Harnessing Social Protection for Gender Equality, Resilience and Transformation (2024), Feminist Climate Justice: A Framework for Action (2023) and Beyond COVID-19: A Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice (2022).
Titled Harnessing Social Protection for Gender Equality, the lecture honours the late Helen Joseph, a social worker, trade unionist and South African liberation struggle icon. Joseph was one of the leaders of the courageous Women’s March on the seat of the apartheid regime on, 09 August 1956.
Dr Staab will also touch on the 2nd World Summit for Social Development to be held in November this year.
The lecture is hosted by UJ Vice Chancellor, Prof Letlhokwa Mpedi and the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Prof Kammila Naidoo, in collaboration with the Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA). It is one of the premier events of UJ’s celebrations of Women’s Month.
“Rooted in the values that defined Helen Joseph’s life – courage, solidarity, and collective action – the lecture positions social protection not simply as a safety net, but as a lever for structural transformation,” said Dr Staab.
Her lecture will draw on the report, Harnessing Social Protection for Gender Equality, Resilience and Transformation. It will explore the transformative potential of social protection (welfare grants) to advance gender equality and social justice. This is especially important in a world marked by intersecting crises – pandemics, climate shocks, conflict, rising inequalities and erosion of democracy.
“Despite important progress since 2015, there continue to be persistent gaps in coverage and adequacy between high and low-income countries, formal and informal workers, women and men. Closing these gaps is critical for turning the right to social protection into a lived reality,” she said.
Leila Patel, distinguished professor of Social Development Studies at UJ: “Dr Staab and her team at UN Women are playing a critical role in engaging governments, academic institutions, civil society organisations, and gender equality advocates to shape the political declaration to be adopted at the Second UN World Summit for Social Development to be held in Doha, Qatar from 4-6 November, 2025. It is a great honour for us to host Dr Staab to deliver the 20th annual Helen Joseph Memorial Lecture this year.”
Event Details:
- Venue: Ubuntu Chambers, Madibeng, Auckland Park Kingsway Campus
- Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
- Time: 17h00 – 19h00
- Format: In person at the venue or online via this YouTube Link
- RSVP link: http://bit.ly/3IxT2kH
For interviews, access, or more information, please contact:
Jade Pieterse – jadep@uj.ac.za
Biography -Dr Silke Staab
Before joining UN Women, Dr Staab worked as a researcher for different UN agencies and NGOs, including the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Manchester and has published widely on gender equality, social protection and care policies, including in journals like Development and Change, Global Social Policy, Social Politics and Third World Quarterly.
Her 2017 book Gender and the Politics of Gradual Change (Palgrave) analyses progress and limitations of social protection reforms and innovations in Chile from a gender perspective.
Ends.
Issued by:
Mpiletso Motumi
Strategic Communication
University Relations
Tel: +27 11 559 6463
Cell: +27 82 052 7800
