Bangkok, Thailand - During
the 16 Days of Activism, from 25 November to 10 December 2011, Partners
for Prevention will post a new blog each day on our website. Follow
Partners for Prevention’s blog to find out how we are supporting an end
to violence against women.
***
DAY 16 Supporting the ‘Good Men’ campaign in Cambodia
To promote the engagement and involvement of men in realizing gender
equality in Cambodia, H.E. Sy Define, Secretary of State of the Ministry
of Women's Affairs chaired the launch of the national ‘Good Men’
campaign. The launch took place coinciding with the 16-days campaign, an
international event that aims at ending all forms of violence against
women (VAW).
The Good Men campaign is a nation-wide communication initiative that
targets boys and men throughout Cambodia. Its slogan is ‘Good men give
value to women’. The ‘Good Men’ Campaign focuses on primary prevention
or stopping violence before it starts. Its ultimate goal is to end
violence against women and girls in Cambodia by promoting gender
equitable behaviours amongst men.“Gender equality in Cambodia is not possible without the engagement
of men,” said H.E. Sy Define. The Secretary of State recalled that “even
though there is evidence that awareness on gender equality and women’s
rights is increasing, Cambodian men and women often hold contradictory
notions of these issues”. Her Excellency stressed that it is a priority
for the Royal Government of Cambodia to tackle the root causes of
violence against women.
The ‘Good Men’ Campaign has launched a series of TV and radio spots
as well as posters to engage audiences by asking the question 'Do you
know why I am a Good Man?'.
Partners for Prevention is one of the supporting partners for this
campaign, along with more than 15 NGOs, both local and international,
which are supporting the MoWA on this campaign.
To view the first segments of the Good Men campaign TV spots, see:
For information see:
Good Men campaign launch press release:
Facts and figures about the Good Men campaign:
***
DAY 15 Engagingmen.net
Engagingmen.net is a website for people who care about gender justice
and are working to make a difference on issues such as gender equality
and gender-based violence prevention. Through this online portal,
practitioners and others can connect and share ideas and resources with
people in your region and from around the world who are working with
boys and men for gender justice.
This website currently has more than 1000 members from every region
of the world who are sharing resources and experiences, connecting about
job and funding opportunities, taking part in online discussions, and
much more.
Partners for Prevention is supporting this valuable tool that is
helping people connect, develop and expand their work to involve boys
and men in preventing gender-based violence. For more information, see
www.engagingmen.net
***
DAY 14 Reaching out to schools in Viet Nam to stop violence before it starts
Gender experts believe that education on violence prevention in Viet
Nam should begin in schools. However, the subject is not in the
curriculum and the topic is unfamiliar to most teachers.
"School-based violence prevention is very important, to teach young
people before they get in a relationship or start to learn to use
violence against each other," said Partners for Prevention Programme
co-ordinator James Lang.
A recent survey found that one in three or 34 percent of ever married
women had suffered physical or sexual violence from their husbands at
some time in their lives.
About 58 percent of Vietnamese women reported experiencing at least
one type of domestic violence in their lifetime – physical, sexual or
emotional.
"It is important that the Ministry of Education and Training and
local authorities are involved and understand the importance of
school-based violence prevention," Lang said.
To help bring primary prevention to schools in Viet Nam, Partners for
Prevention facilitated a south-south knowledge sharing along with ICRW
India to review promising strategies and tools for school-based
prevention. The overall objective of this workshop was to facilitate an
exchange of practitioners involved in school-based violence prevention
initiatives to review promising strategies and tools. The participants
learned from Vietnamese school-based projects and the ICRW’s
school-based model, and outlined promising approaches and materials that
may be used for future school-based work in Viet Nam.
***
DAY 13 Mapping Masculinities in Cambodia
What it means to be a man in Cambodia has long been linked to notions
of strength, bravery and leadership. But recent research on
gender-based violence and masculinities in Cambodia suggests that the
lived experiences of men are much more complicated and complex than
this.
P4P has launched a working paper, 'Mapping Masculinities: A Framework
Analysis of Factors Associated with Violence against Women in
Cambodia', to explore how men’s gendered identities and patterns of
behaviour across the individual, household, community and social levels
are linked to use of violence against intimate partners. The findings
demonstrate the various ways in which men internalize and act on
socially prescribed masculinities, but also how they challenge and
navigate those gender norms in their daily life.
***
DAY 12 The SANAM Capacity Development Initiative in South Asia
With the support from Partners for Prevention, SANAM (South Asian
Network to Address Masculinities, which is a consortium of 21 NGOs from
India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh working to prevent gender-based
violence) is currently implementing the second phase of the 'Capacity
Development Initiative in South Asia' project.
This project aims at facilitating, building and contextualizing
knowledge on masculinities and gender-based violence prevention issues
through information and experiences sharing by experts and practitioners
across the region. The first phase of the project was successfully
implemented, in which a regional curriculum around issues of
masculinities for boys and men, along with girls and women, was
developed and used to develop the capacity of 30 fellows from the 4
countries in the region. This phase has increased and enhanced the
knowledge and skills among the fellows, with the expectation that it
will instigate changes in their attitude and practice at the individual
level.
Through the development of the curriculum and the implementation of
the fellowship programme, SANAM has built a resource pool of men, women
and transgender people with the appropriate knowledge base and skills on
the social, historical and political dimensions of masculinities to
work independently or through groups to challenge masculinities in
different social settings.
The second phase of the fellowship programme has consolidated the
resource pool through a refresher course and the application of the
newly gained knowledge and skills in individual projects, which also
contribute to the generation of new knowledge for the curriculum.
This
will further help in building a body of knowledge which will be used to
shape and strengthen the curriculum on addressing issues around working
with boys and men, masculinities and gender based violence prevention.
This regional project has been trying to promote a reflective but
action-oriented mode of thinking that enables everyone, especially boys
and men, to challenge their own attitudes and behavior patterns that
contribute to the construction and sustaining of forms of masculinities
those foster gender-based violence and prevent gender equity from taking
roots.
***
DAY 11 Promoting volunteerism while learning from communities in Indonesia and Cambodia
Partners for Prevention views volunteering as an important means of
working at the community level. Thus, through the coordination of a
network of local and UN Volunteers, the programme is promoting
volunteerism while learning from selected pilot sites at the community
level around the region.
In Aceh, Indonesia, P4P, along with UN Women and the NGO Rifka
Annisa, is supporting the 'Working with Men and Boys to Prevent Violence
against Women in Indonesia' project. The project’s goal is to prevent
and eliminate gender-based violence and to strengthen the involvement of
men in the gender justice agenda. Through this project, speech
contests for high school students are held and a peaceful rally against
violence was organized with the Community Alliance Against Violence.
Speech contests for students have become a way to build and
strengthen partnerships with educational institutions and increase the
awareness of students on gender-based violence. Now more students
participate in activities on gender equality.
A peaceful rally reinforced the voluntary participation and
contribution of men in promoting gender equality. As a result, the
spirit of community involvement in gender equality and women's rights
issues was awakened.
Marwan Idris, a national UN Volunteer deployed at UN Women Aceh as a
UNV Project Associate, has been supporting this collaborative project.
Marwan incorporates and promotes the spirit of volunteerism into its
activities.
As a result of this project, the personal commitment and voluntary
spirit of gender activists is strengthened. The knowledge, skills and
understanding of young men are enhanced through information sharing and
training sessions, which empowers them to become more involved in
preventing and eliminating violence against women. A bi-monthly
discussion forum among all gender equality activists in Aceh has been
created.
In Aceh, people express the spirit of volunteerism through a
tradition called “meusaraya” or mutual aid. This voluntary tradition
based on reciprocity has become a social-cultural identity of the
Acehnese society. This form of mutual self-help creates collaborative
and mutually supportive communities. Communities organize themselves and
build on solidarity and empathy to form the foundation for solving
public affairs, supporting community progress, and sustaining societal
harmony.
Women’s rights activists have established women’s organizations and
put the elimination of gender-based violence on the agenda and men are
gradually joining the women’s rights movement. (Male) volunteers
continue to play an important role in promoting women’s rights and
assisting gender activists and organizations in implementing programmes
to end gender-based violence and achieve gender equality.
In Cambodia, the P4P and UNV report 'Making a difference: An
assessment of volunteer interventions addressing gender-based violence
in Cambodia' (
www.partners4prevention.org/files/resources/volunteer_interventions_camb...)
highlights the crucial role and the far-reaching positive effects that
community volunteers play in the prevention and response to
gender-based violence.
One reason why volunteering matters in Cambodia is because it
addresses the needs of survivors of violence. Living in the
communities, volunteers bring added value to gender-based violence
interventions as they have a better understanding of the particular
situations, and are also available for support. They help to prevent
violence by sharing information and raising the awareness of potential
perpetrators.
Volunteering satisfies the needs of organizations because, with the
help of volunteers, they can improve the coverage (including remote
areas), impact and sustainability of their community programmes.
Volunteers are trusted and stay engaged with the communities after their
assignments are completed. They also help to build human resource
capacity of the organizations they work for by providing technical
expertise and support.
Finally, volunteers themselves are pleased with the change that their
work produces and it motivates them to continue. They are also
gratified and encouraged by the recognition and respect they receive
from survivors, communities, non-governmental organizations, and even
perpetrators. Volunteers appreciate the knowledge and experience they
gain through their work, and feel a positive change in self-growth and
their place in their families and communities.
***
DAY 10 Involving men as key allies in ending violence against women in Pakistan
In Pakistan, Partners for Prevention is supporting activities to
involve men as key allies in ending violence against women. Together
with the NGO Rozan, the Humqadam programme aims at creating spaces for
men and boys to engage on gender issues, with a special emphasis on
involving men and boys in stopping violence against women. Humqadam has
three major objectives: expanding the research and knowledge base on men
and masculinities; networking and alliance building around work with
men and boys; and capacity building of practitioners and trainers on
masculinities and work with men and boys.
Recently, with support from P4P, Rozan has published 'Partners for
Change: A Mapping Study of Organizations working with men and boys on
Gender Equality in Pakistan'. The primary objective of the mapping study
was to provide an overview of the work being done with men and boys on
gender equality in Pakistan, with a view to understand current
knowledge, capacity and learning needs of national/local/public
organizations. More specifically the study aimed to: 1) Capture
different approaches and strategies for working with men and boys on
gender equality, especially volunteers’ roles and involvement; 2) Record
capacity, skills and tools developed for engaging men and boys for
gender equality; and 3) Identify the learning needs of organizations on
gender equality, and challenges faced while working with men and boys.
The mapping study collected information from sixty-six (66)
organizations working on the prevention of gender-based violence, gender
equality and services (counseling, clinical and knowledge/ information)
for women, men and youth.
Many organizations are working on these issues, but a comprehensive
network for coordination and cooperation nationally and regionally, as
well as sharing of expertise and experience by professionals and
stakeholders, is often lacking. Best practices and experiences should be
shared and learned from and change the behavior, attitudes, approaches
and the mindset of men and women.
The work with boys and men must go beyond the most obvious signs and
symbols of masculinities to discover knowledge as well as ideas on how
boys and men can become part of the movement for gender equality. All
the stakeholders should be involved to initiate research on men's gender
identities and roles and contextualize the challenges in society.
***
DAY 9 Using film to draw in boys and men into discussions on gender in South Asia
Partners for Prevention is supporting the Let's Talk Men film series,
which aims to prevent gender-based violence in South Asia through
raising awareness among young people regarding the consequences of
gender socialization and providing options for more equitable and
non-violence practices. With a focus on masculinities, the project aims
to engage more young men as partners with women in ending violence.
By the end of 2013, 5,000 Let’s Talk Men 2.0 (LTM) Packages, which
will consist of 7 films (3 new films and the original set of 4), a
discussion guide, training tools & resources, communication
materials and assessment tools, will be disseminated across the 5
countries in the region: Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka. In addition, practitioners, civil society organizations,
educational institutions and other groups will be equipped to use the
packages to ensure a wide outreach and effective engagement with young
people in the region.
The packages will also be use to show to policymakers within
governmental and UN systems the importance of working with boys and men
on gender issues and including this perspective while designing
programmes and policies.
The Let’s Talk Men 2.0 Packages and implementation strategy will
build on the foundation of the first series of films on masculinities
produced in 2000. The original Let’s Talk Men series was highly
successful as a means of drawing in boys and men into discussions on
gender, and the demand for the films remains high and positive feedback
has been received consistently over the last decade.
***
DAY 8 Fostering activism to end violence and promote justice in East and Southeast Asia
Social and gender injustice and gender-based violence are rooted in
the pattern of unequal relations between women and men, patriarchal
beliefs, systems and institutions. Gender inequality is still the
dominant social order in many parts of the world and the prevalence of
gender-based violence is still high in many communities in the East
& Southeast Asia region. Creating gender equality and eradicating
gender-based violence means transforming unequal gender power
relationship pattern, patriarchy, and hegemonic masculinity. To achieve
this, transformation at all levels, from personal to institutional, is
needed.
Partners for Prevention is supporting a regional collective learning
process led by the Regional Learning Community (RLC) for East &
Southeast Asia – a sub-regional consortium of practitioners and
activists established to develop a collective approach to knowledge
creation and skills building for transforming masculinities and gender
power relations to promote justice and peace, and prevent GBV in the
region. The RLC generates and shares collective knowledge and skills for
transformative activism for gender justice through community learning
events, networking, partnerships, mentorship, and regional curriculum
development.
The Community believes that it is unquestionably important that
social change movements and transformative activisms have to be grounded
on critical analysis and understanding of core issues that bring about
inequalities, oppressions and violence. A long-term movement and
transformative activism for gender justice and GBV prevention can be
assured and sustained when community members’ beliefs, attitudes,
behaviours and practices are politicized, challenged, provoked,
spiritualized and motivated. The work of RLC is to build critical
consciousness of community members with an aim to build a collective
effort to prevent GBV as a political struggle rather than a responsive
or technical approach. The regional curriculum and the community
learning process are based on individual reflection, activism as well as
institutional/structural transformation for gender justice and peace.
This regional learning process shifts the paradigm of how some work on
gender justice in the region is being carried out.
Through participating in this regional initiative, community members
collectively generate knowledge that can guide their practices and work.
Community members have formed country groups to start planning national
adaptations of the regional curriculum as a process to take this
regional initiative forward. Knowledge and new understanding and skills
generated at the workshop have inspired some community members to
incorporate new knowledge and skills in their current work on gender
justice promotion and GBV prevention. The regional learning process
provides a new way of building sustainable regional movements, networks,
and resource pools of skilled trainers and practitioners for the East
and Southeast Asia region.
***
DAY 7 Working with parliamentarians on prioritizing the prevention of violence against women
Parliamentarians have a fundamental role to play in supporting and
enabling social change to prevent violence against women. They are
strategically placed to promote, support and lead policy and legislative
activities to prevent violence against women in their constituencies,
their countries and across the region. Moreover, parliamentarians are
able to mobilize public opinion and action, champion causes and
galvanize networks and alliances. However, they face unique challenges
as well. Competing interests, voter-driven issue engagement and a lack
of comprehensive understanding of complex social issues such as
gender-based violence all hinder the policymaker’s potential as a
catalyst for social change.
Partners for Prevention, in partnership with the Asian Forum of
Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), has recently
conducted research on how parliamentarians can more effectively advocate
for the prioritization of prevention of violence against women. The
recommendations include:
(1) Understanding that VAW has multiple contributing factors, from
social norms to relationship patterns, to individual experiences,
attitudes and behaviours. There are thus multiple solutions.
(2) Recognizing that prevention is stopping violence before it
starts, and includes promoting peaceful and more equal social norms,
relationships and attitudes.
(3) Making prevention a priority by promoting the long-terms gains of violence prevention work.
(4) Recognizing that VAW can be prevented only in partnership between men and women, and among many parts of the government.
(5) Promoting reviews of current legislation on VAW and ensuring that prevention is a part of the national policies on VAW.
P4P and AFPPD will release the final report based on this research
project in early 2012. Watch the Partners for Prevention website for
more information.
***
DAY 6 The Change Project: Conducting research on understanding gender, masculinities and power to prevent GBV
Despite decades of work to end gender-based violence, there is no
indication that aggregate levels of violence have decreased in Asia and
the Pacific. What are the root causes of gender-based violence? How can
we stop violence before it starts?
The majority of research and interventions on gender-based violence
focus on women’s rights and empowerment, legal reform, protection and
service provision. While these interventions continue to be key
priorities, understanding prevailing social norms, men’s attitudes and
behaviours – and how they perpetuate violence – is vital because
genderbased
violence is rooted in power relations among women, men, girls and boys
and linked to dominant notions of “what it means to be a man”.
The Change Project is undertaking cutting-edge research to understand
the root causes of gender-based violence and their relation to
masculinities. Over 15,000 men and women are being surveyed in seven
countries across Asia and the Pacific - Bangladesh, Cambodia, China,
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam – providing a
comprehensive
and holistic picture of the social structures, underlying norms,
attitudes and behaviours related to the use of GBV in different
countries in Asia and the Pacific.
Coordinated by Partners for Prevention: Working to Prevent
Gender-based Violence (P4P), a UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women and UNV regional
programme for Asia and the Pacific, The Change Project is a
collaboration between the UN, civil society, government and researchers
from around the region and globally. For more information, see
http://www.partners4prevention.org/files/documents/leaflet_the_change_pr...
***
DAY 5 Supporting the UNiTE campaign in Asia and the Pacific
As a committed partner of the United Nations Secretary-General’s
UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, Partners for Prevention is
helping to contribute to the goals of the UNiTE campaign. Examples of
recent joint activities include the mobilization of volunteer networks
in Cambodia, organizing public events during the 16 Days of Activism in
Cambodia, and connecting P4P partners in the region to the Network of
Men Leaders.
To commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women, the UNiTE campaign has produced a video containing the
voices of young people from across the Asia-Pacific region that
showcases what young people are saying about their role in ending
violence against women and girls. The video can be viewed at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukQ2vRnzxNc
In addition, a UNiTE campaign op-ed - A day to be consigned to the
history books - is calling for accelerating progress to consigning all
forms of violence against women and girls to the history books once and
for all. Read more at
www.engagingmen.net/news/day-be-consigned-history-books
***
DAY 4 The ‘Zero violence, let’s achieve it together’ signature campaign in China
During the 16 Days of Activism, university students in Beijing are
taking part in the ‘Zero violence, let’s achieve it together’ campaign.
Campaign participants collected signatures on the campuses of three top
universities in the capital and also posted messages on
http://weibo.com/17man * Students are encouraged to both sign banners offline and the forward the weibo message to others on line.
The activity is part of the ’17 man’ social media campaign (‘17 man’
means ‘being real men together’). Throughout the year, the ’17 man’
campaign engages young people through discussions and quizzes on the
theme of gender equality on Weibo, Sina , Sohu and Renren (the Chinese
versions of Facebook and Twitter) as well as organizes on the ground
events .
The ‘Zero violence, let’s achieve it together’ campaign and the ’17
man’ campaign are part of the Partners for Prevention project, “Engaging
Young Men through Social Media for the Prevention of Violence against
Women,” which aims to connect and inspire young people to take action to
end gender-based violence.
* Weibo.com is a Chinese microblogging website (a hybrid of Twitter
and Facebook). It is one of the most popular sites in China, in use by
over 30% of Internet users in China.
***
DAY 3 The 'Men Say No' Blogathan in India
Across India, the 'Men Say No' Blogathan is taking place during the
16 Days of Activism. The online event will help to collect ideas and
experiences on the importance of men’s role and the urgency of the
issue.“We hope that this Blogathon will help expose men to ideas they may
never have seen before and find unique insights and perspectives on
Violence against Women. The sense of community, change and action will
be genuine for those of us who participate in this Blogathon,” says
Kuber Sharma from Commutiny Youth Collective (CYC), a Partners for
Prevention and UN Women partner that is leading the blogathan.
People who write a blogpost between 24 November and 10 December 2011
can link it up with ‘Men Say No’ Blogathon, and include the host blog
http://www.mustbol.in/team-blog. The Commutiny Youth Collective will also take special Must Bol films to 10 new locations to engage with 2500 young people.
During the 16 Days, CYC is also inviting young filmmakers to
participate in an online short film contest. Young people are invited to
share their videos on one of the following themes:
Both the “Men Say No” Blogathan and the online short film contest are
part of the Partners for Prevention project, “Engaging Young Men
through Social Media for the Prevention of Violence against Women,”
which aims to connect and inspire young people to take action to end
gender-based violence.
***
DAY 2 Uniting and inspiring active participation in communities across Cambodia to end violence against women
During the 16 Days, across Cambodia, Partners for Prevention has
joined together with more than 70 NGO and UN agency partners to plan and
take part in several activities to take action to end VAW in Cambodia
under the UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. By working
together we are reaching more people in more communities across
Cambodia, and our joint message and activities can help to inspire even
more Cambodians to join us in ending VAW. On November 25, partners
participated in events to form human white ribbon shapes in towns and
villages across Cambodia. Participants gathered in a public place to
make a giant ribbon shape. Participants to the event also received a
leaflet, which will give details of 16 simple actions that people can
take in their daily lives to help end VAW.
In addition, on 25 November 2011, a message was sent via text and
voice call by participants attending the main activity: “United we can
end violence against women and bring peace - From UNiTE. Please forward
this sms for the 16-day campaign and help end violence against women”.
Thanks to the companies Hello and Mfone we were able to reach about
705,000 Cambodians.
organisations joining the initiative are encouraging people to join
these pages. The pages are being used as an avenue to spread information
about the joint activity and also to spread the theme of the campaign
and the 16 actions people can take to end VAW.
***
DAY 1: Encouraging positive, gender-equitable and non-violent attitudes among youth in Vietnam
The ‘Love Journey’, a social media campaign in Vietnam aimed at
promoting discussions and action amongst youth on the attitudes and
behaviours of caring and respectful relationships, will begin accepting
idea submissions on December 4 from individuals at
www.htyt.vn.
The campaign, which links romantic love and friendship with gender
equality and non-violence, is endorsed by Pham Anh Khoa, the well-known
musician and outspoken advocate of gender equality.
“I believe respect, trust, understanding, love, equality and
non-violence are key principles of a healthy relationship. There is no
place for force and violence in love. True friends listen to and respect
each other’s opinions. We (both men and women) should work towards
making our relationship healthy,” said Pham Anh Khoa.
