Now well into the second week of CSW57, some overarching messages are becoming loud and clear.
The loudest and clearest of all is that violence against women and girls is preventable, but the approach needs to be right and appropriately adapted to the local circumstances.
What’s working:
- Community initiated change with strong support for local activists
- Focusing on the benefits of change: health, safety, good relationships, financial incentives
- Non-judgmental reflection on male behavior
- Talking about power concepts(instead of directly addressing violence) with men and boys
- Educating and empowering women and girls
What’s not:
- External NGO lead programs
- Over emphasis on gender roles, because respect is more important
- Attacking and faulting men
- Short term programs that try for rapid, quantifiable change to please donors
- Fiscal austerity, which;
- increases poverty -making women more vulnerable
- increases stress - leading to moreviolence
- reducessupport programs - leaving women (and men) no where to turn
By Erica Higbie, FAWCO Representative to the United Nations