Information, Education, and Communication and Advocacy

From the Interactive Population Center website section Violence Against Women: Policy Reform Process, this document examines the role of information, education, and communication (IEC) and advocacy in opening up public debate on the issue of gender violence. Because, as the document states, the debate "will need to engage all the key opinion-makers such as religious and community leaders, teachers, school administrators, politicians, and entertainers...[in order] to eventually shift gender-based violence from a taboo issue and a private matter to one that is an issue for public policy...," it recommends the following:

Building a constituency - "Such a constituency can keep the pressure on with campaigns to educate the public, and seek changes in policy and institutional culture to redress the serious grievances of abused women and girls. The catalytic efforts of women’s NGOs [non-governmental organisations] to promote recognition of reproductive and sexual health and rights need to be scaled up and their concerns to become of interest to society as a whole. Building up these small and under-funded networks is an important part of advocacy strategy."

Involving young people - It calls for a focus on adolescents' need to develop communication and negotiation skills that will enable them to have intimate relations reflecting these values, particularly in their reproductive and sexual life, including through models of male-female relations based on equality, mutual respect, and harmony. Strategies include teaching girls about the nature of gender violence and boys that gender violence is not their "birthright". "They need to be helped to develop self-confidence, self-esteem, and awareness of their reproductive rights. Population/family life education and sex education programmes need to focus on these concerns. Peers and peer counsellors are an important means of reaching out to youth."

Involving men - "...[C]hanging the mindset of male partners is an important part of the equation for achieving harmony and mutual respect in gender relations."

Community-based workers and traditional birth attendants - "In many countries, the practice of customary laws still supersedes civil law, leaving a legal quandary there is little political will to challenge.... Sensitizing local, community-based workers and social workers to the health costs of gender violence can yield real dividends in eventually changing community values. Traditional birth attendants and traditional healers could well serve as agents of change by informing women about their reproductive and legal rights, and working with health workers to reach out to the community."

Creating a public will for change -  "Real and lasting change in social perceptions of gender-based violence can only come from within. Community-based organisations (CBOs) are already providing medical, legal and counselling services for victims of gender violence and advocating changes in existing laws and customs through education and lobbying."

At the government policy level, the document recommends building advocacy and critical mass through coordinating the efforts of all the players in the legal, health, and education systems in a national strategy, as follows:

• "Developing alliances with parliamentarians, women’s NGOs, religious leaders, teachers, and entertainers;
  
• Urging the media to promote positive images of gender roles and relations between men and women and to remove existing biases;
  
• Ensuring that school curricula and teaching materials do not include gender bias and stereotyping;
  
• Training teachers and educators to be sensitive to signs of gender violence in the school."