GBV Responders' Network

Prevention

Since 2003, the IRC has been working to engage men in gender-based violence prevention, as a key primary intervention. While violence against women and girls takes various forms in different communities and countries, it stems from gender inequality and the patriarchal norms and beliefs that shape how individuals and groups are socialized.

The IRC is engaged in preventing GBV by addressing the roots of violence against women. Our primary prevention interventions encompass a wide range of actions working at different levels of society (individual, community, state) to change social norms, institutional practice and policy. In our work we strive to:

  • Empower women socially and economically
  • Mobilize communities through awareness-raising campaigns, education and social marketing strategies
  • Influence government policy and legislation to explicitly address primary prevention
  • Change organizational practices to be more gender aware and put in place specific and proactive policies of zero tolerance
  • Foster local coalitions and networks to promote violence free communities and advocate for change
  • Work with men and boys to address beliefs and behaviors that create and perpetuate gender inequality

The IRC is currently developing an overarching Primary Prevention Framework to help field programs work toward transformative social change that supports the leadership of women and girls to have the resources to live free from violence and to promote interventions which reinforce social justice and gender equality across multiple contexts and situations.

Content

  • EMAP Approach

    Since 2003, the IRC has been working to engage men in gender-based violence prevention, as a key primary intervention. While violence against women and girls takes various forms in different communities and countries, it stems from gender inequality and the patriarchal norms and beliefs that shape how individuals and groups are socialized. These cultural norms […]

  • EMAP Learning

    This research brief details an evaluation of a program designed to work with men to transform beliefs and attitudes. The evaluation shows that the program contributed to a reduction of intimate partner violence in Cote d’Ivoire. Read the full brief here.

  • EMAP Tools and Resources

    Engaging Men through Accountable Practice (EMAP) Resource Package EMAP Framework The EMAP approach recognizes that transformational work with men must be guided by dual principles of support and accountability. Men must be given time to process the impact gender socialization has on themselves, women and girls, and their communities. However, because unlearning deeply internalized beliefs […]

  • Safe at Home

    Safe at Home: An Inclusive Program Approach for Preventing and Responding to Co-Occurring Intimate Partner Violence and Child Maltreatment   Family violence is an endemic problem around the world, with 30% of women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime[1] and half of the world’s children experiencing child abuse.[2] The global epidemic of violence […]

  • SASA!

    SASA! is a groundbreaking community mobilization approach developed by Raising Voices for preventing violence against women and HIV. Raising Voices is a nonprofit organization based in Kampala, Uganda working toward the prevention of violence against women and children by influencing the power dynamics shaping relationships between women and men, girls and boys and catalyzing social change […]