Addressing school related
gender based violence:
learning from practice
Máiréad Dunne
Tuesday 18th December 2012
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Castle
Irish Consortium on Gender Based Violence
Promising Practice in School Related
Gender Based Violence (SRGBV)
Prevention and Response
Programming – a desk review
Fiona Leach, Eric Slade and Máiréad Dunne
Centre for International Education
University of Sussex
Commissioned by Concern
Why is School Related Gender Based
Violence (SRGBV) important?
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Human Rights
Women’s Rights
Educational Rights
EFA & MDGs
Quality
Equalities
Difficulties and Tensions
Definitional
• What do we mean by gender?
• What do we mean by violence?
• Why the school?
Contextual
• International priorities and discourses
• National priorities and policies
• Local social and cultural understandings and practices
• Research and knowledge practices
Practical
• Consensus, capacity and strategic approach
• Sensitivities and silences
Gender Theories
Inclusive Education
&
Gender Equity
Policy
Practice
Biting the bullet –
where are we coming from?
• Theorising Gender
[a key social structure; a binary category; nominal and
relational; determinism, stereotypes & hetero-normativity]
• Being and becoming (somebody/ a citizen)
[Gender as relational and learned; identity (place and
space); gender and sexuality; performance & practice;
femininities & masculinities]
• Institutions
[Gender regimes - power, practices & cultures; social
regulation; intersectional identities (e.g. Age/ social class);
Normal >>>> Natural >>>> Neutral]
SRGBV – the basics
• Patterns of gender and age/authority relations in schools
– Position people differently (F/M, HT/ T/P, senior/junior)
– Power regimes normalise social relations interactions
often amplified in more explicit forms of gender violence
– Work against teacher intervention in the ‘natural’ order
• Institutional power and relations are reproduced through
coercion of ‘others’ and self regulation.
• Forms of violence include combinations of physical, verbal,
sexual, psychological & symbolic
• Violence is manifest in harassment / bullying / segregation /
exclusion /corporal punishment /sexual abuse / defilement /
restriction / silence /disempowerment….
Disciplinary Regimes
Teaching resources
Gender segregation 1
Gender segregation 2
SRGBV is centrally important!
Concern and SRGBV
• CONCERN
– Central Focus on poverty, inequality and
vulnerability
– access, quality /equality in Basic Education Policy
(2003)
– GBV prevention and response in Strategic Plan
(2004)
• Gender equality highlighted throughout and SRGBV
integrated within education programmes
• P4 (Programme participation protection policy) signed
by all employees, partners and associates
Key questions for Concern
• Where has there been successful intervention
in SRGBV?
• How was this accomplished?
• What examples of good practice are available?
• What M&E process was used? What indicators
and evidence is available?
• Is the integration of SRGBV with education the
best way to address it?
The review: selected agencies and projects
Actionaid International /Institute of Education London
• Stop Violence against Girls in School (SVAGS), Ghana, Kenya,
Mozambique, 2008-13
• Transforming Education for Girls in Nigeria and Tanzania (TEGINT), 2007-12
USAID
• Safe Schools Program in Ghana and Malawi, 2003-8
• C-Change SRGBV Prevention Project, DRC, 2010-12
Plan International
• Promoting Safe, Child-friendly Schools in Uganda, 2008-11; Prevention of
SRGBV in Uganda (with Raising Voices), 2012-14
• Learn without Fear in Malawi, 2008-10
(N.B. All based in areas where the organisation had previously worked)
Other
Freestanding interventions that focused on SRGBV
Studies on Violence but without gender analysis
The approaches – commonalities
• gender as socially constructed
• a rights based approach
• broad view of SRGBV (in line with UN definitions of
GBV)
• multi-level intervention to maximise impact and
sustainability
• mixed methodology (data collection and project
activities, qualitative and quantitative data)
• a participatory and inclusive approach (with partner
organisations and wide range of stakeholders).
The review: 5 intended outcomes
1. A legal and policy framework that addresses violence
against children in and around school, especially girls
(macro level)
2. Improved prevention and response mechanisms
(macro, meso and micro level)
3. Increased awareness of SRGBV and attitude and
behaviour change (macro, meso and micro level)
4. Provision of a safe learning environment, especially for
girls, i.e. reduction in school violence (micro level)
5. Increased enrolment and retention, especially of girls
(micro level).
Shared activities – national level
National level
• Advocacy to change policy and legislation
• Collaborating with government bodies and
teachers’ unions on a strengthened national
teachers’ code of conduct
• Creating coalitions and networks of agencies and
media networks
• Lobbying for appropriate mechanisms for
reporting and responding to cases
• Promoting media campaigns
Shared activities – community level
Community level
• Training and awareness raising for a wide range
of stakeholders
• Informing and mobilising communities about
child rights and violence against children, how to
make schools safe, effective violence reporting
mechanisms
• Children’s participation in district and national
schemes, e.g.
• Encouraging role models / champions
Shared activities – school level
School level
• Extra-curricular activities: school or youth clubs, debates, public
speaking and mock parliaments, peer networks and peer educators,
exchange visits
• Physical improvements: sex-specific latrines, clean classrooms and
school compounds, fencing etc
• Child-friendly learning environments: school codes of conduct, class
charters, suggestion boxes, alternative means of discipline
• Training in gender awareness, child protection, SRGBV, complaints
and referral procedures, positive discipline, gender-responsive
pedagogy etc
• Training manuals for specific groups of stakeholders
• Student representation: participation in student councils, SMC/ PTA
meetings
• Developing effective referral systems to deal with reported cases
• Curriculum development: preparation of life skills and gender
awareness materials
Learning from Practice: 6 points
1. Multi-level approaches for coherent change
micro & meso & macro
2. M&E is vital & at its best it should include
baseline / mid-term/ end-line
quantitative & qualitative data
3. Advocacy and communications are key
media watch & publicity
public knowledge and interest
technologies of communication
professional buy-in
Learning from Practice: 6 points
4. Staffing
training in theories and practices
champions, commitment, continuity
data collection, analysis & ethics
5. Voice and representation
pupils/students, females & excluded
informal spaces, clubs
6. Institutions and resources
safe spaces, toilets
reporting and safety mechanisms
codes of conduct
curriculum watch (intended and actual)