Addressing school related gender based violence:

learning from practice

Máiréad Dunne

Tuesday 18th December 2012Chester 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 EducationUniversity of Sussex

Commissioned by Concern

Why is School Related Gender Based Violence (SRGBV) important?

• Human Rights • Women’s Rights• Educational Rights • EFA & MDGs• Quality • Equalities

Difficulties and TensionsDefinitional• 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 practicesPractical• 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 projectsActionaid 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), 2007-12USAID • Safe Schools Program in Ghana and Malawi, 2003-8 • C-Change SRGBV Prevention Project, DRC, 2010-12Plan 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)OtherFreestanding interventions that focused on SRGBVStudies 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 levelNational 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 levelSchool 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 points1. 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 keymedia watch & publicitypublic knowledge and interesttechnologies of communicationprofessional buy-in

Learning from Practice: 6 points4. Staffing

training in theories and practiceschampions, commitment, continuity data collection, analysis & ethics

5. Voice and representation pupils/students, females & excluded

informal spaces, clubs6. Institutions and resources

safe spaces, toiletsreporting and safety mechanismscodes of conductcurriculum watch (intended and actual)