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Violence is preventable
UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women & UNV
regional joint programme for the prevention of violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific

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Building Peace and Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls in Papua New Guinea, One Conversation at a Time

Raising four boys alone, 47 year-old Lucy Kukue was especially vulnerable to the aggressive behaviors rampant in her small village in South Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. While walking alone at night or on weekends, Lucy faced a constant threat of harassment by intoxicated men from nearby villages. She felt housebound and depressed, adding stress to her already challenging life as a single mother.

Bougainville, an island east of Papua New Guinea’s mainland, has high rates of violence—remnants of a nearly decade-long civil war. While the war has formally ended and the island has become an autonomous region that is now partially self-governed, Bougainville’s violent past and unequal gender norms condoning violence against women continue to affect its citizens. The impact is profoundly debilitating to women.

The UN Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence, conducted by the United Nations Development Programme and Partners for Prevention, a joint United Nations programme working to prevent violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific, found that Bougainville had one of the highest violence rates among the study sites. Of the surveyed men in Bougainville, 80 percent reported perpetrating physical and/or sexual violence against an intimate partner. The research also found high rates of reported depression, suicide, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress among respondents.

“Bougainville is challenged by the lingering effects of the long conflict, as well as the lower position women and girls hold within its communities which leads to a tolerance of violence against them,” said Dr. Jeffrey Buchanan, the UN Women Country Representative in Papua New Guinea. “Violence against women and girls is shown to have a significant negative impact on the sustainable development of communities and nations, including public health and economic development.”

Early signs of hope

Anecdotally, acceptance and incidents of violence are beginning to change, though, thanks to an intervention jointly led by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation in South Bougainville. Ending violence against women and girls is one of UN Women’s main focuses. The intervention, called Planim Save, Kamap Strongpela (PSKS), or in English, Plant Knowledge, Grow Strong, receives technical support from Partners for Prevention.

PSKS and its partners aim to create peace in South Bougainville by bringing 2,800 people from its communities together to prevent violence against women and address longstanding, conflict-ridden dynamics.

Through facilitated community conversations, the programme works to transform accepted norms to be in favor of gender-equitable attitudes and behaviors, helping prevent violence against women. The conversations also promote trauma healing and peace building.

Already, just a year after PSKS’ launch in 2015, initial stories show promise.

Steve[1], for instance, is a young man whose father left him, his mother and siblings. Feeling abandoned, Steve turned to alcohol and used violence against his mother.

With the help of PSKS, Steve realized his behavior was unfair. He was harming his family, damaging their property, and devastating his mother, who did all she could to make ends meet and protect her family.

After participating in community conversations, Steve chose a path toward peace and took responsibility for his aggressive actions, deciding to help his mother instead of hurt her. He stopped drinking; he repaired his mother’s kitchen, which he had destroyed; and he took out a loan to open a small canteen.

Steve’s improved behavior and the additional income from his store are game-changers for the family. Steve’s mother spends more time at home with her children, as opposed to traveling to a far off market where she stayed for extended periods to sell goods and escape Steve’s violent outbursts.

Steve’s mother, who cries with relief thinking of her son’s transformation, believes the programme is changing Steve’s attitudes toward women. She hopes other women in her community will experience greater respect and compassion from men too, as a result of PSKS.

Primary prevention of violence against women and girls

Stopping existing violence, like Steve’s story, is vital to women and girls’ safety. But the focus of PSKS and Partners for Prevention is preventing violence so it doesn’t occur to begin with, known as ‘primary prevention.’

“Primary prevention addresses the underlying causes of violence and invests in opportunities to prevent the potential for violent behaviors,” explains Kathy Taylor, Manager of Partners for Prevention. “The approach works hand-in-hand with violence response efforts, which target existing violence, to ensure a robust strategy for establishing a safe future for women and girls.”

With support from PSKS, Lucy – the single mother of four – is working to move the community toward nonviolent conflict resolution practices so violence is no longer the first-line tactic. As a community counsellor trained by the PSKS team, Lucy shares anecdotes of change with hard-earned pride; she has a direct role in primary prevention of violence. Lucy resolves conflicts between partners, neighbors, friends and foes using nonviolent, gender-equitable techniques.

PSKS is building capacity among community leaders by establishing 20 community counselors like Lucy throughout villages in the South Bougainville region. The counselors provide conflict resolution services to avoid violent outcomes, and basic counseling services to women who experience violence.

“Recently a homebrew-related fight erupted among two young men, and their relatives wanted to retaliate against each other,” Lucy gives as an example. “As a mediator, I am trained to be a neutral person in an argument, hearing both sides of the story, so I can help both parties.”

Lucy sees less indulgence in homebrew – homemade alcohol – which has plagued South Bougainville communities and adds fuel to conflicts. She also reports less marital arguments, and an improved ability to appropriately navigate disagreements when they arise within marriages, families and her village.

“Even though the community conversations focus on issues around violence against women and girls, the trainings also address what happened during the civil war,” Lucy says.

The community conversations illuminate links between inequitable gender attitudes and behaviors and issues like civil war trauma, homebrew consumption, health, pervasive aggression between young people, rape, domestic violence and marital conflicts, like polygamy. These interlocking challenges must be addressed in tandem to prevent violence against women and girls in the future.

By helping participants understand these inherent connections, and by empowering community members like Lucy to pave the way as role models, PSKS intends to spark a trend of peace throughout South Bougainville so women and girls, alongside men, enjoy lives free of violence.

The efforts underway in Papua New Guinea are part of Partners for Prevention’s coordinated strategy for the primary prevention of violence against women and girls throughout five Asia-Pacific countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Viet Nam.

About Partners for Prevention

Partners for Prevention (P4P) is a United Nations (UN) joint programme working to prevent violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific at the regional level. Based on its groundbreaking research, the UN Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific, P4P promotes and supports violence prevention initiatives and policies. Combining the strengths of four UN agencies – UN Development Programme, UN Population Fund, UN Women and UN Volunteers – with governments, civil society, and support from the Australian government, P4P transforms social norms and practices to prevent violence before it occurs. P4P’s work supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls by 2030.

[1] Name changed to maintain privacy

In Viet Nam, Engaging Male Advocates to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                 

 

Hoang Van Duc work to prevent violence against women and girls in Viet Nam

26-year old Tran Van Chuong frequently awoke to the telltale sounds of his neighbor’s wife being beaten by her husband. Their arguments would start quietly but escalate quickly as his neighbor turned to physical brutality, leaving his wife sprained and scraped. This was not an uncommon problem in their urban community in Da Nang, a major central Viet Nam port city of one million people.

In Viet Nam, violence is accepted as a disciplinary tool for men to establish their authority over the women in their lives – as long as it occurs in the privacy of the home, according to qualitative research supported by United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA and Partners for Prevention Joint Programme.

In fact, more than half of women in Viet Nam report experiencing violence at some point in their lifetime, according to the Government and the United Nations’ National Study on Domestic Violence Against Women in Viet Nam

This violence is shown to have serious physical and mental health consequences, with abused women up to three times more likely to contemplate suicide.

Mr. Chuong was concerned about his neighbor’s violence but also conflicted. He wished he could help but feared it was inappropriate to interject himself into a private family matter. Mr. Chuong is a younger man living in a community where respecting the hierarchy of age is core to respecting societal norms. It is considered disrespectful for a younger man to speak out and stand up to an older man.

But Mr. Chuong found a way to help his neighbours. He is a voluntary member of the Male Advocacy Club – part of a one-year Male Advocacy Programme being implemented by the Da Nang Women’s Union in partnership with UN Women, UN Volunteers, and the Partners for Prevention Joint Programme. The programme supports one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for the year 2030—gender equality—a key component of which is the elimination of violence against women and girls. Six months into the programme, initial reports show promise of changing gender norms and prevention of violence.

Mr. Chuong raised his concerns with his fellow Male Advocacy Club members. “I learned that I have a responsibility to help build a peaceful community intolerant of violence against women and girls, and the process starts with educating those around me,” he says.

Mr. Chuong provided temporary refuge for his neighbor’s wife while she got support from local police and a community based counseling team. Meanwhile, men from the counseling team, some of whom are also older club members, approached Mr. Chuong’s abusive neighbor. They discussed attitudes regarding gender equality, healthy relationship skills, the perils of using violence against his wife, and legal repercussions. As a result, Mr. Chuong reports a somewhat improved relationship between his neighbors, who live together again.

 

 

Generations working together

Using the combined power of different generations to prevent violence against women and girls, the Male Advocacy Programme invites younger and older men who show an interest in violence prevention to join a nearby club. Together, 120 men aged 18-60 in Da Nang Province work to transform deep-rooted community values accepting gender inequitable attitudes and harmful masculinities – beliefs and behaviors that increase women and girls’ risk of violence.

Both younger and older men benefit from the clubs in unique ways, as do their communities. The younger participants are equipped with gender equitable attitudes and relationship skills, establishing new norms, and ultimately helping prevent violence against women and girls for future generations.

“I used to be hot-tempered,” Mr. Chuong confesses, “but now I’ve changed completely. The club taught me effective communication skills, how to exercise restraint, and how to convey my feelings without insulting or hurting those I’m speaking to.”

Simultaneously, the programme works to challenge harmful masculinities among older men so they can resolve conflicts in respectful ways yielding more harmonious family relationships and communities.

Community change starts with individuals

Hoang Van Duc is a 58-year-old social worker and a pillar of Da Nang’s violence prevention community. He leads a different Male Advocacy Club in a rural suburb of Da Nang. He too has learned to better respect his wife and two daughters through the club’s trainings.

“In order to be a pioneer in the prevention of violence against women and girls, I needed to start by changing my own behaviors,” Mr. Duc admits. “I used to get feisty with my wife and daughters when they acted against my will. The Male Advocacy Club taught me to curb my anger and listen more. And my wife trusts me more now that we share family and business related decisions and responsibilities, which I learned, takes the pressure off of me too.”

Mr. Duc’s introspective approach underscores the intervention’s framework: Creating a safe and equitable community starts at the individual level and gradually expands from there.

One way Mr. Duc supports his community is by providing conflict resolution advice. For instance, his younger neighbors suffered a volatile marriage – their arguments frequently carried into nearby homes. Through Mr. Duc’s counsel, their relationship has significantly improved.

“Without Mr. Duc’s advice, I wouldn’t have known that scolding my wife and leaving her out of key decisions hurt and disrespected her,” Mr. Duc’s neighbor says. “My wife’s sadness permeated through our lives, negatively impacting our family’s happiness, my children’s education and our neighbors.”

The programme’s goal is to eventually empower club members to serve as volunteers in their communities, engaging in and leading violence prevention activism.

Sustaining the promise of a future free of violence against women and girls

By empowering men to initiate their own efforts to prevent violence against women and girls within their communities, the Male Advocacy Programme’s impact looks likely to endure.

“The most difficult barrier to ending such violence is the reign of gender biases deep within the community – not only with male perpetrators, but also with female victims of violence,” Mr. Chuong explains. “Comprehensive change requires time and the full participation and support of many men – those who are young like me and elders too. I will continue my work after the programme ends because I want to contribute to a safe and equal community for all to enjoy.”

Mr. Duc is also committed to carrying on the Male Advocacy Club’s legacy, and he is optimistic that societal change is on its way. “While gender stereotypes are still entrenched in the community, I have hope the trend is reversing,” Mr. Duc says. “I will always continue spreading gender equitable attitudes and behaviors so one day we live in a community – and country – free of violence against women and girls.”

Prevention Intervention in Papua New Guinea - Bougainville

P4P is excited to announce that a new prevention intervention - Planim Save, Kamap Strongpela (Plant Knowledge, Grow Strong) to prevent violence against women - will commence in March in Papua New Guinea (PNG)-Bougainville.

Partners for Prevention is a UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women and UNV regional joint programme for the prevention of violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific. The joint programme brings together the combined strengths of the four UN agencies, along with governments and civil society, to promote and implement more effective violence prevention programmes and policies. Partners for Prevention Phase 1 (2008-2013) focused on research, capacity development and networking, and communication for social change. The programme is now in it's second Phase (2014 - 2017) which is focused on prevention interventions, capacity development and policy advocacy. Learn more about both Phases and our current work in what we do. 
 

NEWS

PRESS RELEASE: Groundbreaking UN initiative prevents violence against women and girls across Asia-Pacific
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EVENT: P4P Regional Closing Workshop - Changing Social Norms to Address Violence Against Women and Girls
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Indonesia’s Rivaldo scores for a violence-free future
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Fighting Violence Against Women & Girls Through Community Engagement in Indonesia
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Promoting Volunteerism to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls in Cambodia
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Family Members Empowered to Reject Violence Against Women and Girls in Cambodia
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Participating Agencies

 

Supported by:

The Australian Government Overseas Aid Programme
 

Resources

Indonesian Adolescent Manual for Facilitators (English)
Indonesian Caregiver Manual for Facilitators (Bahasa)
Cambodian Evaluation Report (Khmer)

Highlights

  • Ways Forward for Enhancing Prevention: Reflections from the Regional Level, Partners for Prevention Observer Paper, CSW57
  • East and Southeast Asia Regional Learning Curriculum on Transforming Masculinities toward Gender Justice
  • Preventing Violence against Women and Girls: From Community Activism to Government Policy in Australia

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