Parkes, J; Heslop, J; (2013) Stop Violence Against Girls at School : A cross-country analysis of change in Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique. ActionAid

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Abstract

The study aimed to assess change over the course of the Stop Violence Against Girls 5-year project, and to consider the implications for future interventions concerned with gender violence in schools and communities. The study combined qualitative and quantitative methods and involved participation of 2,739 girls, boys, families, teachers and local leaders. There have been many changes in how violence is experienced, prevented and responded to by girls, boys, their teachers, families and communities. However, change has been uneven, and violence against girls in 2013 remains commonplace. Girls? clubs have had positive effects in all three countries on girls? knowledge, confidence, attitudes and practices in managing violence and inequality. Some changes have been influenced by events outside the project, including droughts, floods, conflict and personal crises and family disruptions. There is persuasive evidence that the project has had a positive influence on family dynamics including division of labour and forms of punishment in the project communities. But norms about gender, including female submission, still persist, and the area where project work has been most difficult, and sometimes evoked hostility, has been engaging with discussions in communities about teenage sex and relationships. Over the five years of the project, there have been notable changes in gender equality in schooling access and participation, although practices in corporal punishment prove more resistant to change. The project work at national level demonstrates the importance of coalition-building in working to influence governments, and in each country this has helped to strengthen legislative and policy frameworks related to violence against girls, though progress has been uneven. At the community level, there have also been improvements in knowledge about child protection processes and in strengthening community-based structures that coordinate between informal and formal judicial systems. However there are still major weaknesses in formal protection systems.

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