Individual and community level strategies for change must be complemented by initiatives directed at reforming the institutions that shape people’s lives and affect women’s and girls’ vulnerability to violence and their ability to access needed services.
Women’s movements throughout the world continue to exert pressure for policy change, but programming with men on Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention has rarely focused on advocating for policy development on such violence. Mobilizing men on issues of GBV and gender equality can make them actively involved in policy advocacy and campaigning.
We must identify and nurture internal champions to facilitate Institutional reforms. initiatives and mainstream gender training can provide the necessary leadership to initiate and sustain institutional reforms. We need to invest sufficient time and resources to train and then mentor the people who can further influence others to bring policies that can reduce the Violence against women and girls. Reforming the policies and ‘cultures’ of male-dominated institutions is an important priority for male engagement programming to end VAWG.
Arranging workshops on women’s rights, gender equality, and institutional responsibilities can be proved effective to bring institutional reforms. We can persuade them to stop Violence Against Women and Girls (WAWG) by sensitizing them about gender socialization, harmful norms of masculinity and best practices. It will motivate them to commit to change institutional culture and practices concerning VAWG.
Another promising and relatively neglected area of work with men on ending VAWG is to address the role that men can play to create a more conducive public environment for efforts to end VAWG. The principle of men holding other men accountable for their patriarchal behavior should be extended to holding male authority figures accountable for their public discourse.