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Addressing school-related gender based violence: A comprehensive and multi-sectoral approach to protection and safety in schools

Wed, April 17, 5:00 to 6:30pm, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Pacific Concourse (Level -1), Pacific O

Proposal

School-related Gender Based Violence has gained prominence in the fields of international education and child protection. While figures of sexual harassment are often under-reported, available data indicates it is a significant and pervasive issue, for example in a study conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 46% of school girls confirmed being victims of sexual harassment, abuse and violence from their teachers or other school personnel. In the G7 Charlevoix Declaration states “We will encourage work with teachers and communities to eliminate violence in schools and support gender equality and healthy relationship development”. Save the Children has conducted an internal and external review of education and child protection programming approaches and evidence on SRGBV prevention in order to understand in more detail what approaches are most promising, and to develop an evidence-based package of programming guidance and tools which can be adapted and implemented across a range of contexts. This paper will present some key findings from this review, with a focus on two areas identified as priorities to improve SRGBV policy and practice i) SRGBV prevention should be better integrated into wider initiatives to improve protection and safety in schools across education, health and protection sectors. Often we find that general school safety or school-based violence prevention initiatives fail to sufficiently address SRGBV, the role that gender norms play in violence, or the ways in which girls and boys face different risks. Conversely, approaches that focus on SRGBV more narrowly can often operate as a standalone intervention and fail to integrate effectively and sustainably into broader initiatives to improve protection and safety in schools. We argue for a comprehensive approach to school safety and protection which allows for both specific strategies and content to address gender norms and SRGBV risks, as well as wider school planning to reduce all types of violence and other safety hazards. ii) We argue that an effective curriculum seeking behavior change among adolescents should better integrate strategies focused on both gender norms as well as social and emotional learning. We find that often violence prevention curricula can fall into two extremes- on the one hand programs which focus on strategies which support young people and communities to reflect upon, challenge, and transform harmful gender norms and power dynamics which contribute to SRGBV, and on the other hand programs which focus on social and emotional skills such as emotional regulation, empathy or assertiveness which have been demonstrated to be important for violence prevention on the interpersonal level. We argue that few programs have integrated both of these strategies in one integrated curriculum, and this is a necessary development to effectively address SRGBV. We draw upon evidence, program examples and testimonies from West and Central Africa and Latin America, two of the regions with the highest rates of GBV.

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