Pathway 8 - Gender & GBV

This pathway aims to have an impact on all OVC. Although vast majority of those affected by gender inequality and GBV are girls, some boys are also affected, and it is important not to exclude this group.

• The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, who established Rwanda’s GBV policy. They are the main partner for scaleup and institutionalization of best practices related to this pathway. CARE Rwanda specifically cooperates with the Anti-GBV and Child Protection Committees.
• The Ministry of Health as well as the Ministry of Justice, who are important partners in order to ensure proper services to those affected by GBV are in place.
• The national police, being an important partner in ensuring prevention and proper follow-up of GBV cases.
• RWAMREC, being the only Rwandan NGO focusing on the engagement of men and having a very rich experience in working with men to prevent GBV.

CARE Rwanda’s work on this pathway is informed by the Government of Rwanda’s policy context. Of specific importance to this pathway are:

• The Law on Child Protection (2012) includes among others the principle of equality of girls and boys.
• The Law on Matrimonial Regimes, Liberalities and Successions (1999) specifies that girls nowadays have the same rights to inheritance as boys. Although practices are slowly changing, a lack of awareness and cultural practices prevent the law from being fully implemented.
• The Girls Education Policy (MINEDUC, 2008) looks at the elimination of gender disparities in education. Its three focus areas are access, quality & achievement and retention & completion.
• The National Policy Against Gender-Based Violence (MIGEPROF, 2011) shows how the GoR is engaged in prevention, response and evidence building of GBV.
• The National Gender Policy (MIGEPROF, 2011) highlights principal guidelines on which sectoral policies and programs will base to integrate gender issues

CARE Rwanda’s work on gender and GBV focuses at two levels. Firstly, we aim to challenge and change negative norms and behaviors towards girls that exist in a community, in order to increase girls’ social position and prevent any form of GBV. Secondly, we aim to assist those that are affected by GBV or at risk of being affected, by ensuring access to quality and user-friendly services and community support mechanisms. This is be done through the combination of well-tested models and innovative approaches, including the following:

• Engaging men, boys and parents. Men and boys are seen as a culturally influential group in the community, and therefore they can potentially play a large role in changing they girls and women are perceived, their social position and the behavior that people adopt towards them (including GBV).
• Community-based GBV prevention and response. CARE Rwanda and its partners advocate for the anti-GBV/child protection committees to be revitalized, and build their capacity on child rights and gender. Besides, this pathway builds upon the community-based anti-GBV actors put in place by the Vulnerable Women Program.
• Peer support groups. Peer support groups are groups of girls that meet and discuss certain topics. Under this pathway, the groups focus on issues such as gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, gender, etc.
• Advocacy. Advocacy under this pathway aims at the inclusion of promising models for changing girls’ education and leadership so that advocacy for scale-up through government can be achieved.

The following indicators are used to measure impact at the level of this pathway:

• % of parents reporting to have son preference.
• % of girls age 15-19 who have ever experienced physical or sexual violence that have ever sought help from any source.

• A Gender Gap Analysis was carried out to highlight to what extent the sensitive. The study found that there was a challenge in the fact that each household, comprised of both girls and boys, has only one mentor, who is either a woman or a man. When children need advice on issues related to sexual and reproductive health, it can be difficult for a girl to talk to a male mentor or for a boy to talk to a female mentor.

• NISU (Nkundabana Initiative Scale-Up)
• KGAS (Keeping Girls at School)
• GESRO (Gender Specific Responses for OVC)

CARE Rwanda is committed to learning, to continuously improve the relevance and quality of its work. In relation to education, it poses itself the following questions:

1. Men and boys are a culturally influential group in the community. CARE Rwanda’s engagement of men and boys approach is built on the assumption that their engagement will significantly transform social norms around gender. Is this assumption correct?
2. How can the results of the Gender Gap Analysis be used to make ongoing and new OVC projects more gender sensitive? For example, how can we influence traditional role patterns related to child care, and e.g. include fathers in the home-based ECD.
3. It is known that in cases of violence against women, it is often the partner who is the perpetrator. For girls, the group of potential or likely perpetrators is much more diverse. How can we efficiently target those men and boys to be included in engaging men approaches?