Fostering gender equality and alternatives to violence: perspectives on a gender-transformative community mobilisation programme in rural South Africa

Abstract

Gender-based violence and violence against children are significant problems in South Africa. Community mobilisation and gender-transformative programming are promising approaches to address and reduce violence. A quantitative evaluation of One Man Can, a gender-transformative community mobilisation programme in South Africa, found mixed results in increasing gender-equitable behaviours and reducing violence. To better understand these findings, we analyse longitudinal qualitative data from community mobilisers, community members and community action teams, exploring individual and community-level factors that facilitate and hinder change. Interviews and focus groups were transcribed and analysed. Participants self-reported changes in their gender-equitable attitudes and use of violence as a result of participation in the programme, although some participants also reported opposition to shifting to a more gender-equitable culture. Facilitators to change included the internalisation of gender-transformative messaging and supportive social networks, which was buoyed by a shared vocabulary in their community generated by One Man Can. Because the programme targeted a critical mass of community members with gender-transformative programming, mobilisers and community action teams were held accountable by community members to model non-violent behaviour. Results reinforce the importance of addressing facilitators and barriers to change at both individual and community levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Violence prevention
• South Africa
• community mobilisation
• gender-transformative programming
• Sonke gender justice

Acknowledgements

We thank research participants for their time and willingness to share information about their lives. We thank Mandie Selin for coordinating the research project, the study staff, the community liaison office staff and the data collection team whose hard work made this research possible. Finally, we thank Clare Barrington for her insight during analysis and the writing process.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 SASA! is a community mobilisation intervention, developed by Raising Voices in Uganda, that focuses on shifting norms to reduce intimate partner violence and HIV.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the US National Institute of Mental Health under Grant 1R01MH087118-01 (Pettifor) and Grant 1R21MH090887-01 (Lippman). The Agincourt HDSS is supported by the Wellcome Trust UK under Grants 058893/Z/99/A; 069683/Z/02/Z; 085477/Z/08/Z; 085477/B/08/Z; the South African Medical Research Council; the University of Witwatersrand. STK was supported in part by the Royster Society of Fellows at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. NK was supported in part by the UKaid from the Department of International Development (DfID) through the STRIVE Research Programme Consortium (Ref. Po 5244).