Gender Salon #2: Community Solutions to Gender Based Violence

When: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 12:00 PM-1:30 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: Board Room

Note: The GMT offset above does not reflect daylight saving time adjustments.

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Dear All,

Please join us for Gender Salon #2: Community Solutions to Gender Based Violence this Wednesday, April 27th from noon to 1:30PM in the IREX Board Room. All IREXers are welcome to attend (and please feel free to bring your lunch)!

Vice President Biden recently visited the University of New Hampshire to talk to students about sexual violence on college campuses. His remarks sparked several questions amongst the IREX Gender Awareness Campaign (I-GAC) team, including: what are some grassroots solutions to this, and other, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) issues?

USAID defines GBV as an act that “results in physical, sexual and psychological harm to both men and women and includes any form of violence or abuse that targets men or women on the basis of their sex.” (USAID Gender-Based Violence Working Group, April 2009). In preparation for our upcoming Gender CofP Salon to be held Wednesday, April 27th we urge you to consider this definition when reflecting on the following examples of GBV solutions:

  1. PREVENTION Models: Biden profiled the Bringing in the Bystander Program and Know Your Power campaign, student-driven initiatives, which focus on creating a community of responsibility and awareness (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/04/ending-sexual-violence-one-student-one-campus-time
). Male and female “bystanders” are encouraged to speak up in cases where there is risk of sexual violence and are given tools and methods for intervening in appropriate, practical ways. What are other peer-based approaches you have seen used to thwart GBV?
  • INTERVENTION Models: In India, where 22 women were killed each day in dowry-related murders in 2007, the “Ring the Bell” project is a movement directed men who suspect GBV to approach the home and knock on the door with any excuse to talk to the abuser. Randal recently posted this video about the project on GenderDev: http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/ring-bell-and-stop-violence. Based on your knowledge and experiences, what other ways can IREX integrate community participation-based solutions into programs?
  • SUPPORT Models: In Congo, where rape is already used as a weapon of war, there is another growing problem: men raping men. Men are reluctant to come forward as the few who do become instant castaways in their villages, lonely, ridiculed figures, derisively referred to as “bush wives.” The American Bar Association that runs a sexual violence legal clinic in Goma supports male survivors, but few men come forward and many die from injuries sustained during the attack (see: I:\CofP\Gender CofP\Group 3 - Internal Awareness\Salon 2_NYT Article on Congo.doc). How, if at all, does male rape classify as GBV and will awareness campaigns help in this context?
  • Although this list is, by no means, exhaustive, and we fully recognize that every country, and community, requires a nuanced approach to gender based violence, the IREX Gender Awareness Campaign team believes this to be a fruitful starting point to look at the different levels, and stages, of GBV and to consider how IREX can become involved in finding solutions.

    Thank you all, so much, for your time and we look forward to seeing you next Wednesday!

    All the best,

    Michelle & the I-GAC Team

    Michelle L. Paison • Development Associate •  Development Division •  International Research & Exchanges Board
    2121 K St, NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037 | 202.628.8188 x174 | mpaison@irex.org