Perspectives: The ICRW Blog

Praise for G8 Ministers

ggaynair — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:10:24 +0000

G8 responds to sexual violence associated with war

ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou applaudes G8 foreign ministers for pledging to develop a comprehensive approach to preventing and responding to sexual violence associated with armed conflict.

Sarah Degnan Kambou is the president of ICRW

Earlier this month, G8 foreign ministers convened in London to debate a number of international issues that impact global security, peace and prosperity. Chief among their concerns was sexual violence in war, an issue championed by the United Kingdom, which currently holds the one-year presidency of the G8. The resulting declaration is an unprecedented commitment by the G8 to prioritize a universal approach to preventing and responding to sexual violence associated with war.

Specifically, the declaration commits G8 countries to developing a comprehensive international protocol to investigate and document rape and sexual violence in armed conflict, an effort that will move forward under the UK’s leadership. The UK also will deploy more than 70 experts around the world to record abuses occurring during and after conflict. For its part, the United States committed $10 million to support the initiative and pledged to focus on the needs of war survivors in South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Haiti. The funding also will be applied to promoting transitional justice measures and reporting on human rights abuses in Syria. Meanwhile, other G8 ministers promised to review their own national military doctrine and police and military training curricula to ensure personnel are prepared to effectively respond to sexual violence.

As the leader of a global research institute that has spent nearly four decades documenting the complex causes and consequences of gender-based violence, I’m gratified to see such international momentum and attention to this important issue. We know from World Bank data that women ages 15 to 44 are more at risk of being raped or experiencing domestic violence than from traffic accidents, cancer, malaria and war. We also know that the factors contributing to violence are numerous and complex, and are rooted in deeply entrenched social norms that undervalue women and girls. Attitudes and behaviors toward women simmer throughout society at peacetime, are ignited by war, and continue to rage on after hostilities end.

However, with the right approach and commitment, social norms and attitudes can change. First, we need long-term investments in a broad range of prevention efforts to effectively tackle sexual and gender-based violence before, during and after conflict. We also need to develop smart, integrated responses once war breaks out. Since numerous social and economic factors contribute to sexual violence, our efforts to prevent and respond to violence have to be equally comprehensive. It requires us to integrate our work across sectors, from prosecuting perpetrators and delivering justice for survivors, to immediately providing essential health, psychosocial, economic support and other services to survivors. And it is critical that we combat the stigma survivors of sexual violence continue to face, while also educating communities about the root causes of gender-based violence.

As G8 leaders undertake this ambitious and important effort, I urge them to be holistic in their approach to addressing sexual and gender-based violence as well as in tackling other social, economic and political factors that characterize women’s experience of both war and peace. Without such an all-inclusive strategy, we will find ourselves fighting the same battles a decade from now.

Read related blogs from ICRW experts:
The War at Home series:
Uncharted Territory
Enduring Evidence
Suffering in Silence

Ending Violence Against Women: Start Young Before it’s Too Late
Does the New Delhi Rape Mark a Turning Point?

Watch:
Women, War & Peace – This five-part television series challenges the conventional women and war and peace are men’s domain.

Beyond the Classroom

jabrahamson — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:26:45 +0000

Girls' education is critical to ending child marriage -- but it is not enough

ICRW's Jeff Edmeades is just back from Ethiopia where he met with some of the country's many child brides. As the World Bank Education Summit comes to a close today, he explains why girls' access to quality education alone is not enough to end the harmful practice of child marriage in low-income and marginalized societies.

Once again, I have just returned to my home base in Washington, DC after spending several weeks in Ethiopia’s deeply poor, yet breathtaking, Amhara region. And once again – as is always the case – I was inspired by the sheer enthusiasm and thirst for opportunity among an often forgotten group: child brides.

Amhara has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with around three quarters of women aged 20 to 24 marrying before their 18^thbirthday. Over the past three years, I’ve been involved in an innovative project run by the aid agency CARE that is aiming to give these girls and young women who were married too young – some in their very early teenage years – a second lease on life. Their experiences of marriage are often quite similar, typically involving arranged unions either preceded or accompanied by school dropout.

The lessons learned from these often heartbreaking stories couldn’t be more relevant this week as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets with G8 Finance Ministers at the World Bank in Washington in his capacity as UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

In my conversations with these young wives, most have told me that they are hungry to return to school. For child brides in Ethiopia and worldwide, school often represents much more than just a chance to learn. It opens the opportunity both to dream big and to achieve small milestones, like simply having friends their own age with whom to talk and laugh.

The past two decades have seen a remarkable improvement in youth access to education throughout the world. More children and young adults are enrolled in school than perhaps at any point in human history. Yet despite these improvements, adolescent girls - especially those who are poor, living in a rural area, or belonging to a minority ethnic group – continue to miss out on the opportunity to go to school.

The most recent data suggest that 39 million girls between 11 and 15 years old are out of school worldwide, with some estimates suggesting that the total for all adolescents (ages 11-19) is as high as 60 million. These girls more likely to suffer from poorer health, experience greater poverty and be exposed to higher levels of domestic violence. Meanwhile, the social stability, economic growth, and basic well-being of uneducated girls’ families, communities and societies are more likely to deteriorate.

The evidence suggests that early marriage is certainly linked to school drop outs. However, it also shows that the main driver is much broader and much more difficult to address: entrenched, pervasive social norms that govern expectations about what girls can and will do with their lives – fueling both early marriage and school dropout. This isn’t to say that encouraging an emphasis on greater education for girls will not influence very early marriage, but rather, any attempt to address either educational outcomes or child marriage must begin by directly challenging social norms around gender.

This is what the International Center for Research on Women is doing in partnership with CARE and other local organizations in Ethiopia, and it is working. We’ve found that providing married adolescent girls with the skills – through trainings and education – to effectively challenge social norms from within their own communities has proven to be a powerful tool of transformation for girls and their communities. This is particularly the case when paired with effective community engagement and support.

Yes, there are many reasons why girls do not stay in school long enough to learn the critical skills they need in a world that increasingly demands formal educational qualifications. But the main reason is simply because they are girls.

We can begin changing this on a much larger scale by working with whole communities and involving parents, religious or traditional leaders, and other influential community members, as these individuals have the greatest direct influence on girls’ aspirations and behavior. Programs aimed at improving the lives of adolescent girls should be integrated, focusing on building girls’ health, their access to social support and economic opportunities, and above all should address expectations about the roles of girls and women in society. Economic interventions must develop realistic options for girls that boost their chances at staying in school and delaying marriage.

Finally, let’s not forget to work with girls who are already married, like those I visited in Ethiopia’s Amhara region; they have largely fallen off the radar of many policymakers and lie almost completely outside of any government support systems. Meanwhile, if current trends hold, an estimated 142 million adolescent girls will marry over the next decade. Let’s work to provide these girls with a chance to return to school and develop the skills and support networks that they deserve – and have the right to experience.

A version of this article also appeared on the Thomson Reuters TrustLaw web site.

Ending Violence Against Women: Start Young Before It's Too Late

jabrahamson — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:18:26 +0000

ICRW's Ravi Verma explains why engaging young men and boys is essential

ICRW's Ravi Verma was one of 30 civil society representatives invited to speak last week before the 57th Commission on the Status of Women. He explains why it's so critical to to engage young men and boys to eradicate gender-based violence in India and beyond.

ICRW was one of 30 civil society organizations selected to address the 57^th Commission on the Status of Women at UN headquarters in New York last week. ICRW’s Asia Regional Director Ravi Verma travelled from his home base in New Delhi to make the following presentation on the importance of working with young men and boys to eradicate violence against women and girls:

I want us to think about why we are here today. Why are you here? I am here today because of the horrific gang rape and consequent death of a twenty-three year-old girl in my city, Delhi, in my country, India. I am also here today because I am a man who cares. I am a man who is standing strong for gender equality, calling for the end of violence.

Days before the attack on that Delhi bus, my colleagues and I at the International Center for Research on Women concluded a study that found that 95% of women do not feel safe in public spaces of Delhi. 75% said they had faced sexual aggression or violence in their own neighborhoods. Nine out of 10 reported ever experiencing violent acts in public spaces during their lifetime, with these experiences ranging from obscene comments to being groped, stalked or sexually assaulted. Six out of 10 women reported sexual aggression or violence in the six months preceding the survey.

Data from around the world document that an epidemic of violence against women and girls exists. Findings from ICRW’s survey in Delhi also depict a complex story about what it means to be a man in a strongly patriarchal society. Half of the men surveyed in Delhi reported having sexually harassed or perpetrating violence against women. 78% had witnessed such aggression or violence in public spaces, but only 15% had intervened. As you may imagine, the reasons for not intervening are diverse and include fear of retaliation.

If we are to eradicate violence against women and girls, then we must recognize that from an early age boys are socialized to adopt prevailing attitudes about gender and are taught how to be men. In other words, men and boys face enormous social pressure to conform to ideals of manhood and to express that ideal in relation to each other and towards women and girls. We could go so far as to say that men and boys often experience violence when not adhering to society’s norms and expectations around masculinity.

Speaking as a man, I can tell you that the task of becoming a ‘real man’ is daunting. Failure is not acceptable and retribution is often harsh. Evidence from a six-country study on attitudes toward gender equality conducted by ICRW and Instituto Promundo show that in most cases men are perpetuating violent behaviors they learned as children, perhaps by witnessing violence against their own mother. Men and boys are not born violent, but are made to be what they are – aggressive, intolerant, controlling. And they demonstrate these aggressive behaviors across many settings: households, schools, sports fields and even city streets.

While the situation of violence against women and girls is dire, promising solutions are being developed as we speak. At ICRW we have been working in a large number of public schools in Mumbai testing a gender equality curriculum for middle school students, boys and girls aged 10 to 12.

At the end of our three study, our evidence shows that carefully directed discussions with students about gender, gender roles and expressions of masculinity over the course of time help transform attitudes on gender equality. This is particularly true when students are engaged in concrete activities, like a student-led campaign to end violence. These active, engaging strategies are more effective in reducing tolerance for violence than programs that merely mention violence prevention as an important practice.

Here are the critical lessons: Allow time for attitude change; behavior change will follow. Start young, before a lifetime of attitudes are fully assimilated and harmful behaviors become a lifetime of practice. Engage boys and girls, men and women, to create comprehensive and sustainable solutions to end violence against women and girl.

Gang rape is not unique to my city, nor to my country. This is a silent epidemic that has taken too many lives. As a people, we must critically reflect on violence and manhood and cast gender equality and positive expressions of masculinity as a public good. As a people, we must radically transform the harmful social norms that underpin this violent epidemic so we may, as a people, create a more equitable, peaceful and just world. I am here today because I stand with you in that quest.

CSW Feature: Engaging Young Men in the Battle Against Gender-based Violence

jabrahamson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:10:03 +0000

Innovative program in the Balkans challenging harmful behaviors, gender norms

Could an innovative program in the Balkans be an antidote to gender-based violence and other harmful behaviors for the next generation of adults?

The Budi Musko -- Serbo-Croatian for 'Be a Man' -- campaign aims to convince young men that healthy living and non-violence benefit themselves and society as a whole.

Natko Geres and Vojislav Arsic have a lot in common. Both 28, the two young men share a taste for popular urban culture. Some of their earliest memories are also the same. They were both six-years-old when war erupted in the former Yugoslavia. On opposing sides of the frontline in those dark days – Natko in Croatia and Vojislav in Serbia – the two have come together in the post-conflict era to fight a new battle.

According to both men, a pervasive culture of ‘machismo’, few job opportunities and the residual effects of the war have all made youth in the Balkans vulnerable to violent, unhealthy behaviors. Natko and Vojislav are determined to turn the tide by putting the next generation of men on a course towards a better future, for themselves, and for society as a whole.

“Structures in society support ‘machismo.’ To be a ‘real’ Croat, to be a ‘real’ man, is to be ‘macho.’ There’s no difference if a man beats on his wife in Croatia or Germany. The difference is that, even if he’s running for office, he could still get votes in Croatia,” Natko explained during a recent visit he made to Washington, DC. “Our politicians say we need to solve bigger issues in society first, but working on these dangerous behaviors now will actually help fix society.”

Natko and Vojislav are both directors of local nongovernmental organizations taking part in an innovative program called the Young Men Initiative (YMI) run by CARE North-West Balkans and funded by the Norwegian government. Operational in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia, the program—adapted from Promundo’s Program H curriculum—reaches young men ages 15 - 19 through school-based activities and media campaigns that address social norms around gender and promote healthy lifestyles and prevent violence. YMI includes workshops about gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, emotional well-being, substance abuse, and violence and conflict resolution.

Understanding the social norms and expectations that contribute to violent behavior among men can help shape interventions that aim to change attitudes and reduce violence – an area of research that ICRW has focused on in recent years. ICRW’s Brian Heilman today addressed the importance of engaging men and boys in the effort to end gender-based violence during a United States-sponsored panel discussion at the UN’s 57^th Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

ICRW conducted formative research with young men in the Balkans to understand prevailing attitudes about what it means to be a man. Findings were applied to inform the design of YMI’s pilot intervention, which ICRW evaluated in 2010. Currently ICRW is evaluating YMI Phase Two, which evolved based on the findings from the pilot intervention. Results from the impact evaluation are being used to influence global dialogue around youth policy and programming.

For the time being, Natko and Vojislav have witnessed real change in some of the young men who have taken part in the program. YMI initiatives like the Budi Musko – ‘Be a Man’ – campaign which aims to redefine what it means to be masculine, and youth camps that bring together adolescents from Balkan countries previously at war, are making a difference.

Vojislav was especially struck by the transformation of a young Serbian man who at first resisted the program, expressing extremely aggressive and violent views towards others who were not like him.

“We try to provide a creative environment, and showed him that he can start using his own brain, not just accept what society tells him. At first he didn’t want to go to the youth camp in Croatia and said his friends would bully him if he did. But he went and made a best friend from Zagreb [in Croatia] and another one from Bosnia,” Vojislav said.

“This really inspired me. I’ve worked on other projects, on HIV/AIDS and other issues before but this is the first time I really can see people changing through the course of it. We are really seeing results.”

Eliminating Violence against Women – Everywhere

ggaynair — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:22:19 +0000

Now that VAWA has passed, it’s time to revive the International Violence Against Women Act

The Violence Against Women Act passes just one week ahead of International Women’s Day. Now Congress must take the next bold step towards gender equity by tackling violence against women worldwide.

Lyric Thompson is a policy advocate at ICRW.

I’ve just come from the United Nations, where meetings for the annual review of the status of women are ongoing. The priority theme this year—or the organizing theme around which the relevant UN body, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), is concentrating its review—is ending violence against women. As I hear the headlines coming out of Mali and Syria, coming close on the heels of December’s attacks in Steubenville and New Delhi, I’m struck that this topic couldn’t be more timely.

The statistics are staggering: One in three women will be abused in her lifetime. This was the rallying cry under which hundreds of events were organized around the world last month under the banner of “One Billion Rising.” Ninety-five percent of women in the city of New Delhi feel unsafe, and 75 percent have experienced violence in their homes or neighborhoods, finds a new study by my colleagues at the International Center for Research on Women, released just days before the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman that sparked protests and public outrage from the streets of Delhi to the halls of the U.S. Congress. Over the next decade, 142 million girls will be married before the age of 18, predicts a report released by the UN marking the first-ever International Day of the Girl last fall. Everywhere we look the numbers are testifying to a global epidemic of violence against women.

It strikes me that we are at a critical tipping point for the credibility of international efforts on this issue. First, there was the news that the United States Congress finally passed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which extends services and protections to survivors of domestic, sexual, dating and other forms of gender-based violence in the United States. Though the politicized fight over a fundamental piece of legislation like VAWA inspired no small amount of despair, the recently-passed version brings a number of new wins to the quest to end gender-based violence. At home in the U.S., it has new protections for Native American and Alaska Native women, immigrant women and LGBT individuals. Internationally, it opens new protections for women and girls who are victims of human rights abuses like human trafficking and child marriage.

In the U.S., these are encouraging new developments that come on the heels of recent wins like the launch of a National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally and a National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. Both policies provide important commitments to violence prevention and response, among other critical provisions for women’s social, economic and political advancement. If implemented and resourced, these policies could substantively alter the trajectory of U.S. foreign policy, making violence and other abridgements of women’s rights policy priorities for American defense, development and diplomacy. A bold next step would be for the U.S. Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act, an international companion to VAWA, which has been brought before the last 3 Congresses but has yet to be signed into law, or to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a 1973 UN treaty to which nearly all Member States have signed, save a handful of holdouts like Iran, Somalia… and America.

At the UN, there is renewed pressure to produce agreed conclusions that advance the benchmark for women’s rights following last year’s debacle, when an embarrassing total of zero agreed conclusions were reached due to extremist opposition to long agreed-upon language around sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights. This continues to be a debilitating sticking point for policy-makers in Washington and New York, although it should be noted that last year’s Bali Declaration, an official UN document, has put forward some of the most progressive recommendations we’ve seen to date, including protections from violence and discrimination for marginalized populations, including young people, HIV-infected and LGBT individuals, as well as the elimination of harmful traditional practices like female genital cutting and forced marriage.

If we are to eradicate violence against women and girls, we need all the tools at our disposal: strong and comprehensive policies that do not shy away from difficult issues like sexual and reproductive health or ignore the needs of marginalized populations like LGBT youth, and robust investment in programs and services that make a real difference in the lives of individuals who are either surviving violence or working to prevent it. We need them on the global level, where bodies like the UN can develop global standards and facilitate international cooperation to achieve them, and we need them at the national level, where those standards are given weight through codification and enforcement.

I’m hopeful that by next International Women’s Day, we’ll be much closer to that goal.

A version of this blog also appears on TrustLaw Women.

Does the New Delhi Rape Mark a Turning Point?

jabrahamson — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:15:29 +0000

Diverse groups galvanize to ensure a safer environment for India’s women and girls

As the One Billion Rising global call to action against gender-based violence kicked off, ICRW’s Nandita Bhatla reflected on the rape of a New Delhi woman that sparked global outrage, explaining how to ensure a safer tomorrow for India’s women and girls.

Nandita Bhatla is an ICRW senior technical specialist in gender and development

When I first read about the gang rape of the 23-year-old New Delhi woman last December, I felt some anger, some sadness. But my mind did not dwell much on it.

Over the years, I had read countless similar stories about women and girls violated and left for dead – the incidents and their lives a postscript buried in a newspaper or at the close of a TV news broadcast. Seldom are these accounts followed up with a report of how justice was served with a perpetrator's arrest and conviction.

Meanwhile, this violence, humiliation and degradation continue daily for women and girls in public spaces in New Delhi. At the market, on trains, in shopping centers, on the sidewalk. It is common practice for men, young and old, to make lewd gestures at women or sexually abusive comments or to intentionally brush up against them or grope them in public. It does not matter your economic class or educational level. And typically, no one who sees it intervenes. The ordinariness of this is shocking, and frightening.

In a household survey ICRW conducted in New Delhi between October and November last year – before the gang rape that caused global outrage – only 5 percent of the women and girls surveyed reporting feeling safe from sexual violence in public spaces in Delhi. Nine out of 10 told us they had experienced sexual violence – from obscene comments to stalking to rape – in a public space in their lifetime. Twenty percent said they don't venture out alone at all.

Meanwhile, half of the men we surveyed said they had sexually harassed or been violent with a woman in a public setting at least once in their lifetime. Despite this admittance, men continue to blame women, with three out of four agreeing with the statement, "Women provoke men by the way they dress." Two out of five men partially or fully agreed that women "moving around at night deserve to be sexually harassed."

We carried out our study in partnership with UN Women , the Indian government and the New Delhi-based organization, Jagori . It's all part of an overall effort to make Delhi a safer city for women and girls.

The reality they face in public is the norm in Indian society, one anchored in deep-seated social and cultural expectations around what it means to be a man and what a woman's role in society should be. Many Indian men feel entitled to control women, and this is consistently reinforced in our culture – by parents at home, teachers from grade school to college, and by government and law enforcement officials. Men set the rules, and if women step outside of these – such as going out after dusk – they should be ready to face the consequences. That's how the thinking goes.

Many women have internalized this thinking, too, and will feel ashamed about the sexual harassment they may face on a bus. Or that they deserve it, because they dared to tip-toe outside of the "boundaries" drawn for them by men.

On the same day I read the story about the brutal gang rape of the young woman – who we all know later died – I was part of a meeting of advocates who gathered to urge the Indian government to put more money into implementing the country's first anti-domestic violence law, passed in 2005. Participants at the meeting were eager to finish up quickly. "Let's go to India Gate," they said, referring to the location where protests were underway. Students and university graduates were mobilized, and were already beginning to assemble.

I felt a surge of hope within me – maybe this time it won't only be women who protest. Maybe this time everyone will raise a voice to say no to violence. It will finally be everyone's concern, everyone's anger.

It was, and it is. What occurred at India Gate that day and the sustained outrage since then are unlike anything I have witnessed before.

Those speaking out now are not solely women and activists from women's organizations – the usual suspects. There are men. There are college students. There are every day residents of Delhi. At ICRW, we have always said that violence against women is not a women's issue; it is everyone's issue. Think about it: if half your population doesn't feel safe to participate in society or is too battered to go to work, how can you truly build a strong economy ?

In Delhi, where I've lived my entire life, people finally appear to be realizing this. The young woman's horrific fate, I believe, has triggered a turning point for us, and as a society, it's time for India to step up: The police must intervene when they witness or are alerted to violent acts against women and move quickly to arrest perpetrators. They must take seriously women's reports of violence, instead of shaming them, as is common practice. The justice system must act swiftly.

Even as calls for action and protests continue to ensure that recent legislative recommendations for stricter sexual violence laws are not diluted, or misinterpreted in a hastily drafted ordinance, it is time for serious introspection for each one of us. As a society, we have to begin shifting our antiquated notions about men's and women's roles. We need to begin with our youth , in schools and at home to debunk stereotypes that drive gender inequality and violence. We must continue speaking out and groom the next generation to value non-violence, respect and equality in our everyday lives.

Let's not lose this moment, India. Let's create a society where no woman feels afraid to leave her home – or stay in it.

Stronger Policies for Youth

smarfil — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:47:55 +0000

Better policies are needed to respond to young people's complex needs

In this blog, ICRW's Suzanne Petroni discusses why stronger policies are needed to respond to the complex and varied issues faced by today's youth, who comprise 43 percent of the world's population. Petroni will attend a Jan. 23 event co-hosted by ICRW to highlight recent milestones related to adolescent and youth health and development.

Suzanne Petroni is ICRW's senior director of gender, population and development.

Recent events like the Arab Spring, the horrific shooting of Pakistani education advocate Malala Yousafzai and the tragic gang rape and murder of a young woman in India have thrust issues related to young people onto the global stage. As we recognize the tremendous needs of and challenges faced by the world’s growing population of youth, their positive engagement and participation are also being increasingly noticed in the global development arena.

Young people under the age of 25 comprise 43 percent of the world’s population – some 3 billion people - and we are in need of stronger policies and heightened attention to their complex needs. Indeed, the issues affecting the world’s youth are varied and complicated:

Some one in three girls will be forced into marriage before the age of 18, violating their human rights and putting them at great risk for early pregnancy, sexual violence, and a host of other life-changing challenges.

Complications during pregnancy or childbearing continue to be the leading cause of death for girls ages 15 to 19 in developing countries.

While educational enrollment has increased over the past decade, unaffordable costs, a lack of classrooms, systemic gender discrimination and child labor keep children and youth from school. As a result, youth face high rates of illiteracy and a dearth of skills needed for meaningful employment.

In partnership with the United Nations Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), ICRW during a Jan. 23 event will highlight recent milestones related to adolescent and youth health and development. These include:

The new USAID Youth in Development Policy, wherein the U.S. government commits for the first time to a holistic and comprehensive approach to youth development and transitions from adolescence to adulthood. The policy importantly aims to mainstream youth in development policies and programs and to elevate the level of youth participation in USAID’s programming around the world.
The 2012 Lancet Adolescent Health Series, which seeks to “put the young person, not the specific issue, centre stage” and aims to move adolescent health into the mainstream of global health agendas.
The ICPD Global Youth Forum, a multi-stakeholder international forum sponsored by the UN Population Fund and hosted by the government of Indonesia. The forum, which took place in Bali last December, resulted in an historic and cutting-edge set of recommendations for youth health, rights and development.

ICRW is committed to using these events and other venues to increase awareness about the importance of youth health and rights in global development. And, we will continue working to ensure that appropriate attention is given to gender and how global development issues affect, and are affected by, the lives of women and girls, men and boys.

Celebrating the UN Ban on Female Genital Mutilation

ggaynair — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Efforts to end FGM should consider the power of community-based interventions

A new UN resolution to ban female genital mutilation presents an opportunity for governments, organizations and others to create effective approaches to curb the practice. One successful program in Ethiopia provides a strong example of how to do just that.

Stella Mukasa leads ICRW's research and programs on gender-based violence.

Upon receiving the recent news of the United Nations General Assembly resolution to ban female genital mutilation (FGM), my thoughts went to the fearless women and men around the world who have championed campaigns to eliminate the practice - also referred to as “cutting” - within their communities. The work they have done and continue to do testifies to the significance of the resolution in urgingcountries to condemn all harmful practices that affect women and girls, in particular FGM, and to take all necessary measures, including enforcing legislation, raising awareness and allocating sufficient resources, to protect women and girls from this type of violence.

The UN resolution has only strengthened our resolve here at ICRW to sustain our research and policy engagement around preventing all forms of violence against women. We continue to identify and design promising approaches to address gender-based violence. However, we also recognize and support endeavors that have proven effective, which can be replicated in other countries and communities.

In terms of combating FGM, one approach I choose to recognize is Ethiopia’s Kembatta Mentti Gezzima, (KMG) which means “women pooling labor together.” Founded in 1997, the nongovernmental organization aims to create a society where women and girls are free from all forms of discrimination and violence.

KMG works primarily with indigenous women and girls of the Kembatta-Tembaro zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Regional State. Located about 230 miles south of the capital Addis Ababa, the region is one of the most densely populated and impoverished of the country. As a cultural practice in the Kembatta-Tembaro zone, girls between the ages of 11 and 16 often underwent female genital mutilation, leaving them exposed to life long reproductive health problems and diminished their chances to remain in school.

When KMG’s founder in 1999 made a presentation about FGM and its dangers in the Kembatta-Tembaro zone, she was met with a rather unexpected response. During the first discussion session with the founder, the community indicated that their priority need was a bridge. Ultimately, a bridge was built jointly with labor and materials from the community and the founder’s meagre savings of US $5,000. That bridge metaphorically built a bond of trust between KMG and the community.

KMG’s theory of change is underpinned by the facilitation of communities to analyze and develop their own solutions to the challenges they face. This “Community Capacity Enhancement through Community Conversation” methodology is predicated on the notion that when community members come together and discuss the issues most relevant to them, they will generate appropriate and sustainable solutions of their own.

Here's how it works in the Kembatta-Tembaro zone: KMG facilitators initiate a conversation with a select group who represent different factions of the community, from traditional and religious leaders to youth. The facilitator engages the group in an analysis of community problems, a process that draws out issues such as HIV and AIDS, low literacy levels and poverty. A deeper analysis then draws out the link between these issues and how harmful cultural practices such as FGM people’s affect health, education and livelihoods. The initial participants of the group then invite their peers to the next community conversation and the group continues to grow with new participants inviting others. These conversations take place every 15 days, which helps to build consensus among community members so they may make informed decisions on issues of shared concern.

A 2008 study conducted in collaboration with UNICEF demonstrated that through KMG’s interventions there had been a significant decline since 1999 in FGM the Kembatta-Tembaro zone. The study also established that community conversations empowered girls to openly resist the practice. As further evidence of gradual eradication, most circumcisers had taken on new sources of income, and the aged are not being replaced with younger circumcisers. Weddings of uncircumcised girls are publicly celebrated in the communities where KMG works - ending stigmatization of uncircumcised girls.

Under the same study, there was evidence of a decline in FGM as a result of community-based efforts in Egypt, Kenya, Senegal and Sudan.

Today, as governments and civil society organizations respond to the call of the UN General Assembly practices, they should consider the power of community-based interventions to address not just FGM but also other harmful traditional practices including child marriage and partner violence.

The War at Home: Suffering in Silence

ggaynair — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:55:07 +0000

Rape survivors scared into silence by fear of stigma

Sexual violence affects approximately 20 percent of women in Tanzania, but most don’t speak up because they are likely to face stigma and discrimination and may be blamed for the violence.

Sophie Namy is a gender and development specialist at ICRW.

Asha* is a young, unmarried Tanzanian woman. She is also a rape survivor. But she had told no one about that violent encounter, a truth she carries with her every day.

She's not alone. Sexual violence affects approximately 20 percent of women in Tanzania, however most don't speak up about their experience. That's true for Asha, too. She is scared into silence, crippled by the belief that the stigma and shame she would endure if she reported the rape would come at too great a cost to herself and her family. It's an all too common reality here for survivors of sexual violence.

I learned about the experiences of Tanzanian women like Asha in a recent study my colleague Jennifer McCleary-Sills and I conducted to better understand the various pathways survivors of gender-based violence follow to seek help - as well as the barriers they face along the way. We collaborated on the study with researchers from the University of Dar es Salaam, as part of EngenderHealth's CHAMPION Project.

To fully understand Asha's legitimate fear of stigma, it is important to note that she is unmarried. For nearly all of the women we spoke with, forced sex within marriage is not considered to be rape, but rather something to be "tolerated" as a "marital issue." Forced sex committed outside of marriage is another matter—community men and women agree in defining such an act as rape, and an unacceptable form of sexual violence.

While such acknowledgment is important, it is not sufficient to ensure that survivors like Asha will come forward and ask for the help they desperately need. This is primarily because reporting rape is associated with shame and discrimination. In this context, a woman like Asha will often decide to remain silent, knowing that if she speaks out, she will likely not be believed, or may even be blamed for the violence. The stigma and blame will come from her family and her community. It will even come from the healthcare providers and police officers who are supposed to provide care and help bring her perpetrator to justice.

Asha's experience is not unique; our research underscores that unless sexual violence is perpetrated against a child, as part of a gang rape, or results in serious physical injuries, a survivor is extremely limited in the support she receives and unlikely to report the crime. "Rape cases of women of our age are only considered when you have been raped by three or more people," one young woman explained to us during a focus group discussion. "If it is only one person they will say we had an agreement, and they won't do a thing."

Only once survivors are no longer blamed for "inviting" rape will women speak out, report acts of sexual violence and seek the help they need to begin to heal, along with their families and their communities.

Our team has put forward a set of recommendations to help create an environment that encourages women like Asha to seek help, as well as to ensure that survivors are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. We propose several approaches to address sexual violence-related stigma and other barriers to support in Tanzania. One of our recommendations, for instance, is to develop specific training for health care providers on sexual violence treatment that challenges the blame often placed on survivors and promotes more supportive attitudes toward them.

With this and other guidance, local stakeholders can develop concrete plans to address the culture of silence and develop a climate where Asha and millions of other Tanzanian women are able to speak out against violence.

*Asha is a composite fictional character who represents many of the women we heard about during our research.

New research:The upcoming paper, "Help-seeking Pathways and Barriers for Survivors of Gender-based Violence in Tanzania: Results from a Study in Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, and Iringa Regions," summarizes the author's findings and will be available in the coming weeks.

The series:This is the final piece in "The War at Home," a series of blogs about violence against women that will be featured throughout the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, which runs Nov. 25 through Dec. 10. Read the previous blogs in the series, Enduring Evidence and Uncharted Territory.

The War at Home: Enduring Evidence

ggaynair — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 22:45:57 +0000

Research evidence is key to effective responses to and prevention of violence against women

After ICRW’s Stella Mukasa witnessed how violence affected one woman’s life, she used the evidence to compel decision-makers to address the issue of violence against women. That was 20 years ago. Today, Mukasa says there’s still a need for more evidence to move the anti-violence field forward.

Stella Mukasa directs ICRW research on violence against women.

When my colleague asked me if I had any questions for the woman before me in a hospital bed, her skin taut and raw from the burns, I could barely speak. The sight of her and the injuries she had sustained at the hands of her husband - the harshness of it all - silenced me.

“No,” I said in a near whisper.

It was 1992, and I was a young lawyer on the legal team at the Ministry of Women in my home country of Uganda. The woman - Margaret was her name - had been languishing in hospital for months after her husband beat her and threw her into a kerosene lamp, searing some 80 percent of her body. Margaret had written the ministry and sent a photo of herself. She needed financial help and also wanted her husband to be held accountable.

Meeting Margaret was the first time I had witnessed what violence against women truly looks like, and it was life-altering. The experience motivated me to take Margaret’s story to the highest political levels in my quest for justice for her and other women who face violence at home and elsewhere. It also solidified the trajectory of my professional life, which I have dedicated to fighting for women’s rights.

Most importantly however, Margaret’s story provided powerful evidence of a social ill that was just beginning to be addressed at the time in Uganda and globally. Two decades later, we’ve made great progress worldwide on the issue. But we are just now realizing the potential of evidence - specifically, research evidence - to guide how best to develop strategies that effectively respond to and prevent gender-based violence, as well as policies that condemn and discourage gender based violence, create consequences for the perpetrators and protect the rights of survivors.

Indeed, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) recently-released strategy on gender-based violence calls for improvements in the collection, analysis and use of data and research to enhance prevention and response efforts. We at ICRW commend this effort. We’ve long recognized the importance of research and for more than 35 years have been building evidence to demonstrate how social norms fuel violence against women and how to address its underlying causes.

Still, globally, there remains a dearth of the kind of comprehensive evidence to move the anti-violence field forward - evidence that can help scale up promising approaches to prevention and response as well as that which can compel decision-makers to enact laws to combat gender-based violence. In this still nascent field, the current landscape is comprised of many strong, but ad-hoc and duplicative programs. Particularly in the global south, the opportunities for us to reflect upon and assess the effectiveness of how we’ve responded to violence against women are limited. This is due in part to the lack of capacity to undertake research that can inform or generate the evidence for advocacy.

At ICRW, we’ve initiated a promising model to address the lagging research capacity in many parts of the world. One of our latest projects paired violence prevention organizations and research institutions to help the former carry out qualitative research that they shared with policy makers. We found such collaboration to be beneficial in that it de-mystified the concept of research, emphasized its significance to the higher goal of their work, and provided organizations with the skills to draw out key information to share with other organizations at the national level. These are important steps that can fill the gaps in our knowledge, raise awareness and foster change.

I witnessed the power of evidence 20 years ago, when I took Margaret’s story to the global level, during the Africa regional preparatory meeting for the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights. I had filmed her speaking about her experience with violence and shared it with delegates. Her story - along with testimonials of other survivors of violence - helped illustrate that yes, violence against women happens, and it transcends race, class, age and economics.

Although I had spent months trying to track down her husband, I never found him. He was in the army, and each time I located his whereabouts, I was informed that he had been transferred from his post. I soon realized that the system was protecting him.

However, Margaret’s and other survivors’ testimonies during the UN conference in 1993 sparked a significant turning point in efforts to recognize women’s right to live a life free of violence: Their testimonies ultimately informed the appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This declaration later brought about the establishment of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which we are marking this week through Dec. 10.

Although I am not in contact with Margaret today, she always assured me that she was willing to tell her story - to provide the evidence - if it could save even one woman from violence. I’m confident it did.

New ICRW report: “Strengthening Research and Action on Gender-based Violence in Africa” details ICRW’s effort to improve the research capacity of several East African organizations working on issues related to violence against women. Mukasa will discuss the paper and other issues related to the role of research in combating violence during a 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. event on Dec. 5 at George Washington University. Learn more.

The series: This is the second piece in "The War at Home," a blog series about domestic violence that will be featured throughout the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, which runs Nov. 25 through Dec. 10. Read the first blog in the series, Uncharted Territory.

The War at Home: Uncharted Territory

ggaynair — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:18:50 +0000

Tanzanian women face a labyrinth of barriers when seeking help after experiencing violence

An ICRW researcher sets out to understand why more than half of all Tanzanian women who experience domestic violence don’t seek help. Ultimately, she discovers that women face a web of social and structural obstacles when they seek help after experiencing violence.

Jennifer McCleary-Sills is an ICRW social and behavioral scientist

“It’s normal, being beaten, yelled at…Some of us are used to it just like the way we are used to eating Ugali.” - female focus group participant, referring to a staple of the Tanzanian diet

Jua* is a 25-year-old Tanzanian woman with a violent husband. He beats her when he’s angry. He blames her for making him angry and “forcing” him to beat her. Tragically, Jua’s situation is not uncommon. More than a third of Tanzanian women report experiencing physical violence at some point in their lives, while nearly half of all women in predominantly rural areas like Iringa and Mbeya are affected.

What sets Jua apart from more than half of all Tanzanian women who experience violence is that she actually seeks help. Yet of those who do seek help, most turn only to their family members or close friends rather than local authorities or the police.

What is it that prevents women in Jua’s situation from reporting domestic violence? A fellow ICRW researcher, Sophie Namy, and I recently set out to answer that question in collaboration with representatives from EngenderHealth’s CHAMPION Project and researchers from the University of Dar es Salaam. Through participatory focus groups with community women and men, we heard over and over again that the physical violence Jua experiences every day is largely seen as a given part of marriage.

Women come to expect – and even accept – this violence because their elders, family members, and peers overwhelmingly tell them to. It becomes so normal, that for many it’s just like eating Ugali, a corn-based staple in Tanzanian meals, as one woman told us. Acceptance of violence is so steeped in traditional values that even forced sex within marriage or intimate relationships is not viewed as an offense that can or should be reported. Women are taught that a “real wife” will keep silent about the abuse to avoid the shame of revealing secrets that are “family matters.”

With the pressure to keep silent, women like Jua who decide to share, report or seek help are brave. But this courage isn’t always rewarded by the people and systems around them. Jua first goes to her parents for help, but she is quickly sent back to her in-laws to settle the issue because they’re “her family now.” The in-laws in turn arrange a series of family meetings, where the beatings are acknowledged but the focus is on reconciling Jua with her husband. When the violence continues, Jua tires of this routine and goes to the police. From the police, she’s sent back to the family for another attempt at reconciliation. Or, “if she is hurt,” Jua may go to the hospital. And the cycle continues.

The circuitous pathways that Jua - and many other women - has to navigate to seek help through formal channels like health care providers and the police are not designed to respond to the needs of women who experience violence. Even informal sources of support, such as family and social networks, tend to focus on keeping Jua’s marriage intact rather than getting her the help and protection she needs to live a life free of violence.

When communities keep silent about this violation of women’s right to live without violence, it creates an environment where more women will suffer in silence, frustrated by the failure of social and government structures to support them. The importance of removing the barriers that prevent women in Tanzania from seeking help and receiving appropriate care can’t be overstated. It’s critical to their well-being and that of their families and society.

Our research team has put forward a number of recommendations about how to eliminate both social and structural roadblocks so women like Jua can seek justice and attain the care they deserve. To do this, efforts must include community awareness campaigns stressing that no kind of violence against women is acceptable, even within relationships; and that survivors should not be blamed or stigmatized, but rather, supported. Meanwhile corruption within the service provision system must be addressed and services for violence survivors need to be available close to women’s homes.

To achieve any or all of our recommendations will require the concerted effort of individual men and women, communities and decision-makers - at every level of society.

*Jua is a composite fictional character who represents many of the women we heard about during our research.

New research: The upcoming report, “Help-seeking Pathways and Barriers for Survivors of Gender-based Violence in Tanzania: Results from a Study in Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, and Iringa Regions,” summarizes the author’s finding and will be available in the coming weeks.

The series: This is the first piece in "The War at Home," a series of blogs about domestic violence that will be featured throughout the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, which runs Nov. 25 through Dec. 10. Read the next blog in the series, Enduring Evidence.

Luck and Education

ggaynair — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:55:03 +0000

Winnie Byanyima reflects on how education can make a difference in girls' lives

Former ICRW board member Winnie Byanyima writes about how her mother, a school teacher in Uganda, used what little she had to create opportunities for her children. Today, Byanyima directs the gender team in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Winnie Byanyima directs the gender team in UNDP's Bureau for Development Policy

When I tell my son about my childhood in Uganda – my three mile walk to school every day, doing my homework by the light of a kerosene lamp, heading into the woods to gather sticks for my mother to light a fire to cook for us – it’s not because I want him to know about hardship. It’s because I want him to know how lucky I was.

I was lucky because my mother, a primary school teacher, knew the value of education. I was lucky because she and my father had the resources to send me and my five siblings to school. I was lucky because my family had a water tank to collect rain, which meant that only during the dry season did we have to take time from our schoolwork to get water from the river. I was lucky because we had a dining room table where we could sit comfortably and do our homework. This was a real luxury; one of my girlfriends whose family wasn’t as fortunate, liked to sleep over at our house the night before tests so that she could sit at an actual table and study.

Even when young, I knew I was lucky. There were many children in our village, often girls, whose families couldn’t afford to send them to school. Many had to fetch water from the river every day. Some were married before they were fully grown.

Much has changed in the four decades since I finished primary school, both in my country and in other developing countries. More and more children are attending school. But it’s unacceptable that there are still 64 million children of primary school age out of school worldwide, and another 71 million children of lower secondary school age out of school. A majority are girls, and almost 80 percent of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Today, the first International Day of the Girl Child, I would like to draw attention to how many opportunities were granted to me because my mother was educated and valued education. I know the difference that an empowered woman can make to a child.

My mother used what little she had to create possibilities for her children. She made sure we went to school and had a place to do homework. She structured our environment around the importance of education and made choices at the household level accordingly. She grew bananas in our garden and traded them for firewood to ease the burden on us of having to gather firewood.

As we approach the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the world is not close to achieving universal primary education (goal 2) and gender equality (goal 3). We must continue to work toward them and focus on initiatives that recognize the mutual dependency of the two goals.

At the current rate of progress, the world will not achieve MDGs two and three. Yet we must continue to work toward these goals and keep them in mind as we form a post-2015 development agenda. We will make the fastest progress and get the best value for our investments with an integrated approach that tackles universal primary education and gender equality at the same time.

For example, we can continue efforts to abolish the school fees that prevent many children from attending school, while also focusing on delivering the modern energy services that will relieve the burdens at the household level that too often fall on girls and prevent them from being able to get the education they deserve. We can continue efforts to ensure women’s voices in the decision-making that affects their own and their children’s lives.

By empowering a woman, we empower a child. By educating a girl child, we make it possible for her to grow up to become an empowered woman.

Winnie Byanyima is a former member of the ICRW board. This piece first appeared internally at the UNDP for International Day of the Girl.

It Begins with Girls

ggaynair — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:58:32 +0000

ICRW celebrates new government and private sector investments in girls

In celebration of the first International Day of the Girl, the U.S. government and major corporations made landmark commitments to girls around the world by investing in initiatives to prevent child marriage and to ensure that every girl has a chance to finish school. ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou shares her thoughts on this latest development.

Sarah Degnan Kambou is president of ICRW

I couldn’t be more thrilled about this new development announced this week by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It represents what we’ve known all along at ICRW: Evidence shows that investing in girls worldwide yields critical development dividends in health, education and economic advancement. Girls are the entry point – creating a more prosperous and equitable world begins with supporting them as they grow into adulthood.

As co-chair of Girls Not Brides, ICRW is particularly pleased to see that the new commitments feature a strong focus on child marriage, a practice ICRW has been addressing for nearly two decades. The support of the U.S. government and private donors like the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and MasterCard Foundation is a powerful signal to the girls of the world that they matter.

And these girls – whether they’re vulnerable to early marriage or already married – need to know they are not forgotten.

In many poor, rural communities where child marriage is common, girls become women far too quickly. Early marriage leads to early childbearing, before girls’ bodies have fully developed. Early sexual initiation spells psychological trauma and increased risk for sexually-transmitted infections, complications from childbirth and even death for the young mother or her baby. Child brides are more likely to leave school early, compromising their education and economic potential. It is a vicious cycle, but one that can be broken.

This challenge is global in scale and severe in impact, but with political will and sustained investments, it is solvable. At ICRW, we have mapped successful solutions to end child marriage. We can prevent child marriage by empowering girls to have a longer, safer and more fulfilling childhood – where they go to school, play with friends, volunteer in their communities and develop their potential as productive citizens. We can ensure that this is the last generation of child brides.

The new commitments to improving girls’ lives are an important step forward, but we have a ways to go. A paltry portion of our foreign assistance dollars is directed to the world’s girls. We need targeted investments in programs for girls at risk of child marriage and girls who are already married. But for investments to have a lasting impact we need to build the evidence on what works for girls and ensure our programs and policies are tailored accordingly. More research is needed, for example, on how marriage and pregnancy prevent girls from attending secondary school. And we need more evaluation of how programs that improve girls’ access to education can help delay marriage and childbearing.

At least 10 millions girls are forced to marry each year. Now is the time to ask our leaders to support policies and programs that give girls worldwide a chance to make their own choices. Choices like whom to marry. When to marry. And who they want to be when they grow up.

Let’s turn these just-announced landmark commitments into a new reality for girls everywhere.

The Gatekeeper

ggaynair — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:28:15 +0000

Why a middle-aged Ethiopian man believes child marriage must end

It’s hard for me to forget Tesfaye Haile. A tall man with light brown eyes and a salt-and-pepper beard, he was perhaps the most animated person I met during my week in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

Gillian Gaynair is ICRW's senior writer

It’s hard for me to forget Tesfaye Haile. A tall man with light brown eyes and a salt-and-pepper beard, he was perhaps the most animated person I met during my week in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. He smiled a lot. And even before my interpreter told me what he had said, I could tell from the inflections in his speech that he was sincere, that he believed strongly in what he was sharing with me.

Tesfaye is one of the adult “gatekeepers” in an ICRW and CARE-Ethiopia program called TESFA that works to empower child brides in two remote districts of the Amhara region. In this role, Tesfaye learns about traditional practices that are harmful to girls, including early marriage. He and other gatekeepers also are encouraged to reflect on such practices and challenged to seek alternatives to them. And finally, they spread the word – each gatekeeper visits five homes in his or her village to discuss how to create a more favorable environment for girls.

Much to ICRW researchers' surprise, 51-year-old Tesfaye and others have also taken it upon themselves to stop early marriages in their communities.

When we met to talk about his experience with TESFA, I asked Tesfaye what he thought about these folks coming into Amhara and telling him these things about early marriage. Are these “outsiders” right?

“I saw it in my life,” he said to me. “I believe what they’re teaching.”

Tesfaye married at 18. His wife was 7 years old. They were given land as a gift. He remembers going to the fields together to work, and she would just sleep. He leans back and chuckles at the memory.

“Because I was bigger, I would hug her like a brother. She was just a child!” he says. “I used to see her more as a sister than as a wife.”

For many years, Tesfaye’s wife lived between his home and her family’s. He told me they consummated their marriage after nearly a decade, when his wife was 16. She got pregnant.

Tesfaye had been told to take her to a hospital once she went into labor. But when that day came, the family insisted against it because, he says, they were afraid doctors would operate on her. Still today, most child brides give birth at home.

I got the sense that what Tesfaye did next was against his own judgment, but that he didn’t have a say in the matter. He sided with the family, and did not take his young wife to a hospital.

She bled to death. Later, the baby died too. His daughter.

Tesfaye’s face morphed with the memory of her death. He seemed pained, even now, so many years later.

But it’s this experience that motivates him to talk to others about the harm early marriage causes girls. It’s why he tells his story to families he visits for TESFA. “Education is better,” he says. “There’s no point in people getting married if they don’t know each other.”

He’s says that through TESFA he’s also come to see that women are equal to men, and in fact, women do more work than men, he told me. "Really?" I ask somewhat surprised, given that women’s contributions are often undervalued or go unnoticed in many poor communities.

“No one understood that [women] actually manage all the resources in the house to last us a year,” he says. “We thought they didn’t know anything, but now we realize they actually lead the house.”

“We also knew that they were equal and that they did more work than us,” Tesfaye said. “It was just always tradition for us to have power over our wives. But we knew.”

Tesfaye remarried a year after his first wife died. They had been friends beforehand and were older than 18 when they wed. They chose each other.

Today the couple have two sons and two daughters, Tesfaye tells me. And then he smiles. A wide smile.

“I married the woman I love.”