Awareness-raising

Child Development programme,396 work at the interpersonal level to improve communication between couples and reduce violence within families.

COVID-19 has disrupted much of the prevention work around GBV, particularly since this work requires repetition, time and direct contact with communities. COVID-19 greatly challenged organizations to find innovative ways to continue their prevention work. The organizations that were able to pivot already had strong prevention programmes and roots in the communities and were able to adapt to the changing circumstances. For example, informants shared how the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation, a faith-based organization with strong feminist principles, continued to do their prevention work in the community using human rights defenders and male advocates in Bougainville. FHI360 was able to continue their prevention work in the Western Highlands, East Sepik and Sanduan provinces by incorporating safety measures such as reducing large crowd activities, practising social distancing, using more print materials, and disseminating information through the radio. Oxfam were the first to get posters out to the community around the importance of keeping families safe during COVID-19. UN Women developed guidelines around community dissemination, including safety measures and the types of messaging around COVID-19 that need to be incorporated into existing messaging around violence prevention. The GBV Protection Cluster developed COVID-19 messaging around women’s safety. Equal Playing Field went from engaging 200 school children a day to engaging only 50 a day to comply with the physical distancing requirements. In addition to increased travel costs, the increased gap between sessions meant that many teams had to start from the beginning. Equal Playing Field was able to pivot by focusing on working with schools to develop child protection policies using the safe school framework, which includes eight standards schools should meet to be recognized as a childsafe school.

Activities to promote awareness of GBV and inform communities about available resources and support are crucial to preventing GBV but are not considered primary prevention397. Awarenessraising through community mobilization and mass media campaigns is important, particularly if GBV is not widely recognized in a community or people are not open to talking about it. This is particularly crucial in complex contexts where GBV rates are extremely high and GBV is accepted as the norm.

GBV awareness-raising activities can also influence survivors, or friends and family of survivors, to recognize the different forms of GBV, its consequences, and empower survivors to seek support and access justice. Often, awarenessraising activities can lead to an increase in demand for services, which is why awareness-raising should only occur if services are able to handle the increase in demand. Comprehensive prevention strategies must work in coordination with services to improve access to justice for survivors of violence.

In South Sudan, informants shared how awareness of GBV as a significant problem has grown over the last decade. This has caused some anecdotal increase in women and girls feeling more comfortable talking about

GBV they have experienced. Younger women in particular are beginning to speak up and curate conversations around GBV. However, the work of GBV awareness-raising is ongoing and incomplete (including raising awareness among women about their own rights). Awareness of laws, for example, is uneven regionally, with those in more rural areas having less knowledge than those in urban centres like Juba.

Box 21: GBV prevention initiatives in fragile and conflict settings

GBV prevention initiatives have not been prioritized in fragile and conflict settings, as they require long-term approaches. Instead, the focus has been on risk mitigation and response efforts. There has, however, been increased attention on developing prevention models appropriate for humanitarian settings. Some popular prevention programmes, such as SASA!, Stepping Stones, Unite for a Better Life and Engaging Men through Accountable Practice, have been implemented in contexts of protracted conflicts. However, the impact of these programmes in humanitarian settings is not clear. Even so, there is a gradual shift from focusing on awareness generation programmes to communitybased prevention and economic empowerment programmes for women and girls. Consequently, there is growing evidence of what works to prevent GBV in humanitarian settings. Evaluations of prevention programmes have shown effectiveness in changing social norms, particularly those engaging men and those that are specifically targeted at adolescent girls. Key stakeholders are working to prevent GBV in South Sudan, including through social norm change programmes, though this work is under-supported by donors and government actors. IRC has been implementing the SASA! programme in South Sudan and other humanitarian contexts.398 Women for Women International have been working in South Sudan for over a decade with the most marginalized women, offering vocational, health and rights training to improve their lives.399 Communities Care, a GBV prevention and response programme that has demonstrated promise in other humanitarian settings, is being funded by UNICEF and implemented in South Sudan by Voice for Change and Organization for Children’s Harmony.400 Evaluation results demonstrate positive changes in beliefs related to GBV.401

Local women’s organizations like WDG are raising awareness about GBV through media campaigns and running community programming that educates men on their role in GBV prevention, and economically empowers women. WDG also created a GBV prevention network among women during the height of the conflict. The GBV network in South Sudan is working on behaviour and social norm change. Crown the Women South Sudan works in schools to raise awareness about GBV with children, adolescents, educators and parents.

Informants described efforts to increasingly involve traditional Boma chiefs, given their important role in customary justice in South Sudanese communities. Hope Restoration South Sudan is focusing on economically empowering women to run small businesses. They work with survivors to sell vegetables, open small restaurants, and engage in other income-generating