Challenging and changing harmful social norms contributing to violence against women and girls

Enough Campaign Progress and Learnings Report 2016-2019

Publication date: 2 March 2021
Author: Adrienne Wiebe, with Bethan Cansfield and Chara Poucha

The worldwide Enough campaign aims to challenge and change the social acceptance and prevalence of VAWG/GBV (violence against women and girls/gender-based violence) by addressing the social norms that justify and perpetuate abuse and gender inequality. Covering the first three years of the campaign (November 2016 – December 2019), the purpose of this report is to 1) Document and assess progress and results based on the campaign Theory of Change; and 2) Identify learnings from the experience of the campaign to date:

  • Engaging young people in urban settings
  • A community mobilization approach in rural communities
  • Integrating depth and breadth
  • Campaign ownership with young people
  • Addressing the multiple and complex drivers of VAWG/GBV
  • Strategic multi-sectoral engagement
  • WROs play a foundational role
  • Young feminist artist collaborations for effective worldwide spikes
  • Social media campaigns reach specific populations
  • Regional capacity-building for young change agents

 
The findings are primarily based on qualitative data gathered from 13 of the 34 countries involved in the campaign. Ten countries were selected by the global team to represent a diversity of regions, campaign approaches, and stages of advancement. The campaign Theory of Change is based on the evidence that social norm change is possible when approached through holistic, long-term, and multi-level gender transformative practice, and that people have the power to drive that change. The Enough Campaign focuses on primarily on two domains of change: communities and institutions. These domains  are  interdependent  and  both  are  vital  to  ending VAWG/GBV,  but  they  require different approaches to campaigning.  

The campaign recognizes the pivotal role of women’s rights organizations  and  feminist movements to  support  social  norm  and  legal  change  in  their  settings, and so  the  campaign explicitly works to collaborate, support and add value to these actors’ work. The  Enough  Campaign  is strongly anchored in local contexts, with national campaigns developed jointly by Oxfam country teams and national women’s rights organizations and feminist movement actors. Country teams and their partners design tailor-made campaigns that are relevant for their context; choosing the issues to be addressed, exact target groups, and most appropriate strategies.

This report is a summary of a longer report researched and written by Dr. Adrienne Wiebe - Independent consultant, with inputs from Bethan Cansfield and Chara Poucha.