Learning brief #2: Youth mobilizing change to prevent VAWG and CEFM

Oxfam's "Creating spaces to take action on violence against women and girls" project (2016-2021) aims to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG), including the prevalence of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines. The project is implemented by local partner organisations, with support from Oxfam country offices and Oxfam Canada.

In communities where violence is normalised, recognising it as a social problem is the first step towards changing mindsets, norms, attitudes and behaviours. Following the socio-ecological model on violence prevention, the Creating Spaces project applied a multi-pronged, multi-stakeholder approach, at the individual, household, community and societal/institutional levels, to ignite change and prevent VAWG and CEFM.

Fostering young people's awareness, participation and leadership was instrumental in mobilising change to prevent VAWG and CEFM. Youth were driven to act more than any other constituency. Through their bold efforts, they succeeded in delaying marriages for countless adolescent girls and boys, and influencing policy and legislative changes.

This learning brief highlights project learnings on how to effectively engage youth to embolden their leadership on girls' and women's rights, and some of the concrete youth-led outcomes on VAWG and CEFM across the Creating Spaces countries.