Learning Brief #6: Centering Women's Leadership to Combat VAWG and CEFM

Oxfam's Creating Spaces To Take Action on Violence Against Women and Girls (CS) 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 organizations, with support from Oxfam country offices and Oxfam Canada. \\The project was implemented by local partner organizations, with support from Oxfam country offices and Oxfam Canada. Following the socio-ecological model on violence prevention and global best practice, Creating Spaces applied a multi-pronged, multi-stakeholder approach, at the individual, household, community, and societal/ institutional levels.

Before the project was implemented, women and girls from the project districts were often unaware of their most fundamental human right to live free of violence, due to deeply entrenched social norms that had perpetuated gender-based discrimination for centuries. Building on Oxfama's work on transformative women's leadership, Creating Spaces empowered women and girls to understand their rights and to strengthen their capacity to claim them. The results were profound, as they gained confidence, became advocates for women's and girls' rights, stopped hundreds of cases of VAWG and CEFM, influenced policy change, and gained leadership positions in their communities.

This document highlights project learnings on promising practices that ignited women and girls' role in preventing and responding to VAWG and CEFM, and built their representation and influence within decision making processes.