Conventional approaches to social transformation posit that transforming social exclusion into social inclusion involves challenging the status quo and power relations.
Work carried out by the Mobilising for Development (M4D) programme, to strengthen the participation of socially excluded groups within local governance, suggests that another pathway to change: working with socially and legally legitimate structures within the cultural milieu, rather than confrontation, can prove effective in addressing gender-based discrimination, without risking the rejection of externally supported progressive interventions.
This learning paper describes in greater detail the innovative range of initiatives taken to pursue normative change, and the lessons learnt along the way.