Beyond 16 Days

Welcome to issue #50 of Changing Stories - MAGENTA's monthly round-up of all that is interesting, inspiring and innovative from the world of Social and Behavioural Change (SBC). 

Read, think, share, and enjoy!

Beyond 16 days

Every 10 minutes, a woman is killed by an intimate partner or family member.

In 2024, how is this allowed to continue?

Gender-based violence (GBV) is an issue that ravages communities across the globe. In some parts of the world it's still a socially accepted practice, whilst in others it persists even through a veil of condemnation by governments and officials. The past half a century has produced countless policies protecting women in some countries, and a backsliding of women's rights in others. 

One thing that is clear, SBC strategies are desperately needed to combat the issue at it's roots, addressing the cultural and behavioural dynamics that influence perpetrators to commit to violence, whether it's sharing sexually explicit photos online, or committing brutal feminicide - all are forms of GBV.

What strategies can we use to best facilitate maximal positive change when it comes to fighting GBV?

Research, and our own experiences in the field, tell us that it is vital to work with and engage men and boys in the conversation around GBV. Understanding the language, culture and thinking of perpetrators and potential perpetrators is necessary when getting to the crux of the issue and severing ties many men and young boys may have to behaviours that can lead to GBV in the future. Extensive research, awareness campaigns, and community mobilisation are just some of the ways that we've implemented SBC techniques to tackle GBV in some of our flagship projects in the Middle East and Latin America.

In Latin America, specifically Mexico and Central America, our team is currently implementing a long term SBC project targeting Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), a form of gender-based violence that can take place both online and offline but facilitated through technology, often involving the sharing of explicit photos and messages. This project, which began in Mexico last year in the states of Estado de México and Oaxaca, has recently expanded to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Working with grassroots organisations on the ground, we try to be innovative in our approaches to engaging young men in the necessary conversations. Our tactics differ from the status quo, researching the social norms, online behaviours, and perceptions of young men in these areas so that we can understand and speak their language; a language they'll listen to and engage with.

With the expansion of this project from Mexico to Central America, we are able to continue working on community activations to help victims in these regions to develop skills for digital safety and self-protection. The impact of these studies and interventions can't be understated. With a target audience of men we are:

• challenging harmful masculine norms
• promoting more healthy perceptions and relationships that men have towards women
• putting group male behaviours under the microscope, analysing them in a space that is free from the pressure of a group situation

Read more about the foundations of this project in Mexico here.

Gender-based violence is a plague on civil society, and can never be accepted under any circumstance. There is always #noexcuse.

Want to know more about gender-based violence and work in this space?

Engaging first-time parents to prevent gender-based violence - Momentum Integrated Health Resilience

This project in Niger from MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience is a great example of the impact that engaging men in the conversation around GBV can have. More than 1,100 husbands were engaged in group discussions and home visits, by trained community health workers. The men who participated in the program were significantly less likely to believe that women should tolerate domestic violence from a partner after completing the program, with 12% holding this view compared to 30% before participating.

Read more about this project and other similar SBC projects in the GBV space here.

SVRI Forum 2024 - SBC Event: Cape Town, South Africa

In October, the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) hosted the SVRI Forum 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa, an international gathering of experts in gender-based violence and women's rights, MAGENTA's Regional Programme Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Ana Cecilia Campos attended to present our project in Honduras tackling GBV and also take part in a panel of global professionals working in the sector.

A fantastically enlightening and thought-provoking experience for everyone involved, these events are vital in gathering international consensus on this issue. Working together to formulate innovative new strategies and approaches to fighting GBV is what's needed if we are to eliminate this form of violence moving into the future.

Read more on the forum here.

MAGENTA Impact Corner 

Our Chief Operations Officer, Clemence Quint, and Giulio Vialetto from our Africa office were in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire in November to facilitate the first co-creation workshop for the UNICEF WCARO First Food Initiative Project. 

Bringing together a large group of stakeholders, including UNICEF staff from the Côte d'Ivoire and Benin country offices, NGOs and the private sector, Giulio and Clemence presented research findings around nutrition practices among caregivers of young children. They also ran a workshop that supported participants to come up with new creative ways to promote healthier staple foods that are uncommon in the country. The participants also got to try the food themselves!

The impact of this workshop and the research that our team undertook will be felt across the project and the wider West Africa nutrition sector, contributing to healthier nutrition practices for children. More workshops will be held in 2025, watch this space!

MAGENTA Resource Box

Each month we bring you inspiring, innovative, and practical resources from the world of SBC that you can apply to your own work, practice, or research. 

Did you know, you can now get a condom for your phone?

This is an amazing example of a great campaign for an app that has been designed to keep women safe from technology-facilitated gender-based violence and revenge porn - Camdom.

An innovative solution to a modern, complex problem, Camdom keeps you safe by locking the microphone and camera on your phone when both partners activate it, stopping illicit recording. 

These are the sorts of creative ideas and innovations that we love to hear about; real solutions that can help to keep every woman safe, both online and offline - read more here.

MAGENTA Academy 

Enrol in MAGENTA Academy

Are you and your team interested in learning more about SBC and how to apply its principles to your projects? The MAGENTA Academy is our training and capacity-building institute where we up-skill our partners on SBC theory and practice. Download our brochure to learn more. 

Take a look at what people are saying: 

I am leaving the SBC in a Day course feeling thankful, and illuminated but mostly with a lot of knowledge!  - SBC in a Day participant, Mexico

This is the first time l've been part of a comprehensive SBC training. Great that it goes through the building blocks, the theoretical concepts but also clear practical exercises that help to clarify and apply this to the real world. - UNICEF Asia Pacific Region

SBC fun fact of the month! 

In 2012, a study found that simply adding a smiley face on a rubbish bin in a park increased the amount of rubbish people properly disposed of - a great example of positive reinforcement!