1. ‘Bending’ Gender Norms Related to IPV in Rwanda 26 May 2016 Dr. Erin Stern Research Fellow/Study Coordinator London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

2. Our focus is on primary prevention of the most widespread forms of VAWG: “What Works” Global programme to prevent VAWG Child abuse  Overall portfolio  18 projects in 16 developing countries  Mix of innovative demonstration projects and impact evaluations  10 community RCTs Non-partner sexual violence Website: www.whatworks.co.za Intimate partner violence

3. VSL SECTOR Cluster VILLAGE CREATION OF ENABLING ENVIRONMENT Women’s Space; Training of Opinion Leaders GBV ACTIVISM [Informed by SASA] What is Indashyikirwa? Structured Spaces for Linkages Across Levels Activist Training Months 1-5Months 6-7 Months 8- 24 + NEW COUPLES CURRICULUM

4. The Couples Intervention  Weekly 20 session trainings by RWAMREC field officers with 30 couples across 28 clusters in 14 sectors, 7 Districts in Eastern, Northern, Western Provinces  Structure and content includes:  Addressing power imbalance as root cause of GBV  Understanding triggers of GBV  Building skills to manage triggers and create a healthy, non- violent relationship  Designed to foster change in knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviors to build healthy, non- violent relationships

5. Community Activism Component  Selected couples will be trained to serve as “change agents” in the community, drawing on their learning about healthy relationships and 4 types of power  Will use small-scale media, community dramas, one-on- one conversations etc.  RWAMREC field officers provide community activists with ongoing mentorship and supervision

6. Enabling Environment  Women’s Spaces ( 1 per sector)  10 day training of opinion leaders (40 per sector)  Reference Group= those whose opinions/actions are important to someone

7. Why looking at Social Norms?  Social Norms:  Collectively shared belief about what others typically do  What is expected of others within reference group  Generally maintained by approval/disapproval  When strong social norms at play, shifting attitudes or knowledge often not enough to shift behaviours  Interventions must create new beliefs within individual’s references groups so social expectations allow new behaviors to emerge

8. Questions of Interest of Baseline Social Norms Research  Identify beliefs, practices, social norms that operate to justify violence in intimate relationships  When deciding how to act, whose approval do men/women seek? Whose disapproval would cause them concern?  What sanctions exist if a person departs from these norms?  Are there locally salient ideas or traditions that could be marshalled to promote new social norms that would work against violence?

9. Baseline Qualitative Research Methodology  Qualitative baseline conducted in 3 Intervention sectors:  Ruhimbi Cluster, Gishari Sector, Eastern Province  Kabirizi Cluster, Gacaca Sector, Northern Province  Murambi Cluster, Rurembo Sector, Western Province  Diversity of sectors: rural, peri-urban, urban  To gain in depth familiarity of implementation and impact of intervention over time

10. Approach: Exploring Social Norms  Interactive workshops with 4 sets of community members(6-8 people per workshop)  1. Unmarried women under 25  2. Married women over 25  3. Unmarried men under 30  4. Married men over 30  Each group interviewed twice= 8 FGDs per sector = 24 FGDs

11. Social Norms Vignette FGDs  Scenario of couple Albert and Francine  Assessed perceptions of Francine working out of home, publicly speaking with other men at work  Assed perceptions of Albert performing domestic duties, how reaction to Francine coming home from work late might differ depending on alcohol use/ if jealous  Common reasons to justify men beating their wives, whether/when wives likely to report and to whom, how women typically treated for leaving husbands

12. Follow up FGDs  Assessed types of and expectations of intimate relations between men and women  Characteristics men/women look for in partners and marital expectations; division of labour, decision-making  Common causes of disputes between couples  Attitudes towards pregnancy out of wedlock  What typically happens when a woman’s husband dies

13. Highlights of Preliminary Social Norms

14. Gender Roles in Intimate Partnerships  Strong norm around man as Head of Household, primary provider– based on traditional culture, religious interpretations, previous laws  ‘Bending’ of norm around acceptability of wives working (e.g. husband not earning enough) BUT problematic if women earn more than husband or neglect children / household  ‘Bending’ of norm around men being expected to have a house to marry (due to economic realities, women accepting men with prospects)  Possible emergence of new norm around husbands and wives working in partnership for the economic benefit of the household

15. Gender Roles in Intimate Partnerships  Many women make ‘minor’ decisions (crops, food etc), influence husband in privacy of home, through friends etc. and around property  Some men participate in domestic work and child care – may be stigmatized, but growing discourse recognising benefits  Strong norm that ‘real men’ drink, but also seen as weak when cannot control drink /support household  Women who drink perceived as neglecting household responsibilities, causing harm to children, suspicious for going to men’s spaces  Key contextual influences: Women in parliament and business, new property law, + strong engagement of local authorities

16. Dispute and Violence in Intimate Partnerships  Major cause is extra-marital affairs and suspicion, aggravated by gossip  Social norms that affairs are disrespectful/taboo, but ‘bending’ – men’s affairs often tolerated/ justified (e.g. infertility, wife’s regular refusal of sex)  Widespread belief that woman refusing sex does not justify violence and several accepted reasons for her to refuse sex  Minority discourse from men that refusal of sex constitutes ‘sexual violence’ – important to address before discourse spreads  Women commonly blamed for infertility and can justify affair and violence – need to address factually incorrect belief  Quite good understanding of the negative consequences of IPV on finances, children’s wellbeing, woman’s health- how to build on this?

17. Forms of intimate partnerships  Strong norm around importance / value of legal marriage; important for women accessing property rights  Strong norms against casual, transactional relationships and age-disparate relationships, but more common and tolerated for men than women  Polygamy illegal and reducing in practice (can be tolerated where first wife cannot have children)  Separated, widowed and divorced women often stigmatised and vulnerable  Bending of norm stigmatising separation/divorce (accepted in some circumstances; frequent beating, man neglecting responsibilities, woman tried alternatives)

18. Forms of Intimate Partnerships  Women who become pregnant out of wedlock rarely able to take care of child with own means and often made financially vulnerable  If a woman cannot marry father of her child (preferable solution), she may lose value and be stigmatized  For men it can be a form of status and less stigma/responsibility attached  Man might be imprisoned or forced to marry woman through family or community pressure (problematic pressure)  Stigma of illegitimate children and parents who give birth out of wedlock changing due to education and modernization  Context: Property law, government encouraging legal marriage, family law (children < 7 stay with mother)

19. To wrap up  Identify social norms related to IPV and how can ‘bend’ according to particular circumstances and shifting socio-economic and political realities  Norms understood in relation to power relations and other influences on agency i.e. economic resources, role models, employment opportunities  Helpful to support/reinforce norms and behaviours underlying gender equality and non-violence