Prevention+

In a world where many countries have come to enshrine women's rights and support for gender equality in policy and practice, gender-based violence (GBV) still persists, specifically violence against women and girls. This violence, whether at home or in public, is rooted in gender-based discrimination, inequitable gender norms, and imbalanced power dynamics. Gender-based violence is a human rights violation that comes with devastating consequences for individuals, families, communities and societies. It has profound economic and social costs.

Programme interventions

Prevention+ complements the work and advocacy of feminist groups and social justice movements to end gender-based violence. The five-year programme fosters positive interactions and gender-equitable relationships to address the root causes of GBV by: 

• taking a multi-level approach: that is, designing interventions at four levels of society - individual, community, institutional, and government - to transform the intersecting social and structural factors that allow GBV to persist;
• actively engaging young and adult men as part of the solution; that is, engaging them as partners/advocates for change - alongside young and adult women - to challenge and transform harmful gender norms and practices. 

Institutionalising equal and caring relationships

The ultimate aim of Prevention+ is to contribute to the adoption and implementation of national-level policies and systems of evidence-based programming for violence prevention that are sustained well beyond the initial five-year programme. In the countries where Prevention+ is active, the programme:

• recruits the support of trusted community and faith-based leaders to serve as role models of gender-equitable norms;
• trains institutional staff of government ministries and representatives, service providers, and civil society to integrate gender-transformative approaches in their day-to-day work;
• co-facilitates conversations on gender-based violence prevention for young and adult men and women so that together, they can start thinking and talking about gender equality, sexuality, and non-violent relationships; and
• in parallel to the above, engage in international advocacy activities that help strengthen national enforcement of supportive policies or legislation.

Mencare+

Prevention+ spins off from a Rutgers and Promundo-coordinated initiative called MenCare+. View the MenCare+ two-minute video, "Raising Boys to be Men Who Care", to learn how we can start taking steps to free the world from gender-based violence.