Addressing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against adolescent girls

Abstract

The Population Council’s extensive work on adolescent safe spaces and livelihoods programs has demonstrated the pathways of empowering adolescent girls and the substantial benefits for society (Levine et al. 2009; Mensch, Bruce, and Greene 1998; Chong, Hallman, and Brady 2006). Monitoring and evaluation data from these initiatives have produced empirical evidence about numerous threats to girls’ health and well-being that relate to both long-standing and emergent social forces. Some long-standing practices such as exclusion of women from labor markets or the early marriage of girls to older men contribute to gender power inequalities that are at the root of genderbased violence. Meanwhile, positive shifts in social and economic conditions that have increased girls’ educational attainment and participation in formal labor markets have also had unforeseen negative effects on gender power dynamics. These include increases in girls’ involvement in transactional sex in exchange for grades and school expenses, as well as vulnerability to sexual exploitation by employers in the workforce. In developing countries, where the risk of adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes is high and young girls are at particularly high risk, it is important to address issues related to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and gender norms that relate to these risks. The majority of programs addressing sexual and gender-based violence are focused on providing clinical health services or legal services. Programmatic interventions for the prevention of violence rely on correlational studies to identify high risks such as poverty, urban living, poor education, sexually transmitted diseases, and attitudinal factors such as community acceptance of violence against women. These programmatic approaches seek to reduce violence either by targeted strategies or by broad approaches to delegitimize violent behaviors. Theoretical studies on SGBV emphasize women’s economic disempowerment, women’s dependence on men, and patriarchal social structures that privilege men in other ways. While these studies help us to understand factors that perpetuate violence, a clearly articulated theory of attitude and behavior change is often lacking in violence prevention programs. Interventions to eliminate SGBV incorporating community-based approaches have been pioneered by Jewkes and colleagues throughout southern Africa. Their research points to the importance of gender power inequalities, status within male peer groups, and patterns of male sexual entitlement in dominant social constructions of masculinity as determinants of SGBV (Wood and Jewkes 2001; Jewkes et al. 2009). The evidence indicates that girls are rendered most vulnerable due to a combination of dominant gender and age hierarchies that severely hinder girls’ ability to refuse male sexual advances (Jewkes, Penn-Kekana, and Rose-Junius 2005). The Population Council’s work with adolescents reinforces the importance of multiple points of entry to change community norms regarding SGBV. While it is essential to work with girls and women to empower them and to build their assets, it is not sufficient if the community is not also engaged.