Community mobilisation in the framework of supportive social environment to prevent family violence in Solomon Islands

Abstract

• Supportive social environment is vital for effective and sustainable community mobilisation to prevent family violence. • Rigid social and gender norms and bride price in Solomon Islands can and do reinforce violence against women and girls (VAWG). • Understanding context specific factors of social environment is a vital first step in developing violence prevention interventions. • There is a dearth of evidence on response to and prevention of VAWG in the Pacific region. This paper seeks to fill some of those gaps. Community mobilisation is one of the promising approaches to prevent Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). Yet, there is very little research on the social contextual factors of community mobilisation for violence prevention based on broader theoretical framework. Particularly, the South Pacific remains one of the most under-researched regions in the world. This paper aims to address this and attempts to conduct process evaluation by elucidating the contexts that facilitated or hindered sustainable community mobilisation to prevent VAWG implemented by the Safe Families programme in Solomon Islands where the prevalence of violence is significantly high. This study adopted the Social Environment Framework developed by Campbell and Cornish, 2010 , Mannell and Dadswell, 2017 . They sought social contextual factors comprised of symbolic, material, relational and institutional dimensions that are of crucial importance to examine the mobilisation process, hence having influence on programme outcomes. Qualitative data were collected and analysed from 33 In-depth Interviews and 15 Focus Group Discussions with community and Oxfam staff members in 6 communities of Malaita and Temotu provinces and Honiara. A thematic analysis presented various contextual factors in the framework of Social Environment. Those include: (1) the symbolic context addressing social and gender norms that condone VAWG in the context of small and remote island communities; (2) the lack of consideration for a comprehensive programming that includes economic and material based support for sustainable interventions; (3) formation of long-term, trusting and mutually respectful relationships with communities and external stakeholders; and (4) strong demand for the institutional support through gender-responsive policy and legal systems as well as informal community by-laws that are instrumental in successful prevention interventions. Overall, the supportive Social Environment is of vital importance to achieve effective and sustainable community mobilisation, and is useful when policy makers and implementing agencies formulate community based violence prevention interventions.