Sustainable approaches to prevent and end GBV and FGM

Concepts for community programmes is committed to zero tolerance for GBV and FGM by addressing vulnerability factors, attitudes, norms and beliefs through community outreach programs, advocacy and innovative Community Communication Engagement initiatives by 2022. Behavior change in the community is adopted GBV and FGM cases reduced by 75% by the year 2022
To achieve consensus about the eradication of GBV and FGM, CCP will employ a sensitive, long-term approach, one that is participatory and ensures community ownership of the initiative. Creative interventions will be key to addressing this complex issue. Intervention activities will include workshops bringing together authorities, elders, religious leaders, health workers, women, youth, educators, displaced, and refugees to debate and reach consensus, within the context of Islam, about total eradication of the practice.
Currently, the focus of interventions is mostly on advocacy and mobilization of communities. As the prevalence of the practice in Somalia is almost universal, and there is stigma and discrimination attached to abandoning the practice, Concepts for community programmes is committed to the creation of an enabling environment where individuals are empowered to make decisions based on the best interest of their children. This strategy is based on the belief that the practice will not end only by targeting the circumcisers, but rather by engaging with the families with young girls, focusing on youth who will be future parents, and targeting the leaders who have influence over community members. In other words, by reducing the demand for the practice, it will eventually become obsolete.

Mode of engagement:

• Programmatic action
  • Interventions aimed at behavior change through awareness-raising and increased capacity of individuals and communities to make choices that break the current 'norm' • Interventions aimed at change in the societal norms