Building Regional Advocacy Against Gender-Based Violence

While African women have played a leading role in the global women’s movement, gender-based violence (GBV) remains endemic within many African cultures. Universally, war normalizes violence against women and leads to higher levels of everyday GBV even after peace agreements are reached. It is critical for men and women to work together in an attempt to understand and mitigate this type of violence.

Karuna Center for Peacebuilding recently worked in close partnership with three Congolese organizations – Congo Men’s Network, the Center for Educational Support and Community Development, and South Kivu Female Journalists Association – as part of the Women and Men as Partners in Peacebuilding program that we co-facilitated with Men’s Resources International from 2012 through early 2016.  By engaging these 3 Congolese organizations along with 5 other regional partners from across Rwanda and Burundi, this program piloted a new paradigm of cross-gender partnerships that will more effectively address the interconnected cycles of community-based and gender-based violence that affect communities in Democratic Republic of Congo.

In 2015, organizations participating in the Women and Men as Partners in Peacebuilding Program formed a regional alliance to continue to advance violence prevention through female-male partnerships: Alliance Femmes/Hommes pour la Paix (Alliance of Women and Men for Peace).

Learn more about the Women and Men as Partners in Peacebuilding Program.