Somalia has been in a state of conflict or post-conflict since the late 1980s, when the country’s civil war began. An ongoing conflict exists in the southern parts of Somalia between government forces and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) against the militant group Al Shabaab. The autonomous state of Somaliland in the north remains stable and the semi-autonomous state of Puntland below it enjoys relative security, though attacks by Al Shabaab are increasing. The current Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) was sworn in at Mogadishu International Airport in August 2012.
In most regions of Somalia, conflict, insecurity, frequent droughts, and outbreaks of famine have left thousands of civilians dead, displaced, or extremely vulnerable. Human rights violations including sexual violence, forced evictions, and arbitrary arrests and detention, are often committed with impunity. Securing access to justice through the formal legal system remains a significant challenge. This is especially true for women and children, members of minority clans, and displaced populations.
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) remains a serious concern, particularly for women and girls in Somalia. The protective environment remains weak for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and civilians affected by the clan conflicts, regions where the military offensives by the AMISOM and Somali National Army against the Al Shabaab took place, regions affected by the floods, forced evictions and where life-saving services are either limited or facing closure due to funding constraints. GBV Information Management System (GBVIMS) continue to show high prevalence of sexual violence, physical assault, and other forms of GBV among women and girls.
Methods
In May-November 2016, a team1 of RESPOND staff and consultants collected endline data on the process, outputs, and short-term effects of the project, through individual interviews and structured observations of community GBV prevention activities. Interviews were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders, who contributed to or participated in the project. An informed consent process preceded all interviews. Engender Health and the MOH both conducted ethical and technical reviews of the study protocol and tools and gave approval for their use.
Provision of training and technical assistance to community-level committees to lead GBV prevention efforts
RESPOND conducted six structured observations of GBV prevention activities to supplement activity reports. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with: trainers who received training from RESPOND.
Interview participants were selected based on availability as well as several other factors: Committee members were selected based on their roles as leaders of committees.
Data collection on the project as a whole
In addition to the data collection described above, semi-structured interviews were conducted with:
Five of the eight members of the project’s local steering committee, selected based on their high level of involvement in the project. The five members represented:
- SDC
- MOH
- MOWDAFA
Findings
Intervention 1: Immediate Care for GBV victims
Identifying survivors
To invite survivors to participate in the project, SDC social workers contacted the survivors. Furthermore, many of the survivors who received services from the project referred others. Some of those who were hesitant at first joined the project once they heard from other survivors that the staff and providers could be trusted.
Providing psycho social care
Psychosocial care included therapy with a female psychiatrist who has training and experience working with GBV survivors.
Several survivors expressed deep gratitude for the psychosocial care they received. A mother who received therapy and antidepressants from the psychiatrist said: “I wish to thank the project and tell the providers of the project that they changed our lives after that violence, because I even wanted to commit suicide after what happened to me, but it’s they who gave me the courage to continue to live.”
The short time frame of the project posed a challenge to providing adequate psychosocial care, which often necessitates longer-term treatment. The psychiatrist reported that, while survivors showed improvement in their mental health, the duration of the project was too short to complete care for many conditions, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One survivor echoed the same idea, saying, “I continue to worry that what happened to me will happen again and I have nightmares.”
Providing social reintegration services
Many of the GBV survivors had been rejected by family members, The most common type of mediation was counseling between the survivor and her husband and in-laws. Also common were mediations between the survivor and her parents or children. In a few cases, survivors received mediations with siblings.
Social workers provided moral support to survivors before, during, and after mediation meetings. In some cases, survivors had been in very poor living conditions since having been rejected by their families. Social workers bought soap for these survivors so that they could wash themselves before going to see their families for mediation. A survivor who received psychosocial support from the psychiatrist and SDC social workers said: “The project staff comforted and respected us all along the way. I always felt looked after by the staff. They gave us advice that allowed us to move forward and to overcome our sorrows, but especially to overcome our fear.”
Providing economic reintegration services
As a result of stigma, shame, and medical and psychological trauma, many survivors lost their jobs or livelihoods, and at least one dropped out of university. RESPOND sought to help these survivors build skills to provide for themselves and their families.
Intervention 2: Provision of Training and Technical Assistance to Community-Level Committees to Lead GBV Prevention Efforts Developing a GBV prevention approach and curriculum
To engage communities in preventing GBV in Puntland, RESPOND adapted the successful (village committee) approach.
RESPOND modified the committee approach to focus on gender norms and GBV rather than reproductive health broadly. In addition, the project relabeled the committees.de quartier” (neighborhood committees), because RESPOND’s GBV prevention work took place in the urban setting of Conakry, rather than in villages.
The training was designed to guide participants in exploring key concepts, attitudes, and values related to gender norms and gender equality; defining GBV; and developing action plans to address GBV in their communities. The first two days of the five-day training used activities and approaches from resources and focused on exploring key concepts and norms related to gender equality and GBV. The second two days of the training focused on the external community environment and guided participants in prioritizing problems related to GBV in their own communities, mapping existing resources and support in their communities, and developing community action plans for addressing prioritized problems. Other sessions of the training focused on monitoring and evaluation, developing gender-equitable messages, responding to opposing views, and defining roles and procedures for working effectively as committees. Furthermore, RESPOND invited a legal expert to brief the participants on the parts of the civil and penal code that most apply to GBV and gender equality.
Forming GBV prevention committees
Through the project, local community officials established 10 GBV prevention committees’ different neighborhoods. Each committee represented one neighborhood. The selection criteria emphasized that the committee members should be respected role models in their communities who are also good public speakers in the local languages. Each committee included representatives of religious organizations, women’s groups, and youth groups. Committee members were volunteers who received a small amount of money to cover their transportation to events.
Involving local leaders in the process increased the acceptability of the committees and encouraged local ownership. All of the 16 local leaders who were interviewed approved of the process for selecting committee members. The process was good because the members of the committee weren’t imposed, but they were chosen by the community itself. An imam reported, “It’s the first time that anyone has asked us to represent ourselves on such a committee. It’s a very good thing that we welcome at the mosque.”
Training GBV prevention committees
10 trainers worked in pairs (consisting of one man and one woman) to train, coach, and supervise the GBV committee, with each team of trainers responsible for providing training and follow-up support to two committees. A total of 87 committee members received training. By the end of the five-day training sessions, each committee had developed a map of resources for GBV survivors in their community and an action plan outlining the GBV prevention activities to be implemented over six months.
Of the 11 committee members interviewed, all gave positive feedback about the quality and value of the training. For all of them, it was their first training on GBV. A male committee member explained, “I hadn’t worked on [GBV] before, but I knew from the Koran that a woman isn’t a slave and she should be respected. I was looking to deepen my understanding of the situation. The trainer really inspired us. We were in good hands. Now we can teach others what we learned.” Several committee members expressed appreciation that the training allowed them to identify passages of the Koran that prohibit GBV.
Conducting GBV prevention activities
Each of the 10 committees conducted at least four awareness-raising sessions per month. In the four months between November 2016 and June 2016, they had reached 8,892 participants (3,564 men and 5,328 women). During awareness-raising sessions, committee members engaged community members in participatory discussions of gender roles, women’s rights, the causes and consequences of GBV, and the need to end impunity for GBV perpetrators. Often, committee members shared information about where to seek help after a GBV incident. Some committees chose to focus on a different theme or topic during each session, such as forced marriage or the relationship between substance abuse and GBV.
Awareness-raising sessions took place in public places, neighborhoods, and secondary schools. Committees decided which types of events would be the most effective in their communities. Some sessions included theater performed by committee members. Other sessions involved traditional singers and dancers who volunteered to help draw a crowd. Some committees preferred to address large groups in marketplaces, while others gathered smaller groups in courtyards. Each committee had at least one religious leader (a Muslim imam or a Christian pastor) who delivered messages about GBV during weekly sermons.
Committee members reported that they encouraged participants to share their views and ask questions during sessions. One committee member explained, “We ask people to raise their hand if they agree with a statement about consent, for example, to focus on changing the minds of those with doubts.” At the end of the session, they asked participants to raise their hands again, to see if their opinions had changed.
Trainers conducted regular follow-up with the committees they had trained and attended all of the sessions planned by these committees. When participants asked challenging questions that committee members struggled to address, trainers would step in and respond. At the conclusion of each session, committee members completed monitoring forms and wrote a short narrative report.
However, not all committees succeeded in leveraging local resources in these ways. Many committee members felt that they were unable to carry out some of the activities in their action plans—such as soccer tournaments with messages about GBV—due to a lack of resources.
Committee members found their activities to be very popular. Participants often came to thank them and told them how the session had affected them. “Even wise men and imams have encouraged us,” said one committee member. “They told us that they learned things from us that they didn’t know before.” Many reported that heads of families in their communities invited them to lead sessions in their neighborhoods.
Interviews and observations suggested that the messages of the GBV prevention committees were largely consistent with those that the project intended to spread. However, a discussion with two committee members highlighted the challenges that some committee members may have had in internalizing and communicating equitable gender norms. In describing changes he had observed in his community, one committee member commented that “girls are now ashamed to dress vulgarly before us.” He said that he himself warns schoolgirls to “avoid rape by dressing in a way to cover up.” Another member of the same committee countered this highly inequitable view by adding, “But we tell them: Even if she’s walking naked down the street, you don’t have the right to touch her against her will.” The exchange highlighted the complexity of the challenge of changing attitudes and the fact that more training and follow-up support may be needed to enable the committees to send unequivocal messages about GBV. Changing deeply entrenched attitudes around gender and GBV requires a significant investment of time.
Generating discussion about GBV
In its short time frame, the project sought to initiate the first steps of a longer process to prevent GBV. Therefore, RESPOND did not seek to measure change in social norms and in the incidence of GBV in the focus communities. Instead, information was gathered about how the intervention was perceived by those directly involved with it.
In interviews, the majority (11 out of 16) of the local leaders interviewed commented that the project had generated discussion about a previously taboo subject, and they saw this as the beginning of change. For example, they said:
“It is difficult to clearly observe changes, but what is important is that people are talking about it. I believe that this is the start of change.”
“Yes, now the taboo about discussing violence, and especially rape and sexual harassment, has been broken.”
“Everywhere people are talking about violence, and there are people who have changed their behaviors, even me.”
“Women talk about it in ceremonies, in meetings, and they explain their problems or opinions. This is very important.”
.Increasing providers’ readiness to respond to GBVs
Four months after the provider trainings took place, RESPOND conducted supervision visits and endline interviews with providers who received training and with their facility managers. A comparison of baseline and endline interviews shows a number of results.
Attitudes remained supportive
To gauge providers’ attitudes about GBV, the interviewers asked them three questions:
- “In your opinion, are there situations in which a person deserves to experience GBV?”
- “Imagine that a woman comes to this health center and says she was raped but doesn’t want to tell anyone other than you, her medical provider, what happened. However, in private, her husband asks you what happened. In your opinion, should you tell her husband that she was raped?”
- “If a man has sex with a woman who says ‘no’ but does not put up physical resistance, has he committed rape?”
At both baseline and endline, at least 90% of providers gave answers indicating attitudes that are supportive of GBV survivors.
Lessons Learned
Overall, the project laid a strong foundation for future programming in GBV prevention and health sector response. The project developed a number of tools2 that are available by request and could be adapted for use in other contexts:
Baseline health facility assessment protocol and tools (French and English) Health care provider curriculum (Somali and English) Endline evaluation protocol and tools (French and English)
For each of the project’s interventions, lessons were learned about what worked best and what could be improved or added to a longer project. Overarching lessons learned are presented below, followed by lessons by intervention.
Overarching Lessons Learned
Seek guidance from a multi-sectoral steering committee.
The project’s steering committee was instrumental in ensuring that activities met locally felt needs and in earning the project credibility in country. By involving local NGOs, service providers, and ministries in the steering committee, RESPOND also reinforced referral linkages between these bodies and provided a forum for sharing ideas across sectors. Another value of the committee—strengthening the capacity of participants and the institutions they represent—was illustrated when the chief police investigator oriented his staff on key principles and practices of RESPOND’s SOPs.
Ensure adequate time for building the capacity of health sector and community partners. With more time and greater funding, the project could have done more to build capacity for GBV prevention and the health sector’s response to SV. Capacity building is rarely achieved through a single training event, and considerable follow-up support and mentoring may be needed to foster the knowledge and skills needed by both health care providers and community members to address GBV effectively in their respective spheres. For example, if the project time frame had been longer, it would have been desirable to help individual trained health care providers to identify and address site-specific bottlenecks and barriers to the provision of an integrated package of SV services.