Social Norms
Our guide to key resources to support your workSocial norms are the unspoken rules that govern behaviours within a group, defining which behaviours are considered acceptable or desirable and which behaviours will be condoned, tolerated or condemned. VAW and VAC are sustained by norms that normalise and justify gender inequality and violence. This guide highlights key resources to increase your understanding on how harmful norms can be addressed to prevent VAW and VAC.
- Piecing Together the Evidence on Social Norms and Violence Against Women
- Social Norms and AYSRH: Building a Bridge from Theory to Programme Design
- Community-Based Norms Focused Interventions: Definition and Attributes
- Measuring Social Norms
- Applying Theory to Practice: Care’s Journey Piloting Social Norms Measures for Gender Programming
Multimedia resources
Social Norms Programmes
Key programmes that aim to prevent violence through social norms changeAll social norms resources
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Webinars
Unite for a Better Life: Adapting an IPV Prevention Intervention for a Humanitarian Context
Dr. Vandana Sharma and Samuel Tewolde Gebretsadik present the process of adapting the Unite for a Better Life (UBL) programme to a humanitarian context and ...
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Evidence Syntheses
Effective Design and Implementation Elements in Interventions to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls
Over the last two decades, the global community has come to recognise the profound impact of violence on the lives of women and girls. This ...
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Evidence Syntheses
Effective Design and Implementation Elements in Interventions to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls – EVIDENCE BRIEF
Over the last two decades, the global community has come to recognise the profound impact of violence on the lives of women and girls. This ...
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Evidence Syntheses
A Rigorous Global Evidence Review of Interventions to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is preventable. Over the last two decades, VAWG prevention practitioners and researchers have been developing and testing interventions to ...
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Evidence Syntheses
A Rigorous Global Evidence Review of Interventions to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is preventable. Over the last two decades, VAWG prevention practitioners and researchers have been developing and testing interventions to ...
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Webinars
Preventing IPV in Rural Ethiopia: Developing, Implementing and Testing “Unite for a Better Life”
Unite for a Better Life (UBL) is a gender-transformative programme to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV. It is delivered by trained facilitators to ...
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Practice Briefs
Fidelity Brief for Adapting Indashyikirwa
Using the experience of implementation in rural Rwanda, this brief guides organizations to adapt and refine the Indashyikirwa Couples Curriculum for their own contexts and ...
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Prevention Stories
Lessons from Oxfam’s Bano Nayi Soch: Buno Hinsa Mukt Rishtey Campaign to Prevent Violence in India
Against the backdrop of India’s high rates of violence against women (VAW) and insufficient efforts to prevent it, in November 2016, Oxfam India launched the ...
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Practice Briefs
Shifting Social Norms in the Economy for Women’s Economic Empowerment
This document is a summary of the process and insights from the participants of a 2017 Practitioner Learning Group (PLG) on “Shifting Social Norms in ...
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Multimedia
Webinar: Tackling Gender Norms through Media
The power of the media to influence gender norms both towards greater equality and reinforcing discriminatory attitudes and behaviour has long been recognised. This webinar ...
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Webinars
Unite for a Better Life: Adapting an IPV Prevention Intervention for a Humanitarian Context
Dr. Vandana Sharma and Samuel Tewolde Gebretsadik present the process of adapting the Unite for a Better Life (UBL) programme...

Webinars
Preventing IPV in Rural Ethiopia: Developing, Implementing and Testing “Unite for a Better Life”
Unite for a Better Life (UBL) is a gender-transformative programme to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV. It is...

Practice Briefs
Fidelity Brief for Adapting Indashyikirwa
Using the experience of implementation in rural Rwanda, this brief guides organizations to adapt and refine the Indashyikirwa Couples Curriculum...
Prevention Stories
Lessons from Oxfam’s Bano Nayi Soch: Buno Hinsa Mukt Rishtey Campaign to Prevent Violence in India
Against the backdrop of India’s high rates of violence against women (VAW) and insufficient efforts to prevent it, in November...

Study Summaries
The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore Programme: Engaging Boys to Prevent Violence in Bihar, India
This intervention, targeting boys and young men aged 13–21, provided gender transformative life skills education and sports–coaching in Patna district,...
Study Summaries
The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore Violence Prevention Programme: Women’s Intervention in Bihar, India
This intervention targeted married women in existing village-level self-help groups (SHGs) in Nawada, Bihar. It provided gender transformative learning sessions...
Programme Summaries
The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality) Programme to Prevent VAW in Bihar, India
The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality) Programme was implemented to better understand what works to prevent...
Programme Summaries
Bandebereho Couples’ Intervention to Promote Male Engagement in Rwanda
The Bandebereho (or “role model”) intervention was based on Program P and part of the global MenCare fatherhood campaign. It...
Study Summaries
Bandebereho Couples’ Intervention to Promote Male Engagement in Rwanda
The Bandebereho (“role model”) intervention, adapted from Program P, aimed to promote positive fatherhood and gender equality amongst expectant fathers...
Programme Summaries
The Safe Homes and Respect for Everyone (SHARE) Programme in Rakai Uganda
The Safe Homes and Respect for Everyone (SHARE) intervention was a multi-component intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV prevention programme...
Practice Briefs
Fidelity Brief for Adapting Indashyikirwa
Using the experience of implementation in rural Rwanda, this brief guides organizations to adapt and refine the Indashyikirwa Couples Curriculum...
Programme Summaries
The Indashyikirwa Programme, Rwanda
The Indashyikirwa programme aimed to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) and improve the wellbeing of survivors in selected communities in...
Prevention Stories
Holistic Youth Development as a Life Course Approach to Violence Prevention
Globally, research shows that there is a close association between boy’s childhood exposure to violence and the perpetration of intimate...

Practice Briefs
Strengthening Prevention Work with Men and Boys in Community Settings
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 makes a global commitment to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in...
Prevention Stories
Why Engaging Religious Scholars in Dialogue Could Hold the Key to Ending FGM in East Africa
When Maryam Sheikh joined the Population Council to work on preventing female genital mutilation (FGM) among the Somali population of...

Study Summaries
Bandebereho Couples’ Intervention to Promote Male Engagement in Rwanda
The Bandebereho (“role model”) intervention, adapted from Program P, aimed to promote positive fatherhood and gender equality amongst expectant fathers...
Study Summaries
Integrating IPV and HIV prevention: Impacts of the SHARE Intervention in Uganda
This study evaluated the Safe Homes and Respect for Everyone (SHARE) intervention, a multi-component IPV and HIV prevention program integrated...
Prevention Stories
How Bicycles Started to Shift Gender Norms in Zaatari Refugee Camp
Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan is the size of a small city. Home to some 80,000 Syrian refugees, the...

Programme Summaries
The Safe Homes and Respect for Everyone (SHARE) Programme in Rakai Uganda
The Safe Homes and Respect for Everyone (SHARE) intervention was a multi-component intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV prevention programme...
Study Summaries
The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore Programme: Engaging Boys to Prevent Violence in Bihar, India
This intervention, targeting boys and young men aged 13–21, provided gender transformative life skills education and sports–coaching in Patna district,...