Behavior Profile: DRC SLR Gender Strategy Summary - based on DESKTOP ONLY
DRC SLR Gender Strategy Summary - based on DESKTOP ONLY
(1) Number of households who have obtained documented property rights as result of USG [4.7.4-5 – EG.3.1-12e] [disaggregated by age and gender]; (2) Number of previously existing land and natural resource-based conflicts resolved in favor of the protection of the most vulnerable populations and local communities involved in areas receiving USG assistance for land conflict mitigation [4.7.4-7] [disaggregated by age and gender]; (3) Percentage of beneficiaries/partners who work intra and inter-community [custom] [disaggregated by age and gender]; (4) Number of marginalized individuals in the agriculture system who have applied improved management practices or technologies with USG assistance [E.G. 3.2.-24] [disaggregated by age and gender]; (5) Total number of clients benefiting from financial services provided through USG-assisted financial intermediaries, including non-financial institutions or actors [EG.4.2-1] [disaggregated by age and gender]; (6) Number of people gaining access to basic drinking water services as a result of USG assistance [HL.8.1-1] [disaggregated by age and gender]; (7) Percentage of women, youth and other marginalized groups participating in opportunities [custom] [disaggregated by age and opportunity]

Behavior Analysis

Strategy

BEHAVIOR AND STEPS

What steps are needed to practice this behavior?

DRC SLR Gender Summary

  1. IR 1: Individuals, including women and youth, secure improved formal property rights
  2. IR 2: Farmers, including women and youth and other marginalized groups, develop and use mechanisms to prevent and respond to conflict
  3. IR 3: Individuals, including women, youth and other marginalized groups, work across ethnicities and intra- and inter-communities
  4. IR 4: Farmers, including women and youth, adopt sustainable agricultural production practices
  5. IR 5: Female- and youth-run local savings and credit groups use financial services
  6. IR 6: Individuals, including women and youth, drink safe water
  7. IR 7: Community members, especially women and youth, participate in civic/political, economic, educational, and social opportunities

FACTORS

What factors may prevent or support practice of this behavior?
Structural
Accessibility: 1. Financial Accessibility: Inadequate access to funding resources, needed collateral, etc. to adopt new or expanded practices {5,9,11}
Accessibility: 2. General Availability: Insufficient access to affordable, sharable technologies and small input packages for seeds, fertilizers, etc. that can encourage purchase and use by women and youth {2,13,17,20}
Accessibility: 3. General Availability: Limited access to safe, proximal, affordable drinking water {1,9,10,14}
Social
Family and Community Support: 4. Collective Agency: Existing positive role models to look to for inspiration and support {3,5,14,18}
Gender: 5. Gendered or other excluded groups - Decision-Making Authority: Insufficient involvement in decision making on land management, crop choices, budget use, resilience measures, etc. within the household by women, youth, and other excluded groups {2,9,12,16}
Norms: 6. Social Rules and Expectations: Belief by women and youth that sexual violence and rape are the result of insufficient systems for victims and sanctions for perpetrators discourages women and youth from participating in any activities or speaking out about sexual violence {2,13,17,20}
Norms: 7. Social Networks: Existing cross-communities interaction around productive activities including marketing {4.8.19}
Internal
Attitudes and Beliefs: 8. Perceived Identity and Value: Strong documented desire by women and youth to be involved in agricultural activities {1,3,11,17}
Attitudes and Beliefs: 9. Moral Incentives: Belief that to speak out against sexual violence is the right thing to do and that one will be admired for doing so {6,7,10,13}
Attitudes and Beliefs: 10. Outlook on Life: Belief there is nothing one can do about sexual violence so that it is not articulated as a “problem” {6,9,14,15}

SUPPORTING ACTORS AND ACTIONS

Who must support the practice of this behavior, and what actions must they take?
Institutional
Policymakers: Support enforced sanctions and organizational systems changes to reduce sexual violence and increase social cohesion
Formal and Informal Financial Institutions: Develop and offer a package of services directed to women and youth which more flexible terms, etc.
Manufacturers and Producers: Seek out solutions to reduce cost of seed, fertilizer, etc., make products smaller and/or more divisible, and make products available through local markets
USAID: Provides support when called upon by the project, such as acting as the Ambassador for technical aspects of the project with the Ministry or UNICEF, etc.
USAID and the U.S. Embassy: Intervene diplomatically to address key bottlenecks beyond SLR’s scope, but which constrain SLR’s implementation and meeting its objective and targets
Community
Community Leaders: Seek ways to obtain and ensure safe drinking water close to their communities
Community and Religious Leaders: Identify and/or create resources to support rape and sexual violence victims, including healing and wellness work
Community and Religious Leaders: Identify and recommend existing, with adaptations as needed, and new mechanisms for continued cross-community interactions around agriculture, marketing, conflict prevention and response, sexual violence sanctions, etc.
Community and Religious Leaders: Advocate with policymakers to support enforced sanctions and organizational systems changes to reduce sexual violence and rape
Community and Religious Leaders: Hold regular community meetings together to discuss the challenges and opportunities of power dynamics as it relates to the desired behaviors
Community and Religious Leaders: Identify male, female and youth champions that are positive role models for the desired behaviors, i.e., they practice the behavior(s) now

POSSIBLE PROGRAM STRATEGIES

What strategies will best focus our efforts based on this analysis?

Strategy requires Communication Support

Enabling Environment
Financing: Working with financial institutions and designated groups such as women’s groups, pilot develop, test, and refine 2-3 audience-specific-friendly financing packages with full-service financial support to ensure access to and use of finance resources, such as loans, collateral establishment, etc.
Partnerships and Networks: Working with local peace and mediation councils, coordinate communication, training, and collective engagement activities to create and strengthen collaboration across communities and ethnic groups, especially the Hema/Lendu.
Partnerships and Networks: Working with community and religious leaders, strengthen and leverage existing collaborations- or build new partnerships- with organizations and programs that provide confidential and holistic support services (health care including HIV post-exposure prophylaxis and testing as well as family planning, psychosocial support and counseling services, mediation, paralegal services, child care support, and vocational training) for women who are victims of rape- whether by intimate partners, the military, or unknown men.
Policies and Governance: Working with local authorities at the district, territorial and collectivity levels as appropriate, identify and review existing systems, laws and sanctions and recommend and implement changes needed - focusing on locally led solutions and opportunities to hold perpetrators accountable for sexual violence and begin to re-value selected target audiences, such as women, girls, differently abled, etc.
Systems, Products and Services
Infrastructure: Working with local authorities and leaders, secure funding for boreholes in selected communities to ensure equitable access to safe drinking water.
Products and Technology: Working with local manufacturers and producers, design, test and sell at affordable prices small-pack seed and fertilizer (and other items as appropriate) to increase access and affordability for women, youth, and other marginalized groups.
Quality Improvement: Working with community members, local community and religious leaders, identify and/or create safe havens and dialogue platforms for victims of sexual violence, especially to include specifics around healing and wellness
Demand and Use
Advocacy: Working with community and religious leaders, develop a meeting package to discuss the challenges and opportunities for households based on household power dynamics - for men, women, and youth - and use results from these discussions to add discussion topics and household options to the community mobile van to promote and ensure support of local authorities in all activities.
Advocacy: Working with community and religious leaders, create an advocacy package to use with policymakers on laws, sanctions and organizational systems changes to reduce sexual violence and increase social cohesion to improve the functioning of systems and enforcement of policies and laws.
Communication: 15. Communication: Working with identified leaders and champions, develop and implement a public communication campaign that focuses on peace building and building community resilience. Enlisting men, families and community leaders who speak out in support of peace building and building community resilience including acknowledging inequities and incorporating excluded groups.
Communication: Working with cross-community leaders, create a digital platform and materials and/or utilize existing of both on issues identified through the feedback mechanism (these same could be used with the Community Mobile Van as well) to foster cross-community, community-wide dialogue, learning and locally led solutions to share information regularly and encourage broad participation in activities. [This activity would need to ensure language appropriateness for selected communities and resources to create and post to platform.]
Communication: Working with identified leaders and champions, develop and implement a public campaign to combat the stigmatization and victim blaming of rape victims. [The campaign would enlist the support of men, families, and community leaders, including religious leaders and government authorities up to the highest level to speak out clearly and strongly in support of victims of sexual violence and against their stigmatization, and to voice zero tolerance for rape.].
Communication: Working through identified leaders and champions in select communities, create a feedback "mechanism" [board, box, other] through which community members can anonymously post/submit challenges and opportunities surrounding the key priority behaviors and SLR activities and, using these submissions, discuss (at community meetings) possible local solutions to challenges or how to take advantage of proposed opportunities - also linking feedback received to community mobile fair topics to increase participation and social accountability for activities and gender measures.
Collective Engagement: Working with cross-community local authorities; develop and implement conflict mitigation training to promote cross-community conflict response and problem-solving.
Collective Engagement: Working with local leaders and community and religious leaders, through a consultative mapping exercise, identify specific areas and locations where women are most at risk, and prioritize strategies to reduce risk of rape and other gender-based violence based on their own recommendations.
Collective Engagement: Working with leaders and identified champions, create a quarterly, in-person “Community Mobile Van”, i.e., traveling troupe, for which champions develop materials and activities on issues surrounding the key priority behaviors and during which they lead, discuss, and share information on and tactics, including healing and well-being tactics, for overcoming challenges and taking advantage of opportunities to practice the behaviors to bring issues and solutions closer to home.
Skills Building: Working with local partners, develop and implement a hands-on training package that covers agricultural practices needed to successfully plant, harvest, process, store, and, when appropriate sell crops; package could include use of champions, eventually have new participants become champions, and be combined with activities on day of Community Mobile Van to provide at-hand access to information and skills required to adopt the behaviors.