Prevention, Including Awareness Raising and Advocacy

In June 2025, UNODC delivered a presentation at a side event of the 59th session of the Human Rights Council on “Protection from Domestic Violence: Breaking Cycles, Building Peace”. The event explored domestic violence from different perspectives, with UNODC highlights its work on criminal justice responses and the preventive potential of the femicide review methodology.  

Ending violence against women and girls requires transforming the social norms, attitudes, and power relations that drive it. Spotlight Initiative implements evidence-based, whole-of-society prevention approaches that engage a range of stakeholders, including communities, schools, traditional and religious leaders, men and boys, to promote gender-equitable norms and behaviours.

In 2025, in Ecuador, the Initiative’s prevention campaigns promoting non-violent masculinities reached approximately 2 million people, contributing to increased public awareness of gender equality and GBV. In Uganda, nearly 27,000 community members were mobilized through the SASA! Together model, with reported shifts in community attitudes toward GBV. 

In Sierra Leone, the rollout of life skills curricula reached 72,000 learners nationwide, contributing to the integration of GBV prevention across the education sector. Through the Initiative's support, teachers were trained across 80 schools to deliver the Child and Adolescent Health and Life Skills (CAHLS) curriculum. Learners engaged with structured content on GBV prevention, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and gender norms, strengthening their knowledge, skills and agency.

In Zambia, with the Initiative’s support, 400 trained teachers reached over 24,000 learners through the Connect with Respect methodology, while the Initiative engaged faith and traditional leaders in gender-transformative training, resulting in public commitments to eradicate GBV. At the global level, the Initiative’s #WithHer campaign generated approximately 28.7 million social media views and impressions, an 86 per cent increase from 2024, reaching mainstream audiences with behaviour change messaging on masculinity, image-based sexual violence, and gender equality.

Prevention programming that engages diverse actors across multiple levels of society, from communities and schools to digital platforms and global campaigns, generates the mutually reinforcing shifts in norms and behaviours that siloed, single-sector approaches cannot achieve. 

Since 2024, UNFPA has significantly strengthened its GBV prevention through a series of strategic and evidence-driven initiatives: 

• The organization undertook a comprehensive internal mapping of GBV prevention programmes across regions, which, combined with a global literature review on “what works”, has informed the development of new internal guidance on GBV prevention. This forthcoming guidance is designed to support country offices in planning, implementing, and scaling evidence-based interventions, while ensuring alignment with UNFPA’s Strategic Plan and its gender strategy Agency, Choice and Access and GBV Operational Plan, Flourish. It reinforces work across legal reform, social norms transformation, youth empowerment, and feminist movement strengthening.
• UNFPA has deepened the integration of GBV prevention into comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). This includes the development of a forthcoming  policy brief that leverages the potential of CSE for GBV prevention, alongside operational guidance that translates evidence into practical steps for integrating violence prevention intervention components,   gender-transformative approaches and trauma-informed approaches into CSE programming. UNFPA is also building the evidence base on how CSE contributes to preventing violence and the impact of CSE in improving access to GBV services.
• Through the Women at the Centre (WAC) programme, UNFPA community outreach efforts focused on adapting social and gender norms change theory into local contexts in five countries including Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe.  Countries adapted UNFPA’s Global Social and Gender Norms Change Toolkit or other globally recognized prevention models like SASA! targeting women leaders, adolescents, caregivers/adults, and religious/community leaders. UNFPA additionally  implemented diverse TFGBV awareness initiatives through the WAC programme, such as media training and educational game kits in El Salvador and the development of public booklets in Indonesia. Madagascar and Zimbabwe utilized community outreach and radio campaigns during the 16 Days of Activism to address digital safety and online violence. These integrated efforts across the four countries focused on adapting social and gender norms change theory to local contexts to better protect women and youth in virtual environments.
• UNFPA, together with UNWOMEN, WHO and UNDP, has developed forthcoming guidance on the Dos and Don’ts of Engaging Men and Boys, emphasizing that such efforts must remain accountable to women’s rights movements, challenge harmful masculinities and power imbalances, adopt intersectional approaches, and avoid diverting resources from women- and girl-centred programming.
• UNFPA is piloting innovative approaches such as a digital redirection intervention to counter online sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) misinformation and gendered disinformation, linking young people to accurate information and services. Together, these efforts reflect a more integrated, systemic, and forward-looking prevention agenda.
• UNFPA ASRO technically supported the establishment of a regional digital hub on child marriage in the Arab region through the launch of the Regional Action Forum (RAF) website in 2025, which is hosted and coordinated by UNICEF. The digital hub hosts over 80 technical and advocacy resources, strengthening access to evidence, visibility, and cross-country learning among UN agencies, CSOs, iNGOs, academia, and women’s rights organisations.
• UNFPA Morocco supported the Aman Laki - an innovative digital solution for GBV prevention and response, providing women, especially survivors and those in vulnerable situations, with easy access to integrated support services. Through a user-friendly interface, the platform enables online requests, connects users to listening centers and specialized services, and facilitates referrals to multisectoral institutions, including pathways for support and economic empowerment.
• UNFPA Sudan strengthened the role of Women-Led Organizations (WLOs) as frontline GBV responders by supporting localization efforts through technical and financial assistance, coordination platforms, and increased visibility. This enhanced their capacity, representation, and influence, ensuring grassroots women’s leadership is better integrated into humanitarian, peacebuilding, and recovery processes.

Through its advocacy, movement-building and community mobilization efforts in 2025, the UN Trust Fund convened 11 global advocacy events featuring 28 grantee partners, facilitated 20 country and regional networking events involving 68 grantee partners, and co-created 83 public advocacy and visibility platforms amplifying feminist advocacy and frontline evidence.

In 2025, UN Women significantly expanded evidence-based prevention and advocacy to address the root causes of violence against women and girls. Building on the RESPECT framework, prevention efforts were scaled and adapted across regions, including Latin America and the Caribbean, and reinforced through the rollout of an updated RESPECT 2.0 framework, integrating new evidence, humanitarian applications and intersectional risk mitigation approaches. 

UN Women supported 93 countries to develop or implement prevention strategies and action plans, alongside the development of a dedicated global prevention strategy positioning prevention as a central pillar across normative, coordination and operational work. 

Capacity-building efforts included a regional Training of Trainers in West and Central Africa, equipping stakeholders from 15 countries (with reach across 24 countries) to implement evidence-based prevention programming. The RESPECT Framework was localized and adapted to Latin America and the Caribbean, integrating concrete policy examples from the region and building capacities of government authorities, public servants, and civil society to implement the evidence‑based interventions promoted by the framework in Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador. 

Community-based programming, youth engagement, and partnerships with civil society, faith actors and local institutions contributed to shifts in harmful social norms, including through 76 initiatives across 39 countries globally. Concrete country-level results included:

• In Malawi, 1,893 child marriages were dissolved, enabling girls’ return to school
• In Pakistan, over 80 stakeholders across six provinces contributed to the development of a National Prevention Action Plan

UN Women also strengthened its global convening and advocacy role, including through implementation of the EU-funded ACT programme supporting feminist movements and countering backlash. High-level advocacy engagements, including global events with over 150 participants, advanced commitments to safe work environments and accelerated ratification of ILO Convention 190.

Innovative approaches—including engagement with men and boys, private sector partnerships and storytelling initiatives—further reinforced prevention as a central pillar linking policy, community engagement and behavior change.

Overall, these efforts strengthened prevention ecosystems by connecting policy frameworks, evidence generation, community mobilization and global advocacy to drive sustainable change.

As part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence yearly campaign, UNODC promoted several awareness-raising initiatives, including: 

• Algeria:  launch of a short movie with famous male influencers expressing support to women victims of violence 
• Namibia:  launch of the National Namibian Gender Base Violence Database. Developed with the support of UNODC, the Database uses administrative data to track the outcomes of a reported case along the multisectoral continuum of care, to its criminal process outcomes. 

 Other activities: 

• UNODC in collaboration with Mauritania organized a campaign in Mauritanian high schools to combat unconscious gender stereotypes and create vocations to the professions of defense, security, and justice among young Mauritanian girls. 
• UNODC organized three awareness-raising sessions on Prisoner and Human Rights for Women and Juvenile Inmates with the Sindh Prison Department in Pakistan. 
• Cambodia: UNODC raised awareness on support available for victims though a six-month public information campaign.  
• Mexico:  UNODC joined the conversation on how sport can be a vehicle towards gender equality in the podcast Cancha Naranja, tu espacio seguro. This podcast addresses the different strategies to eradicate violence and gender inequalities both on and off the playing field. 

 Within the framework of the joint programme “HAYA: Eliminating violence against women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip”, UNODC conducted an awareness-raising campaign that promoted essential services available to victims and survivors of gender-based violence in the State of Palestine. The Office also organized six awareness-raising workshops for service providers dealing with survivors and victims of violence.  

The prevention of violence against women and girls through changes in behaviours, practices and attitudes is a core strategic priority of the UN Trust Fund, and one of the three outcome areas in its Strategic Plan 2021-2025.

Between 2021 and 2024, an average of 80% of initiatives supported by the UN Trust Fund per year included strategies to prevent violence against women and girls.

In the same period, grantee partners engaged 39,261 community leaders, 7,325 faith leaders, 11,843 traditional leaders and 16,702 youth leaders to publicly advocate for changes in behaviours, practices and attitudes towards violence against women and girls, including changing harmful practices.

Almost 361,000 women and girls were supported between 2021 and 2024 to build skills and capacities in self-efficacy, agency, assertiveness and self-confidence through support from UN Trust Fund grantees (for example, through economic and social empowerment initiatives as a protective factor against violence against women and girls). An average of 316 evidence and/or practice-based methodologies, approaches or models were developed and/or implemented every year to achieve or advance changes in behaviour and social norms aimed at preventing violence against women and girls through UN Trust Fund grantees.

For instance, in 2024, Leap Girl Africa used podcast and in-person sessions with couples in Cameroon to foster dialogue and reflection within intimate partnerships, helping challenge harmful beliefs about gender roles and redefine what healthy, equitable relationships can look like. The intervention led to measurable shifts in social norms and reported rates of emotional and physical intimate partner violence nearly halved within three months. Jan Sahas in India established balika panchayats (girls' councils) that engaged 1,542 girls in leadership development, equipping them with legal literacy and negotiation skills. They also conducted awareness sessions for men and boys addressing issues such as consent. School-based programmes reached 23,498 students. 

In 2024, IOM in alignment with institutional commitments made against the 2021-2025 roadmap of the Call to Action to protect against GBV in emergencies, advanced gender equality and the prevention of gender-based violence through our programmatic interventions aimed at protective outcomes. Recognizing that gender inequality and power imbalances lie at the root causes of GBV, IOM has further reinforced the third pillar of the Institutional Framework for Addressing GBV in Crises, which focuses on GBV prevention. This effort has been achieved through a key partnership with Raising Voices enabling IOM to implement the SASA! Together approach, an evidence-based community mobilization methodology that supports communities in creating positive and sustainable changes in social norms that perpetuate violence against women.   

The approach has been piloted at both community level and using an institutional strengthening modality by four IOM Country Offices including Bangladesh, South Sudan, Iraq, and Pakistan. In 2024, IOM conducted its second training on SASA! Together, focusing on the critical fundamentals of the “Set Up” and “Start” phases of the methodology. This training equipped IOM staff and partners across 17 countries with the tools and knowledge to implement the structured approach in their respective contexts

Violence against women and girls is preventable, and prevention remains central to UN Women’s work in addressing its root causes, including harmful social norms and unequal gender power dynamics. Risk factors such as limited education, childhood exposure to violence, harmful use of alcohol, and societal attitudes that normalize violence and gender inequality increase the likelihood of experiencing or perpetrating violence against women and girls.75 Effective prevention requires mitigating these risk factors while amplifying protective measures such as promoting healthy relationships, fostering gender equality, and creating supportive environments. UN Women has been instrumental in influencing intergovernmental processes, such as the UN General Assembly76 and CSW,77 to prioritize VAWG prevention. Together with partners, UN Women has integrated prevention into government agendas through the development of NAPs and prevention strategies. Foundational documents like the UN Prevention Framework78 and the RESPECT framework79 have been critical in fostering a shared understanding and a coordinated approach across diverse stakeholders. In 2022 and 2023, UN Women led evidence-based prevention interventions grounded in the RESPECT framework’s seven strategic areas.80 These initiatives addressed the root causes of VAWG through interconnected strategies, including shifting harmful norms in families, through sports and within institutions; mobilizing communities; engaging men and boys, as well as religious and traditional leaders; supporting women’s agency and economic empowerment; and partnering with the private sector to ensure safe workplaces and communities where women and girls can thrive free from violence. 

Specific examples of UN Women’s work include:

• RESPECT Framework was implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, reaching community leaders and policymakers.
• UN Women ACRO, in collaboration with PAHO, adapted the RESPECT Global Framework to Latin America and the Caribbean and promoted capacity building workshops in Chile and Bolivia with the participation of more than 130 policymakers.
• Sport-based programs:
  • Get into Rugby Plus engaged 629 children and trained 50% female coaches in Fiji and Samoa.
• Community mobilization:
  • SASA! Together expanded in Uganda, training 1,500+ activists to challenge GBV norms.
  • Strengthening Peaceful Village in Kiribati led to 1,200 community-led actions that reduced household violence.
• The UN Women Foundations Programme was rolled out in Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, engaging over 2,000 facilitators and young people on GBV prevention in and out of school programmes
• Evidence-based prevention was promoted through resources like the VAW Prevention Programming Guide, Voices Against Violence curriculum. Prevention efforts engaged youth, and faith organizations to challenge norms and catalyse behaviour change.   ROAP also launched a regional storytelling initiative, empowering women and LGBTQI+ advocates to challenge harmful norms through public speaking.
• In 2024, UN Women expanded its convening role, leveraging the UN-Women and the European Union in 2023 committed to a 22-million-euro Advocacy, Coalition Building and Transformative Feminist Action to End Violence Against Women (ACT) Programme in Latin America and Africa to counter backlash against gender equality and mobilize resources for women’s rights organizations.

FAO has enhanced its efforts to prevent and mitigate GBV through community-driven initiatives, including Dimitra Clubs, Farmer Field Schools (FFS), Youth and Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (YJFFLS), Women’s Empowerment Farmer Business School (WE-FBS), and the Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) approach. These programmes empower individuals and foster collective action, effectively addressing gender inequalities and enhancing safety. By engaging both women and men, they create platforms for dialogue, social norms shift education, and shared responsibility, driving positive change in communities and contributing to the reduction of GBV risks.