RISE is a driving force of ending violence against women agenda. Being a women’s rights organization with a proven track record of ending violence against women and girls, is at the forefront of reaching at risk women and girls and violence survivors at grassroots level. Women and girls are involved in decision making, planning and actual delivery of projects.
The organisation puts women and girls in all their diversity at the center of programming. Women and girls including sex workers and transgender young people are part of implementation teams because they hold key positions in all projects. Women and girls are not mere beneficiaries but active change agents who determine direction and effectiveness of interventions. Women and girls from the community to management levels are involved in making decisions about activities to be implemented, adaptations to be made and emerging innovations to be integrated.
RISE challenges gender-based discrimination and inequality using gender sensitive project designing, planning and implementation. Project roles are allocated based on merit and not on gender or sexual orientation. RISE ensures that its leaves no girl behind in the gender equality and development agenda. RISE implements interventions in a way that ensures that women and men, boys and girls; and Sex Workers and LGBTQIA+ are given equal opportunities to fill leadership positions and take key roles and leadership responsibilities in projects.
Violence against girls is on the rise in Lilongwe and Dowa districts. 50% of girls in school knew at least one girl approached by a teacher for sex according to recent evaluations by UNICEF. 38.7 percent of girls knew of teachers having sex with girl students. 64% of girls said they had problems with boys in school, including that boys had touched their breasts or buttocks. 80% of girls reported experiencing verbal or sexual abuse on the way to or from school and being beaten by teachers. 95% of girls indicated that they did not report violence incidents to authorities, noting reasons such as that those schools would not do anything and fear of retaliation (The Policy Project, 2015).
Forty-one percent of girls experience either physical or sexual violence in Malawi. 16% experience physical violence; 13% experience sexual violence; and 12% experience both physical and sexual violence. 65% of girls experience sexual abuse during their lifetime. 50% of girls are married before their 18th birthday (UNICEF, 2013). RISE will target Lilongwe and Dowa districts and implement rights based, holistic and multi-sectoral responses to prevent Sexual Violence against Girls and Young Women (VAGYW) and to promote and address girl's inter-related rights and needs. The criminalization of sex work has disproportionately given way to increased violence and an inability to access essential health services among Sex Workers. In response to these challenges.
RISE projects tackle specific harmful cultural norms and practices especially gender inequality, male superiority over females. In domestic, school and community settings, violence against girls include defilement, sexual exploitation, psychological violence, and rape as well as child early and forced marriages. These specific harmful cultural practices and male superiority attitudes continue to limit girls’ aspirations and increase their vulnerability to HIV. Because of negative attitudes against female children and male chauvinism, these male dominated communities operate around a narrow patriarchal ideology which continues to value men more than women and men dominate women with impunity.
The organisation is addressing the gender imbalances, the harmful cultural practices and the knowledge gaps as root causes of Violence Against Girls and Young Women (VAGYW) in the following ways: creating awareness on the existing rights protection protocols. Holding advocacy meetings with legislators, law commission and women caucus in parliament for domestication of international treaties and harmonization of laws on GBV. Building capacity of community structures and organizing them to be functioning community initiated and self-sustaining.
Conduct community rights education. Strengthen individual and community capacities to effectively report and prevent GBV. Creation and strengthening community structures that prevent GBV and sustain services to GBV victims. Enactment of by–laws against GBV by chiefs and community leaders. Supporting economic strengthening for Sex Workers.
The main strategies for addressing GBV includes advocacy, capacity building, strengthening legal protections, creating referrals for psychosocial therapy and medical services, legal support for VAGYW survivors and improved engagement with men, boys and community leaders in challenging male stereotypes to prevent and eliminate VAG by transforming harmful social norms.
The innovative Approaches in Addressing GBV includes: Engaging men, boys and community leaders in rights education, community mobilization and integrated rights-based approaches in addressing specific drivers of GBV. Building capacity of influential leaders, men and boys to champion change of mind-set, attitude and motive towards the girls and women -using policies and laws like Prevention of gender-based violence Act, Marriage, divorce and family relations law, Gender equality Act and CEDAW. Working together with chiefs and community leaders on modification of cultural practices that perpetuate GBV.
RISE EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE IN ENDING GBV IN MALAWI
RISE has technical expertise and experience in the field of ending violence against women and girls. With technical expertise in applying a gender power analysis to project design, RISE adopts an explicit feminist approach to project delivery and impact evaluation. RISE has experience in designing and delivering projects that foster community activism and contribute to measurable reduction in VAWG.
RISE implemented a Hands-Off Project with funding from Positive Action and ELMA Foundation, 2016-2020, with a budget of $450, 000.00. Hands-Off interrupted the cycle of violence by increasing number of sexual violence cases reported, investigated and prosecuted. RISE fostered community activism that shifted norms and improved attitudes and increased access to medical and psychosocial support to 1, 980 girl survivors of NPSV.
Hands-Off tackled risk factors of IPV and NPSV in 510 villages through couples’ interventions which transformed gender relations within the couple and addressed alcohol abuse and violence in 210 relationships. RISE fostered activism for ending Child Marriages through legal reforms and direct support.
With Hivos funding, RISE supported community activism for constitutional changes to make Marriage to
girls below 18 years illegal. In 2015, the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Law banned marriages to girls under 18 years. The new law was the outcome of this joint advocacy RISE reduced severity of violence and stopped its recurrence by rescuing 1, 288 girls under 18 years from Child Marriages.
In Lilongwe, Sex Workers have faced huge economic impact due to COVID-19-related restrictions on physical contact and movement. The criminalization of sex work has given way to increased violence. RISE delivered combined economic and social empowerment activities targeting Sex Workers. With Health and Rights Initiative (HeRI), RISE supported Small Scale Enterprises involving 987 Sex Workers who achieved increased food and economic security and reduced vulnerabilities to Violence.
RISE has implemented a project called Empowered Needs for Greater Actions and Gender Equality (ENGAGE). ENGAGE fostered activism by engaging Sex Workers and police on legal rights, cultural norms and stigma to prevent violence on Sex Workers. ENGAGE was delivered with funding from ELMA Philanthropies from 2016-2021. With Solon Foundation funding, 2010-2021, RISE increased access to legal support, emergency contraception and psychosocial therapy to IPV survivors.
Objectives
To reduce GBV incidences in 300 villages and 100 schools by 46% from 51% to 5% among 5,000 girls using GBV laws and policies to protect girls’ rights.
To increase numbers of reported GBV cases among 5,000 girls by 80% from 5% to 85% by improving GBV monitoring capacities of 400 men, 200 boys and 100 teachers.
To increase access to psychosocial therapy and SRHR, medical, and legal remedy services by 91% from
9% to 100% for 1, 000 girl survivors of GBV.
Our Approaches
RISE is a women’s rights organization with a deliberate mandate to promote women and girls’ rights. RISE demonstrates accountability and centering of women and girls. Girls and women are involved during project design and implementation. RISE adopts an explicit feminist approach to project design. Girls and women are involved for them to share their real needs, their suggested solutions and their aspirations as to how they want interventions to improve their lives.
RISE has experience in working adaptively using a Continuous Learning Approach (CoLA). Using CoLA, RISE designs locally-led approaches to address real needs of women and girls. Girls and women are consulted to learn from their experiences of cultural norms that perpetuate SGBV. Girls’ and Women’s lived experiences are collected and integrated into project design.
RISE applies a gender power analysis to governance. RISE has majority women at the board level and across all decision-making levels. During implementation, women and girls are involved in decision making, planning and actual delivery of interventions. RISE puts women and girls in all their diversity at the center of programming. Women and girls and LBTI women are part of implementation teams and they hold key positions in all projects. Decisions on projects direction and adjustments that need to be made are done based on women’s and girls’ inputs.
RISE fosters community activism led by women and girls. Women and girls are trained as rights activists, caregivers and community educators. Trained women activists are engaged in daily delivery of interventions. Women and girls are not mere beneficiaries but active change agents who determine direction and effectiveness of interventions. Women and girls from community to management levels are involved in making decisions about activities to be implemented, adaptations to be made and innovations to be integrated.
RISE incorporates flexibility and adaptability to change in its project design using Feedback Mechanisms. Feedback is systematically collected using Project Surveys and Interviews and Project Satisfaction Meetings. After a Feedback Analysis is conducted, the feedback is immediately addressed and a report is compiled and shared with all the people who provided feedback.
RISE addresses gender inequality issues in its work. RISE challenges gender-based discrimination and inequality using gender sensitive project designing, planning and implementation. RISE promotes gender equality by ensuring equal opportunity for women. More than 50 percent of Project and Organizational roles are allocated to women and girls. RISE has a Gender Equality Mainstreaming Policy (GEMP). GEMP ensures that RISE adopts an explicit feminist approach and works from a women’s rights perspective by promoting equal rights, non-discrimination and opportunity for all women and girls.
Guided by GEMP, RISE ensures that interventions leave no girl behind in the gender equality and development agenda. RISE implements interventions in a way that ensures that women and men, boys and girls; LBTI women are given equal opportunities to fill leadership positions and take key roles and leadership responsibilities in projects management and Board roles.
RISE includes diverse groups of marginalized women and girls. RISE project implementation is participatory by involving LBTI and women and girls with disability in all matters concerning them in the process of designing and implementing projects. RISE involves diverse groups of marginalized women and girls in decision-making process in projects and policies and creating accountability mechanisms for monitoring, complaint and feedback giving.
Achievements
RISE is contributing towards eradicating harmful cultural practices that perpetuate SGBV by building the capacities for villages to provide psychosocial therapy and use legal instruments to prevent and report SGBV. The SGBV interventions enhanced the capacities for girls to claim their SRH rights, demand SRHR
services, report SGBV cases and address gender inequalities through rights education, SRHR advocacy and GBV awareness creation.
The programme has tackled gender imbalances, rights knowledge gaps and empowers communities to use rights protection protocols in preventing and reporting SGBV.
The SGBV programme has contributed towards changing community attitudes and behaviors to protect girls’ rights using available policies and laws.
Through the SGBV project RISE has strengthened individual, community and school capacities to effectively report and prevent SGBV.
The innovation has built service seeking behaviour among the SGBV victims, which is increasing their access to psychosocial therapy, medical care and legal support services.
The programme is addressing harmful cultural practices that perpetuate SGBV by engaging men, boys,
adolescent girls, teachers, the police and communities in rights education. This will help for community members to recognize and respect the rights of girls.
The programme has engaged men, boys and community leaders in rights education, community mobilization and integrated rights based approaches in addressing root causes of SGBV.
The programme has reduced HIV vulnerabilities among girls by increasing their access to SRHR resources and services.