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122.6Women’s rights organisationscreate and sustain changeThis principle isrelevant at allpoints on theTheory of Change.The Theory of Change assumes that women’srights organisations and their movementscreate and sustain change: supportingwomen’s rights organisations, especially thoseworking to tackle violence against women andgirls, to make change and build strong andinclusive social movements is a very effectivemechanism for ensuring sustainable change inthe lives of women and girls.Women’s rights organisations are well placedto support such social change for a numberof reasons, including their connections toaffected communities. 51 These and otherreasons women’s rights organisations areuniquely placed to effect change at thecommunity level are discussed in furtherdetail in the Practical Guide to CommunityProgramming on Violence against Womenand Girls (see p.4-6).Suraya Pakzad is founder ofActionAid partner, the Voice ofWomen Organization in Afghanistan– which is one of the mostdangerous places to be a woman:87% of women experience domesticabuse and 1 in 11 dies in childbirth.PHOTO: JENNY MATTHEWS/ACTIONAID
132.7Empowering women is boththe means and the endThis principle isrelevant at allpoints on theTheory of Change.The Theory of Change assumes thatempowering women is both the means andthe end: focusing on the rights of, and beingaccountable to, women and girls is the mosteffective way of tackling gender inequality asthe root cause of violence against womenand girls.Evidence confirms that gender inequalityincreases the risk of gender-based violenceagainst women and that building women’sand girls’ resources, assets and agency iscritical to transforming unequal powerrelations and preventing violence againstwomen and girls. 52 It can therefore be helpfulto fund broader women’s rights andempowerment initiatives as a contribution toaddressing the root cause of violence againstwomen and girls. See the Practical Guide toCommunity Programming on Violence againstWomen and Girls for more information on therole of asset-building in protecting girls at riskin Ethiopia, for example (p.22-23).Work by the Pathways of Women’sEmpowerment programme has found that theprocess of challenging violence can itselfsupport women’s empowerment as womenbuild political agency by organising andmobilising against violence against womenand girls. 53 Nevertheless, as discussed earlierin this narrative, backlash and increased risksto women and girls challenging violence islikely and must be planned for.The increasing focus on working with menand boys presents both an opportunity and achallenge in terms of ensuring a focus onwomen’s and girls’ rights as well asaccountability to them. There is evidence thatprogrammes targeting men and boys areeffective at tackling violence against womenand girls only where they explicitly focus ontransforming unequal power relationsbetween women and men, includingpromoting alternative notions of masculinity. 54Conversely programmes targeting men andboys that are less accountable to women andgirls risk reinforcing unequal powerrelations. 55 See the detailed discussion in thePractical Guide to Community Programmingon Violence against Women and Girls onworking with men and boys for moreinformation, including the section on‘Principles for supporting work with men andboys to end violence against women andgirls’ (p.15).Since the empowerment of women and girlsis recognised as core to challenging violenceagainst women and girls, with all DFIDinterventions including work with men andboys it is essential to ask: how does theproposed intervention empower women andgirls as the means as well as the end?
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