Campaigns to End Violence against Women and Girls - Virtual ...

7.12 SAMPLE CAMPAIGN EVALUATIONS
“Media campaigns have proven successful in increasing knowledge of intimate partner
violence and influencing attitudes towards gender norms, but less is known about their
ability to reduce violent behaviour, as it is difficult to measure potential changes in levels
of violence associated with media interventions.”
– WHO, 2009. Promoting Gender Equality to Prevent Violence against Women
Unfortunately, only few evaluations of VAW campaigns are available to the general
public. Hence, little is known about the impact of campaigns in terms of an actual
reduction of the prevalence of violence against women and girls. This is only partly due
to the complexity of change in violent behaviour. A second factor is the dearth of quality
evaluation reports that are disseminated so as to share learning.
Issues related to evaluations of campaigns to end VAW
� Most high quality evaluations that have been published are from the “Global North”,
i.e. USA, Europe, Australia. Few “Southern” campaigns have published their
findings. Among them are “Sexto Sentido” (Puntos de Encuentro, Nicaragua), Soul
City (South Africa), “Is this justice?” (Breakthrough, India, February-April 2007)
linking HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence, “We Can” (Oxfam, South Asia, since
2004) on VAW, the ADFM campaign on the Moroccan family code and the 16 Days
campaign in the Andean region (UNIFEM, 2004-2007). See all below.
� Campaigns focusing on institutional change related to VAW rarely publish
evaluations. All evaluations quoted below assess behaviour-change campaigns.
� Most common are outcome evaluations by independent research or consulting
agencies that focus on the link between exposure to campaign communications on
the one hand, and knowledge/awareness, attitude and behaviour-change on the
other hand.
� Most evaluations use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods,
predominantly relying on quantitative surveys based on convenience samples and
focus group discussions with members of the target audiences. The full range of
methods, especially those suitable to media campaigns is seldom exploited.
Academic evaluations tend to be more sophisticated and creative but may fail to
deliver practical results that can serve other campaigners.
� Only few evaluations examine precisely the factors that caused the observed
outcome.
Available evaluation reports on campaigns to end VAW:
� 16 days of activism in the Andean Region: Pesántez-Calle, Nidya (2008):
Campaign Of 16 Days Of Activism Against Gender Violence, 2004-2007,
Evaluation Document, UNIFEM.
� Is this Justice? Multi-Media Campaign to Reduce Stigma Against Women
Living with HIV/AIDS: Summary of Campaign Evaluation, Breakthrough, India.
� Bursting the Bubble website campaign for teenagers: Young People’s Views:
Learnings from Burstingthebubble.com, Domestic Violence Resource Centre
Victoria, Australia, 2005.
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Campaigns December 2011