Approaching old problems in new ways: community mobilisation as a primary prevention strategy to combat violence against women

"The Uganda-based NGO Raising Voices has been exploring and experimenting with community-based primary prevention methodologies that seek to shift attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate violence against women. This article shares some of the lessons learned from this process in East Africa over the last six years. It begins by setting forth a rationale for engaging in primary prevention efforts at the community level. It argues that comprehensive community mobilisation is essential if we are to see meaningful, sustained change on the issue of violence against women. It also describes the theoretical underpinnings of the approach and illustrates how these come to life in day-to-day programming in communities."