Creating Spaces to take action on violence against women and girls (CS) project aims to reduce violence against women and girls, including prevalence of child, early and forced marriage, through coordinated prevention and responses initiatives. It builds on compelling violence against women and girls is demonstrated to be most effective strategies when involving a broad range of social actors. It also contributes in influencing the national policies on women and girls. The project is implemented in Rautahat, Banke, Dailekh and Baitadi.
The mid-term evaluation of Creating Spaces was conducted through peer to peer approach focusing both on quantitative and qualitative information. The tools and methods used included literature review, training for partner staff to enable them to apply the research tools such as focus group discussion (FGD), key informant interview (KII), ‘I” stories collection and household survey (HHs). Slightly more than 60% of the target sample was surveyed bringing the actual sample size to 165 households, with equal ratio of women and men above the age of 18.
The evaluation found the community discussion centre (CDC) approach to be highly effective in enhancing women’s leadership and community awareness about child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) and violence against women and girls (VAWG). As compared to baseline data (55%), bigger percentage of the people (91.3%) covered by the evaluation agree that boys and girls should get married only after they reach 20 years of age. There has been positive change in perception regarding women’s rights. As against the baseline data (85%), the percentage of community people, who now equate forcing a girl to get married with a crime stands at 86.15%.
Read more from the report here.