Political and social transformation rarely happens without some form of conflict, and conflict in itself is not necessarily negative until it turns to violence. Understanding how gender roles interact with the context is key to contributing to positive change that is sustainable. Not understanding this, or adopting a simplistic approach, risks doing significant harm. Humanitarian organisations may be able to contribute significantly to positive outcomes that promote gender equality by respectfully treating men and women as rights-holders as well as acknowledging the threats of sexual and other violence that they face, and providing significant ‘safe’ spaces for women where they can be free from social constraints that prevent them from speaking in front of men.
This paper outlines the approach to gender taken by Oxfam’s protection programme in the DRC. It explains how the community-led nature of the programme has enabled women and men to address short-term protection needs as a priority, but also to tackle long-term barriers to women’s rights without this being seen as a threat to men. It describes how the programme was implemented, through protection committees with equal numbers of male and female members and women’s forums where women could talk freely among women, and promoting access to referral services. It then presents the programme’s achievements, including a reduction in sexual violence, domestic violence, and early marriage in some communities. Men and women worked together to change attitudes and beliefs and the programme’s approach emphasised sexual violence as everyone’s concern, not just a problem for women.
Finally, this paper makes recommendations for other programmes considering similar work. It argues that Oxfam’s aim of ’putting poor women’s rights at the heart of all we do’ is, in some situations, only possible when addressing men’s rights in parallel.