The project titled ‘Sensitizing communities on CEDAW’ was a part of the Gender Quality Action Learning (GQAL) program implemented in Gazipur to sensitize people about CEDAW to prevent violence against women and sexual harassment. The study aimed to assess the change in knowledge level of students and community leaders on CEDAW and sexual harassment. Two rounds of survey data – baseline and endline – were used to assess the change in the project. The difference in changing the knowledge level of the respondents on CEDAW and sexual harassment between the baseline and endline survey was found to be much higher. Still, there was a considerable number of respondents whose knowledge was found to be unchanged or decreased after the intervention. Deeply rooted patriarchal ideology, cultural beliefs and practices were identified as the major reasons behind this fact. It was suggested that BRAC should run this kind of project on a larger scale, targeting larger groups of the population for a longer period of time in order to eliminate dominant patriarchal ideology that keeps women subordinate and oppressed in all spheres of life.
Authors: Alim, Md Abdul; Ali, Rumana
Type: Working Paper
Year: 2012
