Activity: Wo­men free from vi­ol­ence: This is how Ecuador wins!

As a part of a strategic social media campaign, actors from politics, sports, civil society and the private sector are working together to address the widespread problem of violence against women and girls in Ecuador. Until today, after more than three years of duration, the social media channels of the campaign are an important tool to inform about the topic while different actors in society continue to invest, develop and share materials autonomously. During the Covid-19 pandemic, social media has become an even more important tool to reach people and share ideas. The goal is to create a culture of zero-tolerance for gender-based violence against women and girls: "Women free from violence: This is how Ecuador wins!".

Overview

Categories
  • Topics: Violence against Women and Girls
  • Violence against Women and Girls: Intimate Partner Violence
  • Education: Digitalization
Countries
Ecuador
Project duration
November 2018 to January 2020
Commissioned by
  • German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
© PreViMujer, 2019

Context

In large parts of the Ecuadorian population, violence against girls and women is tolerated and perceived as normal. In fact, many times the survivors of intimate (ex)partner violence are blamed as if it was their fault, not the aggressors. According to the 2019 survey by the National Statistics and Census Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadístíca y Censos), around seven out of ten women in Ecuador have experienced gender-based violence (GBV) at least once in their lives, mostly perpetrated by their partners or ex-partners. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation of women has worsened. Often, they were trapped at home with their aggressors, during the month-long confinement measures. In this context, social media has become an even more important tool to reach women and provide information and assistance.

Objective

The objective of the year-long sustained campaign is to raise awareness in Ecuadorian society about the widespread problem of violence against women and girls and motivate actors to take action against it. In the long term, the aim is to deconstruct socio-cultural patterns that legitimize and justify violence against women and girls and create a culture of zero-tolerance of violence against women.

Approach

On behalf of the BMZ, the campaign "Women Free from Violence: This is how Ecuador Wins!" was launched as part of the GIZ project "PreViMujer (opens in a new window)", which works to prevent violence against women in Ecuador. The campaign was co-financed by the GIZ sector programme "Promoting Gender Equality" (opens in a new window) from November 2018 to January 2020.

As part of the crucial social media campaign a variety of photos, videos, webinars and other information material have been shared since 2018 under the hashtag #MujeressinviolenciaEc, drawing attention to the high rate of violence against women, how to confront it and where to get legal and psychological assistance.

It is worth noting that the more recent developed scientific studies on the economic costs of violence against women of PreViMujer, carried out in cooperation with the San Martin University in Perú, that were distributed though the channels of the campaign, found an immense audience in social media and resulted in multiple articles of local digital newspapers.

In order to reach as many and as diverse people as possible, the campaign has joined forces with a total of 24 actors from different sectors - including parliamentary groups, national football clubs, radio stations such as Área Deportiva, women's rights organisations and persons from public life. The messages are also intended to address (young) men in particular, who play an important role in deconstructing gender norms and stereotypes that promote violence. 

In addition, the project conducted workshops with the campaign partners to sensitize people about the problem and to bring about sustainable change. In addition, several companies and associations of the private sector supported the campaign by developing materials linking their products to zero-tolerance of violence against women, by investing in training and audio-visual material.

Finally, the traveling exhibition “Look at her, look at yourself. Voices in resistance” was a key initiative within the campaign. The visual narration of the experiences of violence of known and unknown women, past and present, through their portraits and stories, has been carried out with the support of local authorities over two years in different cities of the country and at several locations in the capital Quito.

Impact

"Women free from violence: This is how Ecuador wins!" has proven that long-term campaigns can have a big impact. In total, the social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the website of the campaign have around 43.000 followers. Additionally, half this number was reached through the social networks of private companies alone. Multiple informative infographics or podcasts that have been posted around the 25th November 2021, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, have reached more than 30.000, 40.000 or 50.000 people. 178.000 persons were reached through the stories traveling exhibition. An impact worth noting is the realization of a webinar held by the Red Cross Ecuador. Despite their extensive workload during the Covid-19 pandemic, they recognized the urgency to address the problem.

The campaign has become a successful and long-lasting measure because it takes a strategic approach of working with different actors in society who, by recognizing the importance of the topic, start to invest, develop and share materials by themselves. Moreover, persons in public life such as sportspersons, artists, athletes and filmmakers have a great potential reach the general public and young people in particular on that issue.

Through the sensibilization workshops, webinars, infographics, audio-visual material and awareness-raising posts on social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Instagram, the campaign has helped to encourage a social rethinking on stereotypes and ideas that promote inequality and gender-based violence in Ecuador. Prevention of violence against women and deconstruction of patterns that normalize it, in particular at a young age, is the most promising way to stop it from happening.