Good Practice: Wo­men free from vi­ol­ence: This is how Ecuador wins!

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 Estadística 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. 

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

On behalf of the BMZ, the campaign "Women Free from Violence: This is how Ecuador Wins!" was launched as part of the GIZ project "Prevention of Violence against Women” (PreViMujer), which works to prevent VAW in Ecuador. The campaign was co-financed by the GIZ sector program “Promoting Gender Equality" from November 2018 to January 2020 and is now funded by the counterparts’ own recourses, accompanied with technical assistance from PreViMujer. For instance, the project conducted workshops with the campaign partners to raise awareness about the problem and to bring about sustainable change.

In order to reach as many and as diverse people as possible, the campaign has joined forces with more then 50 actors from different sectors – being  a key for the support of the campaign by the business sector, universities and the media in the past two years.

Furthermore, the campaign encourages actors to engage with this cause on social media by elaborating and sharing a variety of photos, videos, infographics, webinars and other information material under the hashtag #MujeressinviolenciaEc, drawing attention to the high rate of violence against women as well as its social and economic costs, how to confront it and where to get legal and psychological assistance.

"Women free from violence: This is how Ecuador wins!" has proven that long-term campaigns can have a big impact. 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, are motivated to invest, develop and share materials by themselves.

In the business sector, large Ecuadorian companies have been working for a number of years to make this issue more visible. One example is the timber company Endesa Botrosa, began working on deconstructing masculinities in 2010 with the regional programme ComVoMujer. Today, the company, which is mainly employs men, sees the prevention of VAW as part of its corporate culture and reaches around 20,000 people in three regions of Ecuador: Esmeraldas, Imbabura and Pichincha, with Esmeraldas showing high levels of poverty and illiteracy.

Also the CID Corporate Group, an association of eight companies including e. g. a bakery and two pharmacies, has committed itself to the topic and invests in audio-visual material, capacitation and campaigns, for over five years now. Avon, a company that sells beauty products, uses the attention that feminine products receive to raise awareness of the issue and invest parts of their profits in their own foundation, to prevent VAW.

Another success story is the Ecuadorian telecommunications company (Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicación, CNT). All workers of this company have twice participated in the online course “Safe company, leader in zero tolerance towards violence against women”, leaving more than 10.000 employees sensitized. However, the biggest impact that company made is without a doubt the digital App “Junt@s”.  With the technical support of PreViMujer, CNT launched together with UNFPA in 2023 the updated version of the App which provides information on prevention of VAW to the public and offers support to those affected.

The impact has not been limited to the business sector: The university (Escuela Politecnica Nacional, EPN), has been the first university to adopt the campaign in 2022, making its name their own "Women Free from Violence": This is how the Poli Wins!". The university has committed to making the issue visible through a huge graffiti on campus and around 600 stickers with messages and facts to reflect on.

2023 has been a year of success for our work with digital and traditional media: During the last year, Ecuadorian traditional media acknowledged the importance of tackling this problem. For example, the television channel Teleamazonas, through its show Te Veo Ecuador, included the campaign and its website to provide information to its audience. CORAPE, a network of community media in Ecuador, carried out a #25N campaign with 5 radio stations in rural areas of the country, where 500,000 listeners were reached.

Wambra, GK and Tinta Digital  digital media focused on new generations, joined the campaign to democratize information related to the prevention of VAW in order to reach a young audience with innovative and impactful content. During the last months, Tinta Digital alone reached more than 170.000  followers, while GK installed already a micro-website to report on the topic permanently.

In total, over the years it can be estimated that over 1 million people on national level have been reached through a multitude of different ways: by videos, trainings, events, graffiti, infographics, radio, exhibitions, influencers, podcasts, social networks – and it is still going on. The campaign has helped to encourage a social rethinking on stereotypes and ideas that promote inequality and gender-based violence in Ecuador. Prevention of VAW and deconstruction of patterns that legitimize it, is the most promising way to stop it from happening.