Masculinities in Disasters: Mitigating Post-disaster Gender-Based Violence in TA Makhwira and Lundu in Chikwawa District, Malawi

Gender based violence has been observed to rise during and after disasters. This has been attributed to negative masculinities stemming from unequal gendered roles and norms in society. With its deep-rooted patriarchal culture, negative masculinities are expected to be rampant and thus possibility of GBV should be high. However due to the stronghold of these patriarchal norms, it is also expected that women do not report cases of violence fearing backlash from the community which limits the responses to family violence as data remain unconvincing for policy makers and funding bodies to take action. The humanitarian response to this has primarily focused on providing gender sensitive immediate relief and protection for survivors in the relief phase of disasters and slight attention has been given to gender transformative prevention measures which tackle the root causes of this phenomena. This project targets disaster prone communities of southern Malawi which is hit every year with a flooding episode. The project will focus on two things. First, using gender transformative and participatory approaches targeting local and religious leaders, men and boys and women and girls to change the rigid institutions that guide the construction of negative masculinities. Second, strengthening the systems that support and record cases of violence in order to accumulate enough evidence to convince funding bodies and policy makers of the need to invest more in this problem.