Change Through Culture in the Girls' Holistic Development Programme

This programme focuses on shifting norms around girls' education, child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, female genital cutting, and corporal punishment. The programme involves the involvement of grandmothers as change agents, improving intergenerational communication and communication between genders, and enhancing community capacities, particularly of leaders. In collectivist societies, adolescents are integrated into family, community, and cultural systems. Characteristics of collectivist cultures that influence social norms include adolescents not being isolated and rarely making their own decisions, families making decisions that influence adolescent well-being, and older women, grandmothers, stepmothers, and aunts playing a large role in the socialization of young girls. Gender roles exist, and social norms are defined by the elders, including child marriage and female genital cutting. The Change Through Culture approach is used to shift social norms in the Girls' Holistic Development Programme. Community dialogue is employed to generate consensus on questions that arise in Girls' Holistic Development. This involves discussing traditional ideas and promoting new ideas, reinforcing existing lines of communication within the community, creating new lines of communication within the community, and favoring systemic change. Grandmothers are key people for social norm change due to their cultural responsibility to pass on norms related to female genital cutting and child marriage, their status and power within their family and community, their empathy towards the well-being of young girls, their strong influence on men/fathers, and their authority to change social norms. The programme's focus on grandmothers as change agents is rooted in their cultural significance and influence within their communities. Grandmothers play a crucial role in the socialization of young girls and are often respected and listened to within their families and communities. By involving grandmothers in the programme, the Girls' Holistic Development Programme aims to leverage their influence and authority to shift social norms and promote positive change. The programme's approach is grounded in an ecological model of cultural systems, which recognizes the interconnectedness of family, community, and cultural systems. This model acknowledges that adolescents are not isolated individuals but are instead integrated into these systems and influenced by the social norms and values that exist within them. By working to shift these social norms and values, the programme aims to promote positive change and improve the well-being of girls and young women.