Employing culturally-appropriate measures

Social norms, culture and beliefs can wield significant power over individual behavior.
Programmes should examine the relevant cultural norms and integrate them as appropriate into intervention frameworks to ensure that attitudes condoning violence as a ‘traditional practice’ or ‘inherent to' the community are discussed openly among various stakeholders, including both leaders and marginalized groups within the community. Understanding these forces is crucial to developing effective and appropriate programmatic approaches, though culture should never be used to justify discrimination or violence.
Interventions should identify culturally-relevant strategic entry points and institutions, and involve cultural, community, faith-based and other leaders. They can also bring a better understanding of community perspectives to inform programmatic approaches and strategies and can be engaged to influence public opinion, values and behaviours to reject violence.