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Location

Uganda, South Africa

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Sector

Education

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Type of Investment

Grant

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Project Stage
Scale
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Length of Investment

2018+

Investment Overview

A $225,000 grant to No Means No Worldwide to support the expansion of its successful No Means No curriculum, which is taught to both girls and boys aged 10-20 years in schools and clubs. The curriculum aims to reduce violence against women and girls, and empower girls to stand up for their rights.

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The Development Challenge

It is estimated that 35% of women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives. In Africa, this number is estimated to be even higher. Women who have been physically or sexually abused by their partners are more than twice as likely to have an abortion, almost twice as likely to experience depression, and in some regions, 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV, compared to women who have not experienced partner violence. Moreover, it is estimated that 246 million girls and boys experience school-related violence every year.

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The Innovation

No Means No Worldwide has developed a short programme called the No Means No curriculum, which it delivers to boys and girls between ages 10-20 in schools and clubs. It is a system of knowledge and strategies that aims to end the cycle of violence by engaging boys to respect and support women and girls, and empowering girls to stand up for their rights. The training includes explanation of the assault continuum, verbal and basic physical strategies for self-defence, and six hours of role playing. A video of the programme has been featured on BBC and a shorter Facebook video has hit 42 million views. The curriculum has so far been delivered to approximately 300,000 girls and boys in Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi.

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Our Investment

GIF’s investment is aimed at scaling through partnerships. So far, NMNW has achieved success in implementing the programme on its own. In order to make even more of an impact, NMNW will need to partner with other organisations and provide them with the tools to effectively deliver the No Means No programme to millions of girls and boys. GIF funds will be used for partners’ training, staffing of NMNW towards servicing partnerships effectively, building organisational support systems, and the creation of a framework for process monitoring of implementation through partners.

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Investment Objective

To execute strategic scaling initiatives including expanding to three new geographies and launching new proactive partnerships. Additionally, to develop the requisite organisational capacity, structure, and systems to support growth and sustainability, and to apply the lessons learned to improve its partnership model and the No Means No system. Lastly, to develop a stakeholder network to share evidence and best practices.

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Why we invested


This is a low-cost, replicable approach with potentially transformative impact. This model is applicable across geographies and contexts solving a problem disproportionately affecting girls and women living under $5 a day.


A set of good quality partners and demand from strong organisations (the BRAC ELA programme alone operates in 6 high-prevalence countries).


Gender-based violence interventions are mostly funded by human-rights funders. GIF could be additional by helping the team to think about demonstrable social impact at scale.


The innovation tackles a very important and difficult-to-address issue affecting female agency. Working together will help GIF to learn more about this space, which is a huge win in evidence accumulation under the Gender Equality Sub Fund.


Funding a train-the-trainer model and providing core funding to the organisation is relatively new for GIF. This investment could expand our knowledge in the approach of social franchising, which is a very promising approach to scaling up innovations which involve change of behavioural and social norms and demand deeper human engagement.

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No Means No Worldwide in numbers

Over 300,000

Adolescents provided with NMNW training

246 million

Girls and boys experience school-related violence every year

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No Means No Worldwide Impact Brief

NMNW’s mission is to end sexual violence against women and children globally by delivering a dual-gender sexual violence prevention intervention to boys and girls aged 10-20 in schools and community safe spaces. No Means No is a system of knowledge, strategies, and skills that aims to end the cycle of violence by empowering girls to set boundaries and stand up for their rights, and engaging boys to respect and support women and girls. The No Means No violence prevention system combines three components to form a comprehensive sexual violence intervention: 1) 12-hours of empowerment self-defense classes for girls aged 10-20, where participants learn verbal and physical skills and strategies to prevent various forms of sexual assault; 2) Two 12-hour curricula for boys focused on reshaping harmful beliefs around gender, sexuality, and positive masculinity, and teaching them skills to intervene when anticipating or witnessing violence; 3) Network referrals to ensure that those who disclose sexual violence receive appropriate legal, medical, and psychosocial support. The No Means No violence prevention approach is backed by extensive published research from Kenya and Malawi showing, among other things, that incidence of sexual violence decreased by an average of 47% amongst programme participants.

NMNW plans to achieve scale by training local partners to effectively implement No Means No in a way that allows it to sustain and amplify its impact. NMNW operates a train-the-trainer model that utilises partnerships with local organisations as a platform to deliver No Means No in new geographies. A Global Training team from NMNW provides training to instructors recruited by local implementing partners who, if they successfully complete the training, are then certified to deliver No Means No to local children and adolescents. By leveraging existing infrastructure (schools and community spaces) and partnerships with mission-aligned local implementing organisations, NMNW aims to deliver programmes at low cost and mass scale. NMNW is currently working with partners to deliver programmes in Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa, and seeks to expand to several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2021.

Use of GIF Funds

GIF funding will be used by NMNW to:

  • Launch proactive partnerships in new countries through strategic sourcing. GIF funding will be used to pursue proactive partnerships that enable flexibility to increase technical support and training, add geographic or partner scope to a project, ensure boys programming is included in projects, and set and extend timelines and monitoring where needed;
  • Establish an Innovation Hub in South Africa where NMNW will directly deliver programmes, study the long-term impacts of No Means No on a single community, and test innovative programme modalities;
  • Build a robust trainer pipeline with capacity support to meet demand for NMNW’s programming and ensure effective replication at scale. This may include adding another trainer ‘layer’ through identifying top local instructors that can be certified to train new instructors, which will support further scale and reduce reliance on NMNW’s GMT teams;
  • Develop a Partner Network and thought leadership platform to disseminate learning, share best practices on scaling partnerships, and contribute to the global discourse on preventing sexual violence. Activities will focus on engaging implementing partners, hosting annual meetings and workshops, sharing research, providing supplementary training and building a communications platform to develop a strong community of practice; and
  • Continue to build organisational capacity to support growth

Objectives

By the end of the grant period, No Means No Worldwide (NMNW) has successfully executed strategic scaling initiatives including expanding to new geographies and launching new proactive partnerships; developing the requisite organisational capacity, structure and systems to support growth and sustainability; applying lessons learned to improve its partnership model and the No Means No system; and developing a stakeholder network to share evidence and best practices.

  1. Scale – Launch strategic proactive partnerships in new countries that are leveraged to maximise learning, impact, and scale.

  2. Capacitate – Develop organisational capacity, structure, and systems to support rapid growth and longer-term sustainability of NMNW including establishing a local presence in Sub-Saharan Africa.

  3. Refine – Refine the partnership model through applying lessons learned from new partnerships and developing a robust quality assurance framework which supports scaling No Means No to high quality standards for impact.

  4. Share and Influence – Develop a Stakeholder and Thought Leadership Network that functions as a platform to disseminate learning and research, share best practices on social franchise models, contribute to global discourse on sexual violence prevention, and maintain a strong community of practice

Impact to Date

In 2019, NMNW successfully completed the launch of No Means No in Uganda and in collaboration with 4 local implementing partner organisations graduated 25,123 girls from No Means No. Pre/post questionnaire results showed that programme participants achieved on average a 54% improvement in knowledge and attitudes, and a 147% improvement in knowledge on how to prevent assault.

In 2020, NMNW launched the boys programming and 13,981 beneficiaries (8,516 female; 5,465 male) were reached with sexual violence prevention skills training delivered by NMNW and its partners in Uganda, South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Monitoring and evaluation data in mid 2020 showed that the average change in knowledge was 109% or a doubling of knowledge of skills to prevent rape for girls and boys. The average change in attitudes was 68% showing a change in confidence and assertiveness as well as attitudes around gender norms and rape myths. To date, NMNW has provided training to 42,340 adolescents.

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Innovating for Gender Equality

A $1.9M Test & Transition grant to No Means No Worldwide following a successful Pilot grant provided in 2018. No Means No Worldwide will use this funding to support the expansion of its successful No Means No curriculum, which is taught to both girls and boys aged 10-20 years in schools and clubs, and refine its partnership model to achieve scale. The curriculum aims to reduce violence against women and girls, and empower girls to stand up for their rights.