Researching Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Intervention Programmes Linked to African Communities in the EU (REPLACE 2)
Funder
European Commission DAPHNE III
Total value of project
€650,000
Project team
Professor Hazel Barrett, Professor Katherine Brown, Yussif Alhassan
Partners
Universiteit Gent, Belgium; Foundation for Women's Health Research and Development (FORWARD), UK; Federation of Somali Associations in the Netherlands (FSAN), Netherlands; Centro Studie Iniziative Europeo (CESIE), Italy; Associacão para o Planeamento da Familia (APA), Portugal; Gabinet d'Estudis Socials (GES), Spain
Duration of project
March 2013 - October 2015
Project overview
The REPLACE 2 project followed on from the Daphne-funded REPLACE project which investigated the reasons why FGM persists in the EU despite years of campaigining to end the illegal practice, in order to produce a behavioural change model or 'toolkit' that could be applied to ending FGM in the EU. REPLACE 2 implemented and evaluated the REPLACE Toolkit and REPLACE Community-Based Behaviour Change Framework and Toolkit for ending FGM amongst the African diaspora. This was done using the Somali and Sudanese communities in the UK and Netherlands that were involved in the REPLACE project and also by rolling out to different diasporic African groups in Italy (Eritrean and Ethiopian), Spain (Gambian and Senegalese) and Portugal (Guinea Bissau). The Toolkit and framework were then revised and updated enabling it to be used as a self-sustaining tool for implementing community-based behaviour change approaches to ending FGM across the EU and beyond.
REPLACE 2 recognised that the practice of FGM occurs within a wider socio-cultural context and the behaviour and decisions of others are critical in relation to the outcome of whether or not FGM is carried out. REPLACE 2 also recognises that some individuals are in less powerful or influential positions than others, and therefore are unable to implement certain behaviours that will lead to the abandonment of FGM. REPLACE 2 has therefore adopted relevant elements from both individually focused behaviour change theories and the theories that concentrate on the role of society to tackle the social norm of FGM to implement and evaluate an innovative way to tackle FGM, called the REPLACE Approach.
The REPLACE Approach is a bottom-up approach that empowers communities and puts them at the centre of social norm transformation using behavioural change theory. The REPLACE Approach comprises a Cyclic Framework for Social Norm Transformation having five elements that represent the flow of motivation and behaviour change within a community, stressing the important role played by community leaders, influential people and peer group champions in achieving social norm transformation.
The REPLACE Approach is aimed at those within FGM affected communities or those working with these communities, whose goal is to end FGM in the EU. It is also relevant to policy makers who aim to end FGM; since the success of the REPLACE Approach is enhanced by political support.
Project objectives
REPLACE 2 aims:
- To implement and evaluate the REPLACE community-based behaviour change intervention for ending FGM with practising communities in the EU;
- To evaluate the experience of using the community-based participatory methodological approach and the behaviour change framework within the toolkit, amongst those involved;
- To develop an index of community readiness to end FGM;
- To engage communities in devising strategies and interventions for change and to evaluate their effectiveness;
- To build sustainability of the toolkit through knowledge transfer and capacity building with a range of partners and communities in the EU.
