South Sudan is the first Country Office to pilot NCA`s new Faith Actors Motivating Empowerment ("FAME") Toolkit! Learn more about this important new resource here.
Recognizing NCA's strategic position as a faith based organization, NCA decided to create this toolkit so that faith actors and religious leaders have a guide on how they can structure and facilitate discussions within their congregations to discuss the sensitive issue of GBV.
A quick survey showed that NCA´s Country Offices use varying methodologies in engaging with faith actors in our work to end GBV. Hence, NCA commissioned a consultancy to review all materials in use by NCA, but also by other Faith-Based Organisations. This review was combined with interviews with a variety of faith actors, including representatives from the World Council of Churches, the All Africa Conference of Churches, Islamic faith actors, and NCA colleagues from around the world.
The new Faith Actors Motivating Empowerment ("FAME") Toolkit has been developed by the Gender Based Violence (GBV) Head Office team and the intention is to roll-out this Toolkit to all Country Offices in 2022.
The Toolkit was created by Florence Kimanzi, Silje Heitmann and Patrice Quinlan, with the support of Dr. Lucy Kanya, Professor at the London School of Economics (Lead Consultant). Florence recently led the consultant and the team in piloting this toolkit in South Sudan.
The aim of the Toolkit is to enhance NCA and partners’ engagement with faith-based actors in conducting norm transformative work. It should help continue leveraging NCA’s unique position and access to religious actors, and to further leverage the enormous respect that religious actors command within communities.
Presently, NCA and partners use different methodologies and approaches to work with faith actors on ending GBV, including the Tamar campaign, SASA Faith, IMAGES and Created in God’s Image.
NCA therefore sought to develop a consolidated Toolkit composed of existing best practices and methodologies for engaging with faith actors and religious leaders on norm transformative work within communities.
The Toolkit will guide faith actors to work systematically to transform dominant norms to protect women and girls from harm.
The Toolkit will contribute towards NCA’s Global Programme on GBV’s sub-goal 1: Dominant norms transformed to protect girls and women from violence and harmful practices. The sub-goal focuses on addressing harmful norms requires us to address unequal power relations, harmful masculinities, legal, social, moral, and religious norms.
The Toolkit will strengthen how we work with faith actors, religious leaders, community leaders, and the community at large to change norms, including supporting religious leaders to re-frame religious narratives which harm and hold girls and women back from realising their human rights.
Training for trainers was held in Juba, South Sudan with participation by religious leaders and faith actors.
During the one week training, we received very good instant and critical feedback to the Toolkit. Rev. Peter Tibi thanked NCA for developing the toolkit, saying that he now had a manual to systematically work through with his colleagues and congregation towards changing negative norms. Sr. Elena of the Malakal-based Comboni Missionary Sisters was eager to use the toolkit, saying it was the perfect time to start structured and guided discussions with the different congregations in Malakal.
The workshop was officially closed by the NCA South Sudan Country Director, Bent Simonsen.
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