By Izeduwa Derex-Briggs | Edited by Beatrice Asamani Savage
Nearly every country in Africa now has laws prohibiting violence against women and girls, an achievement largely driven by decades of persistent feminist advocacy that has compelled governments to act and remain accountable.
Across West Africa, campaigners have laboured tirelessly to push gender-based violence (GBV) to the forefront of national discourse, insisting that rape be treated as a national emergency and pioneering innovative strategies to protect women and girls, including in digital spaces.
Yet, despite these efforts, one in three women and girls worldwide still experiences physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, while a woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by an intimate partner or close relative.
This grim reality is partly attributed to the shockingly low investment in prevention. Only 0.2 per cent of global development assistance is directed towards GBV prevention, making sustained impact difficult to achieve. However, limited funding is not the only obstacle.
Those working to eliminate GBV have also overlooked some of the most influential agents of social change: faith and traditional leaders.
Culture, tradition, and religion often shape the daily lives and choices of women and girls more profoundly than laws and policies. Patriarchal norms embedded in religious teachings and traditional practices frequently serve to justify and normalise abuse, reinforcing cycles of violence.
This reality makes the proposition of engaging faith and traditional leaders in the fight against GBV appear counterintuitive. How can those who sometimes perpetuate harmful beliefs, including condoning violence, become champions for change?
Yet, experience suggests they must be central to the solution.
In Nigeria, where this author lives and where the Ford Foundation has operated for over six decades, 99 per cent of the population identifies as Christian or Muslim, alongside deeply rooted traditional belief systems. In this highly religious society, faith and traditional leaders are regarded as custodians of culture, wielding extensive reach and deep moral authority.
When they speak, communities listen. Without their engagement, efforts to dismantle harmful norms and practices that perpetuate violence are unlikely to succeed.
In February, more than 100 faith and traditional leaders from 23 African countries will convene in Nigeria for a landmark dialogue on the critical role they can play in preventing GBV. The gathering sends a powerful signal that leaders across the continent are increasingly ready to deploy their influence to ensure safer lives for women and girls.
Two years into the Ford Foundation’s partnerships with traditional leaders in West Africa, several important lessons have emerged.
First, symbolic gestures and occasional sermons are insufficient. Sustainable change requires institutionalising GBV prevention within the structures, policies, and practices of religious and cultural institutions.
In Nigeria, the Anglican Compassion and Development Initiative worked across 25 dioceses of the Anglican Church, training clergy, bishops, lay leaders, and community members on GBV prevention and pastoral counselling. The process revealed that certain cultural and religious interpretations within the church often reinforced acceptance of violence in marriage.
A significant breakthrough occurred when the Anglican Church in Nigeria endorsed the inclusion of GBV prevention within its premarital counselling curriculum. Efforts are now underway to formalise this shift into official church policy, a move seen as vital for ensuring lasting impact.
Second, addressing cultural norms requires a fundamental shift in donor and community approaches to GBV programming.
Donors have traditionally prioritised response interventions, such as shelters, hotlines, and survivor support services, which offer tangible metrics for measuring success. While essential, this focus has inadvertently sidelined prevention efforts, which are harder to quantify but critical for long-term change.
Overemphasis on response has slowed the transition towards a prevention-centred approach that addresses the root causes of violence. However, evidence from community-based interventions demonstrates that sustained investment in prevention can transform deeply entrenched norms.
Several partners are collaborating with faith and traditional leaders to protect the rights of widows, who often face stigma, dispossession, and economic vulnerability. Although Nigerian law prohibits discrimination against widows, patriarchal customs frequently override legal protections.
Through sustained community engagement by organisations such as Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, led by a Catholic priest, women are increasingly being included in wills, safeguarding their inheritance and property rights. In parts of Cross River, Plateau, and Ekiti States, traditional leaders are revising community guidelines to allow widows to remain in their homes and retain their property.
Church members now accompany widows and connect them with local police to prevent unlawful dispossession, a critical intervention given the strong link between economic insecurity and vulnerability to violence.
Third, stakeholders must recognise that progress will not follow a straight line.
Religious teachings and cultural beliefs are deeply held, shaping moral values and social behaviour. Resistance is inevitable, particularly when proposed changes appear to contradict long-standing doctrines.
The Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) works with Muslim leaders in northern Nigeria, equipping them to promote women’s and girls’ rights within Islamic teachings. Through structured capacity-building, these leaders share knowledge with Imams, Quranic interpreters, and Sharia court judges.
Following a study tour to Egypt, where senior religious authorities emphasised Islamic injunctions against violence, 81 per cent of participants reported shifts in perception regarding GBV. Many have since begun advocating for GBV prevention policies within mosques, judicial institutions, and state structures, although community resistance remains.
Continuous dialogue, including platforms such as the forthcoming continental convening, remains essential to navigating disagreements and sustaining momentum.
While collaboration with faith and traditional leaders offers a promising pathway, it cannot stand alone. A comprehensive approach that integrates prevention, survivor response, and care is indispensable, alongside the continued leadership of feminist movements to ensure accountability.
As Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie observes, “Culture does not make people. People make culture.” Encouragingly, signs of cultural transformation are emerging.
Recent surveys indicate that 71 per cent of Nigerian women and 74 per cent of Nigerian men now oppose female genital mutilation (FGM), up from 64 and 62 per cent, respectively, six years ago. During the same period, the prevalence of FGM declined by six per cent.
UN Women has reported notable progress in Akwa Ibom and Oyo States, where traditional and community leaders have spearheaded campaigns to abandon FGM, underscoring the transformative power of local leadership.
On the eve of this historic gathering, funders and practitioners are urged to scale up efforts that harness the influence of faith and traditional leaders to prevent violence before it begins.
Women and girls cannot afford to wait.
Source: gna.org.gh