● Sensitisation/awareness creation (gender dimension):

A situation is likely to change only when policies that underpin it support it appropriately. In this case, it is about a change in culture, representation, ways of thinking, simply put, a paradigm shift. This means that this issue should be critically assessed from a cultural perspective, with strategies targeted by actors depending on the context of the intervention and on local specificities.

"Gender social relationships assigned to both men and women (and the family) are largely determined by economic structures, the nature of the state of its social orientations, religion, culture as well as the close relationships between these aspects, relationships that are self-transforming. For example, they can institutionalize and maintain inequality between men and women through laws and policies regarding marriage, divorce, parenting, child care, property and welfare policies".

Source: Massan D'Almeida in« Gender in action: understanding the gender concept ». April 2007. [Online]. Accessed on 15/06/2012. http://www.genreenaction.net/spip.php?article5514