Communication for Gender-Based Violence Prevention Programmes Training Course

Course Introduction

The Communication for Gender-Based Violence Prevention Programmes Training Course equips communication professionals, gender specialists, programme managers, community engagement teams, safeguarding practitioners, and development organizations with practical approaches for designing ethical, survivor-centred, gender-responsive communication. The course examines how communication can contribute to prevention while avoiding harmful stereotypes, victim blaming, stigma, retraumatization, and messaging that unintentionally normalizes violence.

Gender-based violence prevention requires communication approaches that address the social, cultural, institutional, economic, and behavioural factors that enable violence and discrimination. Participants will explore how gender norms, power relationships, social expectations, harmful attitudes, unequal access to services, and community structures influence risks and prevention opportunities. Emphasis is placed on communication that supports positive social norms, strengthens agency, promotes equality, and encourages communities and institutions to take constructive action.

The programme provides practical methods for audience research, stakeholder mapping, behavioural analysis, message development, community dialogue, social and behaviour change communication, media engagement, advocacy, and campaign planning. Participants will learn how to communicate sensitive issues using accurate, respectful, inclusive, and contextually appropriate language. They will also examine how to identify harmful narratives and replace them with communication that reinforces dignity, consent, equality, accountability, safety, and shared responsibility.

Participants will explore communication approaches for different gender-based violence prevention contexts, including intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child and adolescent protection, harmful practices, online violence, workplace harassment, exploitation, trafficking-related risks, and violence affecting marginalized populations. The course emphasizes that prevention communication should not place responsibility for safety solely on individuals or survivors, but should address perpetrators, institutions, communities, systems, and broader social conditions that influence risk.

Emerging communication challenges are also addressed, including online gender-based violence, technology-facilitated abuse, image-based abuse, digital harassment, coordinated online attacks, misinformation, backlash against gender equality, AI-generated content, deepfakes, and polarized public discourse. Participants will learn how to anticipate communication risks, engage different audiences constructively, protect privacy, avoid amplifying harmful content, and use digital channels responsibly while maintaining survivor safety and confidentiality.

The course concludes with practical exercises in prevention campaign design, audience segmentation, message development, community dialogue, media preparation, digital communication, social norm change, advocacy, risk assessment, and impact measurement. Participants will develop communication approaches that support safer communities, challenge harmful norms, strengthen prevention systems, and encourage institutions and individuals to contribute to lasting change. The overall focus is on ethical, evidence-informed, survivor-centred, and prevention-oriented communication.

Duration

5 days

Who Should Attend

• Gender-based violence prevention programme managers responsible for communication, community engagement, advocacy, and prevention initiatives.

• Gender specialists developing communication strategies that address harmful gender norms, inequality, discrimination, and violence prevention.

• Communication and public relations professionals working on gender equality, safeguarding, social change, and community awareness programmes.

• Social and behaviour change communication practitioners designing interventions to influence attitudes, social norms, and prevention behaviours.

• Community engagement officers facilitating dialogue with communities, leaders, youth groups, service providers, and other prevention stakeholders.

• Safeguarding and protection professionals responsible for developing safe, ethical, and protection-sensitive communication approaches.

• NGO and civil society programme officers implementing gender equality, violence prevention, protection, advocacy, and community mobilization initiatives.

• Humanitarian communication professionals addressing gender-based violence risks within emergency, displacement, recovery, and fragile settings.

• Health communication practitioners supporting prevention, referral awareness, survivor support information, and community-based violence prevention.

• Youth engagement specialists developing prevention communication for adolescents and young people across community and digital environments.

• Media and public information professionals reporting or communicating about gender-based violence and related prevention issues responsibly.

• Digital communication specialists addressing online gender-based violence, harmful content, misinformation, digital harassment, and technology-facilitated abuse.

• Monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning professionals measuring communication, social norm, prevention, and community engagement outcomes.

• Policy and advocacy professionals communicating institutional commitments, legal frameworks, prevention policies, and gender equality priorities.

• Senior development and programme leaders seeking to strengthen prevention communication, institutional accountability, community ownership, and sustainable gender equality outcomes.

Course Objectives

• Develop ethical and evidence-informed communication strategies that contribute to gender-based violence prevention while protecting dignity, safety, privacy, and individual agency.

• Analyze how gender norms, power relations, social expectations, institutional practices, and structural inequalities influence violence prevention communication and community behaviour.

• Conduct audience and stakeholder analysis to identify different knowledge levels, attitudes, motivations, barriers, influence patterns, communication needs, and prevention opportunities.

• Design messages that challenge harmful stereotypes and social norms while promoting equality, respect, consent, accountability, safety, healthy relationships, and collective responsibility.

• Apply survivor-centred and protection-sensitive communication principles to prevent victim blaming, stigma, retraumatization, disclosure risks, confidentiality breaches, and harmful public narratives.

• Facilitate community dialogue approaches that encourage reflection on gender norms, relationships, power, violence prevention, social expectations, and practical opportunities for positive change.

• Develop communication interventions for diverse audiences, including men and boys, women and girls, adolescents, community leaders, institutions, service providers, and online communities.

• Address emerging forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence by developing responsible digital communication, risk mitigation, online engagement, and misinformation response strategies.

• Strengthen media and spokesperson practices for communicating about sensitive violence-related issues accurately, respectfully, responsibly, and without unnecessarily exposing survivors or affected communities.

• Establish monitoring and evaluation approaches that assess communication reach, audience understanding, social norm shifts, engagement, prevention actions, institutional change, and longer-term programme contribution.

Comprehensive Course Outline

Module 1: Foundations of Gender-Based Violence Prevention Communication

• Understanding gender-based violence prevention communication and its relationship to gender equality, social norms, protection, safeguarding, and community change.

• Examining different forms of gender-based violence and identifying communication considerations associated with sexual, physical, psychological, economic, and technology-facilitated violence.

• Exploring how power, gender norms, discrimination, social expectations, institutional practices, and structural inequalities shape prevention communication environments.

• Establishing ethical communication principles that protect dignity, autonomy, confidentiality, safety, inclusion, accuracy, and the rights of affected populations.

Module 2: Gender Norms, Behaviour, and Social Change

• Analyzing harmful gender norms, stereotypes, expectations, and social pressures that can contribute to violence, discrimination, silence, or acceptance of abusive behaviours.

• Applying behavioural and social norm approaches to identify reference groups, perceived expectations, motivations, barriers, and opportunities for positive gender-related behaviour.

• Designing communication interventions that encourage reflection, dialogue, accountability, respectful relationships, consent, equality, and rejection of violence.

• Addressing resistance, backlash, denial, normalization, and polarization while maintaining constructive communication and avoiding approaches that increase harm.

Module 3: Audience Research and Communication Segmentation

• Conducting audience research to understand attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, experiences, information needs, social influences, communication preferences, and prevention barriers.

• Segmenting audiences according to relevant behavioural, social, demographic, cultural, institutional, geographic, and contextual characteristics for more appropriate communication.

• Mapping stakeholder influence to identify community leaders, youth networks, service providers, civil society organizations, media actors, institutions, and other relevant partners.

• Using interviews, focus groups, surveys, social listening, community consultations, and participatory methods to inform prevention communication design.

Module 4: Survivor-Centred and Protection-Sensitive Messaging

• Applying survivor-centred principles when developing communication about violence, disclosure, support services, prevention, referrals, rights, and available assistance.

• Avoiding victim blaming, stigmatizing language, sensationalism, graphic descriptions, stereotypes, forced disclosure, and narratives that may increase risk or retraumatization.

• Developing messages that communicate support and accountability while protecting confidentiality, informed consent, personal information, dignity, and individual choice.

• Establishing safeguards for collecting, storing, publishing, photographing, recording, and sharing stories or information involving survivors and affected populations.

Module 5: Community Dialogue and Prevention Engagement

• Designing safe and inclusive community dialogues that encourage reflection on gender norms, respectful relationships, consent, violence prevention, and collective responsibility.

• Engaging community leaders, men and boys, women and girls, adolescents, educators, health workers, faith actors, civil society, and other influential stakeholders appropriately.

• Applying participatory facilitation techniques that manage disagreement, resistance, power differences, sensitive disclosures, emotional responses, and difficult conversations.

• Connecting community communication with referral information, prevention services, institutional mechanisms, local action plans, and broader social change initiatives.

Module 6: Campaign Strategy, Creative Communication, and Advocacy

• Developing integrated prevention campaigns with clear behavioural objectives, audience segments, messages, communication channels, partnerships, implementation activities, and measurable outcomes.

• Creating culturally appropriate campaign concepts using storytelling, visual communication, radio, television, community media, social media, interpersonal communication, and public events.

• Developing advocacy messages that communicate institutional responsibilities, policy priorities, prevention commitments, accountability measures, and opportunities for collective action.

• Pre-testing campaign concepts and messages to identify harmful interpretations, unintended consequences, accessibility barriers, cultural concerns, credibility issues, and communication gaps.

Module 7: Media, Digital Communication, and Technology-Facilitated Violence

• Developing responsible media engagement approaches for sensitive gender-based violence issues, including interviews, press briefings, public statements, spokesperson preparation, and crisis response.

• Addressing online harassment, cyberstalking, image-based abuse, doxxing, sexual exploitation, coordinated attacks, and other forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

• Designing digital communication that protects privacy, minimizes exposure risks, avoids harmful amplification, and provides clear pathways to reliable information and appropriate support.

• Exploring emerging risks involving AI-generated images, deepfakes, synthetic voices, automated harassment, algorithmic amplification, and rapidly spreading harmful narratives.

Module 8: Misinformation, Backlash, and Communication Risk

• Identifying misinformation, harmful myths, denial narratives, victim-blaming claims, gender stereotypes, conspiracy narratives, and coordinated misinformation affecting prevention efforts.

• Developing risk-based response strategies that correct harmful information without unnecessarily repeating, amplifying, or legitimizing dangerous narratives.

• Anticipating backlash against gender equality and prevention initiatives by mapping likely objections, influential actors, communication risks, and constructive response options.

• Establishing communication escalation procedures for emerging controversies, public incidents, online attacks, misinformation surges, and reputational or safeguarding concerns.

Module 9: Institutional and Multi-Stakeholder Communication

• Strengthening communication between prevention programmes, government agencies, civil society organizations, health providers, protection actors, justice institutions, and community structures.

• Developing coordinated messages and referral information that reduce contradictions, communication gaps, duplication, and confusion across prevention and response systems.

• Communicating institutional responsibilities, safeguarding commitments, reporting mechanisms, prevention policies, and accountability processes in accessible and understandable language.

• Building partnerships with media, technology platforms, educators, community organizations, youth networks, and other stakeholders to extend prevention communication reach.

Module 10: Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Sustainable Prevention

• Developing indicators that assess communication reach, understanding, engagement, attitudes, social norms, behavioural intentions, prevention actions, and institutional responses.

• Combining quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate campaign effectiveness, audience experiences, communication risks, unintended consequences, and emerging prevention opportunities.

• Measuring progress beyond awareness by examining shifts in social expectations, community dialogue, institutional practices, accountability, help-seeking environments, and collective prevention action.

• Establishing learning systems that use evidence, community feedback, stakeholder reflection, emerging trends, and evaluation findings to continuously improve prevention communication.

Training Approach

This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808

Training Venue 

The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.

Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant

Certification

Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.

Airport Pickup and Accommodation

Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808

Terms of Payment:

Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.