Learning brief #1: Influencing the influencers

Oxfam's "Creating spaces to take action on violence against women and girls" project (2016-2021) aims to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG), including the prevalence of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines. The project is implemented by local partner organisations, with support from Oxfam country offices and Oxfam Canada.

Gaining support from influencers is important in the protection and promotion of girls' and women's rights. The Creating Spaces project showed strong evidence of their role in fostering legislative and policy change, and in shifting gendered institutional and community beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.

This document shares Oxfam's key learnings on how to effectively engage influencers, whether they begin as opponents to, or champions for, gender equality.