REPLACE 2 Project updates: 27th October 2014

Partner meeting in Lisbon 

All the REPLACE 2 partners gathered in Portugal this month for 3 days to discuss the progress of the project, specifically focussing on the development of the tailored behaviour change interventions and how we will evaluate them. A big thank you to the Community based researcher at APF who kick started the meeting with a workshop about their experiences working with the community towards gathering information to guide the development of the tailored interventions. This proved very insightful;  The CBR's  practical field experience  helped to generate a lively debate especially around the drivers of FGM,    and also opened  up further leads on fGM practice among the Guinean community in Lisbon which would  be explored in the next round of data collection.  It also provided an opportunity to  triangulate  some of the preliminary findings that  were presented in the meeting. The event also generally enabled us to discuss with partners some of the challenges that they were facing regarding the data collection and analysis and to find ways of addressing these.  

Dr Katherine Brown ran a refresher workshop on the behaviour change approach which allowed the partners to understand how all of their activities to date mapped on to the approach and what the future activities they needed to engage in might involve. The work that FSAN have been doing with Qu’ranic school teachers as part of REPLACE2 was used to provide examples of how the new partners’ (APF, CESIE & Gabinet) interventions may develop. Partners worked together to focus on specifying the target behaviours for interventions and thinking about how the capabilities, opportunities and motivation of community members may  need to be supported in order to help them achieve those targets.

Katherine also ran an evaluation workshop and which illustrated the main purposes of evaluation work. Being clear about what is expected to change as a result of the intervention is important so that this can be adequately assessed. Again, evaluation methods and materials planned for FSAN’s intervention work was used to illustrate the possibilities to new partners.

A big thank you to all the partners for an engaging and productive couple of day and a special thank you to Miguel and the rest of APF for their hospitality.

Conferences 

Prof Hazel Barrett spoke at the #NoFGM policy development open event on the morning of Monday 22 September, alongside the Labour Party Conference in Manchester.

Prof Hazel barrett & Dr Yussif Alhassan attended The National FGM conference in Bristol this Month. REPLACE 2 had a stand to display information about the project which gave Yussif the opportunity to distribute leaflets and talk to delegates about the REPLACE project.  Yussif found it particularly encouraging  to  hear some delegates talk about the REPLACE project  and learn what FGM  projects others are working on.  The conference also provided an opportunity for REPLACE 2 to network with fellow academics,  community workers,  health professionals,  and policy makers  and to explore possible ways to collaborate.  

Naana Otoo-Oyortey spoke at the Women's Forum for the Economy & Society on Friday 17th October. The focus of the sessions run jointly with Julia Lalla-Maharajh, Founder and CEO of Orchid Project, was 'a world free from female genital cutting’. Naana talked about ending FGM and explained REPLACE 2 and its community based behaviour change approach to ending FGM in the EU.  

REPLACE 2 have also had a poster accepted for the annual UKSBM conference, being held at Nottingham University in December. The poster will focus on the methodological approach of the project by explaining, with examples from the development of one of the international partner’s interventions, the community-based behaviour change approach.