Decolonising social norms change: from ‘grandmother-exclusionary bias’ to ‘grandmother-inclusive’ approaches

Abstract

Newman is an anthropologist of development. Her work focuses on critiquing colonialist assumptions and biases in development theory, policy, and practice, and proposing decolonial alternatives based on the worldviews, values, and struggles of people on the receiving end of colonialist hierarchies. Her areas of interest are policies relating to education, health, gender, migration, and the nexus between religion and development. Her geographic expertise is in Islamic West This paper contributes to decolonizing global health and development by exposing how coloniality in knowledge production informs dominant approaches to shifting social norms underpinning Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage. Major organisations in this field demonstrate systemic grandmother-exclusionary bias, namely side-lining grandmothers as change agents compared to adolescent girls, women of reproductive age, men and boys, and religious leaders. Grandmotherexclusionary bias stems from two assumptions: grandmothers do not influence FGM/C and child marriage; grandmothers only exert harmful influence and cannot change their views. These assumptions reflect Eurocentric constructions of modernity, and limited understanding of cultural contexts where seniority and dual-sex institutions confer authority on grandmothers in relation to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Grandmother-exclusionary bias goes against evidence that grandmothers wield authority over these practices; insights from meta-evaluations and systems/socioecological approaches that social norms change requires engaging people who wield authority over those norms; and proof that grandmothers can lead change if engaged respectfully. Instead, I present the decolonial 'grandmother-inclusive' Girls Holistic Development programme in Senegal, developed by NGO The Grandmother Project. It uses cultural renewal and participatory intergenerational dialogue to both support grandmothers in shifting SRH-related norms and heal the damage Western modernity has inflicted on their communities.

Adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights for ethnic minority girls in Vietnam

“…The range of research, policy and practice needs for adolescent reproductive health articulated at the global level are also relevant for Vietnam. For example, updating what we know about how ongoing socio-economic change affects social and gender norms ( OECD, 2021 ), and the need to contextualize Eurocentric health promotion strategies ( Wazir, 2022 ; Newman, 2023 ). The research agenda would benefit from increased demand by the GoV for contextualized global best practice methods in public health, as the basis for a comprehensive national ASRHR policy.…”

“…An important next step for GoV’s policy platform is to prioritize how policy and programming is developed, and on what evidence basis ( Newman, 2023 ). Through new formative work, the current disparate policies addressing adolescent reproductive health could be combined into one policy including feasible and contextualized socio-cultural responses across prevention, promotion and service delivery components of the health system.…”

Grandmother-inclusive intergenerational approaches: the missing piece of the puzzle for ending FGM/C by 2030?

“…Meanwhile, grandmothers or female elders are hardly mentioned. If they are, they are framed as less relevant than other actors, or as a harmful rather than potentially progressive force (Newman, 2023 ).…”

“…Meta-evaluation findings align with insights from systems approaches to health-related behavior change, which show that community-based programmes can only bring about sustained change if people with authority support that change (Figueroa et al, 2002 ; Foster-Fishman et al, 2007 ). Given the wealth of data on grandmothers' decision-making authority in relation to FGM/C, and evidence that they can be progressive change agents (Shell-Duncan et al, 2018 ; Newman, 2023 ), grandmother-exclusionary bias among the dominant organizations working to eradicate FGM/C requires an explanation.…”

“…We show that this evident in “grandmother-exclusionary bias,” or the exclusion of grandmothers/female elders as change agents in favor of youth, women of reproductive age, men and boys, and male traditional/religious leaders. Our evidence for grandmother-exclusionary bias derives from a critical discourse analysis of seven reports published between 2015 and 2021 by the UNFPA and UNICEF in relation to the JPEFGM, which made recommendations of which community members to engage as change agents in FGM/C programmes (Newman, 2023 ). Based on a review of secondary literature on health-related behavior strategies, we propose that grandmother-exclusionary bias reflects coloniality of knowledge in global health and gender and development, which is when Euro-North-American-centric cultural norms underpin academic research, theory, policy, and intervention strategies (Khan et al, 2021 ; Aloudat, 2022 ).…”