Scaling community-led prevention of violence: A spotlight on Cambodia’s JUST Project

Despite Cambodia's socioeconomic progress, harmful gender norms and traditional beliefs continue to fuel inequality and violence, especially for women facing multiple forms of discrimination.

As Khun Sophea, Country Programme Lead at UN Women Cambodia, explains: “Investing in community-driven prevention is one of the most powerful ways to challenge harmful norms, shift attitudes and build a future where all women and girls can live free from fear.”

To this end, the Join Us for Social Transformation (JUST) project, led by the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Centre (CWCC), co-implemented with Action on Disability and Development (ADD) International, and supported by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women (UNTF), is demonstrating that gender-based violence (GBV) is not inevitable.

By focusing on women who are often marginalized, including women with disabilities, Khmer Muslim women, female entertainment workers, and lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and other (LBTIQ+) individuals, the project is creating community-led solutions that are both inclusive and effective.

“Our goal is to prevent and respond to GBV against those most excluded,” says Touch Gnem, Programme Team Lead at ADD.

A holistic prevention model

The project employs a comprehensive model for prevention, integrating protection and response, primary prevention and systems change. At the local level, the initiative empowers communities through community-led action, training district groups to provide crucial counselling and mediation while partnering with grass-roots networks to cultivate protective environments. This localized effort is complemented by a focus on national impact, where the project collaborates with government institutions to influence policy and strengthen institutional responses, ensuring long-term systemic change.

Central to this effort is the SASA! model; an evidence-based methodology for violence prevention, created in Uganda and adapted for the Cambodian context.

The project has adapted SASA! materials to reflect the realities of disability, gender identity and the structural drivers of violence, training community activists to lead awareness sessions and facilitate safe spaces.

Building momentum through national dialogue

Building on these efforts, UN Women and Cambodia’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) convened a national workshop in Phnom Penh from 21–23 July 2025. Co-facilitated by The Prevention Collaborative, the event introduced the globally recognized RESPECT Framework to Cambodian stakeholders. Developed by UN Women and the World Health Organization, RESPECT outlines seven evidence-based strategies for preventing violence against women and girls.

Participants explored successful national and regional practices, including the JUST project. “These three days strengthened our collective understanding of how to prevent violence against women,” said Khun, adding that “projects like JUST demonstrate what truly works on the ground.”

The workshop also sparked renewed commitment among civil society. Pech Sopheak of Gender and Development Cambodia (GADC) shared that while she “only focused on providing services” before, she now sees “the importance of prevention is working with communities to change beliefs, especially the idea that women are inferior. That’s where long-term change begins.”

Shifting mindsets, strengthening communities

JUST is already seeing measurable change. The project has documented improved knowledge about GBV, shifting attitudes and reduced violence across its implementation areas.

“It wasn’t that violence didn’t exist; it was underreported,” said Gnem. “Now, after awareness-raising and capacity-building, more people are seeking help. That’s a sign of growing trust in support systems.”

Chau Pratyakratanak, Assistant Secretary of State from the Ministry of Information, highlighted the role of education in this process, stating: “Prevention means creating opportunities for people to understand they can change. Education helps people recognize both the harms and benefits, supporting behaviour change.”

The national workshop marked a crucial milestone in embedding prevention at the heart of Cambodia’s response to violence. Hel Sothearoth, from the Australian Embassy, emphasized that “successful prevention requires multisectoral collaboration, from education, health, justice and, most importantly, communities themselves.”

Peak Sopheak added: “No single institution can prevent violence alone; it requires all of us.”