Stepping Stones
Stepping Stones is a workshop series targeted at improving gender equality and sexual and reproductive health through community participation and decision-making at local level. It is a program that is firmly based in participatory learning techniques and focuses on improving cross-gender communication, relationship skills and creating awareness of the consequences of risk-taking behaviour.
Stepping Stones was originally developed in the early 1990s for use in rural African communities and since then has been adapted and implemented in more than a 100 countries. Since 2006, the Stepping Stones programme has been implemented in 5 Pacific Island countries; Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
The Stepping Stones programme consists of a 17-module manual, each session building upon the one before with the ultimate aim of enabling positive behaviour change to take place. The programme is designed for participants to work in age and gender-appropriate peer groups in order to create a non-threatening environment and encourage more open discussions on taboo topics such as sexual health, drugs and alcohol, relationship issues, and gender relations. At designated points throughout the programme, the different peer groups come together to make presentations to each other on key issues using drama and/or skits.
Upon completion of the programme, participants are given the opportunity to present ‘special requests’ to their community, which may involve asking their community to make changes in relation to such things as reduction of violence, protection against unsafe sex, reduction of alcohol consumption, or other risk-taking behaviours.
FSPI along with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) are the current implementing agencies for the Stepping Stones program in the Pacific. FSPI currently manages the funds and day-to-day implementation of the project with both organisations providing technical assistance and advice to national level partners. In all Stepping Stones countries there is a local NGO counterpart who is responsible for national level support and implementation.
The Pacific Stepping Stones project has also built upon the original training materials and in 2009 released the first Stepping Stones Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit, ‘Measuring the Steps’. This toolkit aims gather information and data on individual and community level change brought about as a result of the project.
Other Stepping Stones resources available include; Community Solutions, a 25 minute DVD on Stepping Stones implementation in four Pacific Island Countries, a Stepping Stones community facilitator journal, a quarterly SS newsletter and an electronic forum for Stepping Stones facilitators.
For copies or further information on any of our Stepping Stones resources please contact Leaine Robinson, Regional Health and Gender Officer - HIV and AIDS Prevention on; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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