As the negotiations continue towards agreeing a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs) to come into effect next year, tackling gender inequality remains high on the agenda.

The current draft of the SDGs contains a standalone goal on the issue, which includes a specific target to “eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation”.

It’s a welcome move – and certainly more hard-hitting than the gender equality requirements of the millennium development goals, which saw donor countries target aid at education and health in developing countries, while ignoring other areas crucial to women’s rights, such as countering gender-based violence.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 35% of women worldwide have experienced gender-based violence, with 38% of femicides globally committed by an intimate partner.

As with the MDGs before them, however, any move to tackle gender inequality in the SDGs will come up against damaging social norms which in many societies keep women and girls disempowered.

Indeed, in many societies violence against women occurs with such prevalence that it could be viewed as a social norm.

In a country such as Brazil, where the situation for women has been slowly improving, a woman is still assaulted every 15 seconds, and one is murdered every two hours. Within the past three decades, at least 92,000 women there have been killed, many at the hands of their partners, according to the Map of Violence survey in 2012.

In a bid to improve matters, in March Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff launched a zero tolerance policy towards violence against women and girls. The penal code was changed to include femicide – defined as any crime that involves domestic violence, discrimination or contempt for women, which results in their death.

And tougher sentences were introduced of between 12 to 30 years’ imprisonment for violence charges. Longer jail terms were brought in for crimes committed against pregnant women, girls under 14, women over 60 and women and girls with disabilities.

It was a major great step forward for advocates for women’s rights in Brazil.

But speaking to people working on the frontline of the battle against violence against women in Brazil last month, it is evident that despite the legislative push to tackle the problem, more needs to be done at a grassroots level to change embedded social norms.

The Reverend Elineide Ferreira Oliveira runs Casa de Noeli, a safe house for female survivors of violence in the northern city of Ariquemes. She warns that reforms such as the new femicide law, and the Maria de Penha law of 2006, which increased penalties for domestic violence, will not be enough to change the patriarchal mentality that keeps women disempowered.

“The new law could make things better, although it will take a while to implement,” said Oliveira. “Maybe with harsher punishments, they will have to treat violence against women more seriously. But even in the court system, there are some judges or lawyers who say when a husband and wife fight, we have no right to intervene, it’s a private matter. Many people think violence is normal – it’s not.”

Some judges and lawyers say that when a husband and wife fight, we have no right to intervene Reverend Elineide Ferreira Oliveira

As well as running the refuge, Rev Oliveira, along with other members of Christian Aid partner Anglican Service on Diakonia and Development (Sadd), which supports her work, has produced leaflets informing women suffering violence of their rights, and giving details of where they can get help. The leaflets, which are available in three languages, are distributed in schools, police stations and churches.

The literature distribution is an important small step in tackling violence. The creation of the SDGs, however, presents a unique opportunity to instigate a host of small steps worldwide. That’s why it’s crucial that women’s rights are central to the final SDG framework.

Their inclusion must be matched by countries demonstrating the political will needed to implement change – and funding must also be made available.

Women’s rights organisations are frequently underfunded, with money also needed to implement legislation and long-term initiatives such as education on sex and relationships, and campaigns, in the media and elsewhere, that challenge stereotypes.

The payback for such investment would be incalculable – nothing less than a world where gender-based violence is seen as an abhorrence that no society should tolerate.

Melanie Hargreaves is a press officer at Christian Aid, which is highlighting gender inequality during Christian Aid week from 10-16 May