Overview
Violence against women is complex and must be addressed at multiple levels, with leadership from women themselves on how to bring about positive change to free women and girls from daily experiences of violence and to promote their rights. It is in this context that the Pamodzi Kuthetsa Nkhanza (PKN) consortium will implement a programme to facilitate the prevention of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Malawi as one of the most common forms of VAW experienced in Malawi. The programme takes a whole community approach and uses gender transformative approaches at different levels of society to address the root causes of IPV. It will draw primarily on two existing, evidence-based prevention models, namely SASA! Together (community mobilisation model) and Moyo Olemekeza (MO) (gender norms and behaviour change and economic empowerment approach). The institutional strengthening component of these evaluations is meant to create an enabling environment.
The cRCT described in this protocol will assess the added value of the women's social and economic empowerment programme (MO) when layered on top of SASA! Together for eligible at-risk households.
Description
According to the 2016 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey, 42% of ever-married women aged 15 - 49 have experienced spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence by their current or most recent spouse, and a third (33%) of ever-married women experienced at least one of these forms of violence in the 12 months before the survey. Overall, 41% of all women (whether they have ever been married or not) have experienced physical or sexual violence. Despite these high levels of violence against women and girls (VAWG), there are a limited number of evidence-based interventions focused on preventing VAW adapted and evaluated in Malawi.
The PKN programme in Malawi will implement two evidence based prevention models. The first is SASA! Together, the most recent revision of the SASA! Activist Kit, an evidence-based community mobilisation approach developed by Raising Voices in 2008. It aims to change social norms across the community, impacting how community members think about violence against women and about how they use their power in their intimate relationships and in the broader community. The institutional strengthening components create an enabling environment. The second is the MO approach which is a family-based, women's economic and social empowerment approach. It has been adapted from Zindagii Shoista, another evidence-based approach implemented and evaluated in Tajikistan, which comprises a combination of gender norm, behavioural change and income-generating activities.
This protocol outlines the parameters of an evaluation of the added effect of the economic empowerment component, MO, on levels of violence against women in aged 18-49 in two districts of Malawi that are also receiving SASA! Together.
The primary research question in this study is:
\- What is the additional value of adding a women's social and economic empowerment programme (MO) for (randomly selected eligible) households with a female aged 18-49 in a heterosexual couple in communities that are already receiving SASA! Together across two districts in Malawi (Balaka and Lilongwe)?
To answer this research question, the study will implement a 2-arm quasi-experimental cRCT designed to capture the added value of the MO program (intervention households) over the SASA! Together program (control households). Implementation of SASA! Together has begun in 7 GVHs across Chadza and Nkaya in April 2025. For operational ease, the research and implementation team will split their activities in GVH Nkaya into two sub-GVHs - Nkaya North and South - effectively giving us 8 GVHs.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- The household has a woman aged 18-49 who are in monogamous relationships
- The household is food insecure, where food insecurity is scored on a scale of (0-7) and constructed from responses on 3 questions related to the household's food sufficiency (a) How does the household meet its food needs (b) How often does the household has food surplus and (c) How many times do you eat a full meal on a typical day over a year.
- The primary decision maker of the household is male
- Household is willing to participate in community meetings
