Programmes

The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya (AGI-K) (2014-2020) generated evidence on how multi-component and multi-sectoral interventions can improve the lives of adolescent girls.
The initiative implemented and evaluated a four-component intervention across multiple sectors. A component on prevention focused on community-based strategies implemented with 7000 girls over 2 years.

The India AIDS Initiative (Avahan) was implemented in six states in India between 2003 to 2014. In the southern state of Karnataka, the primary goal was to improve provision of services in order to prevent HIV among female sex workers, men who have sex with men and transgender people.

The Bandebereho, or “role model,” intervention implemented in four districts in Rwanda between 2013 and 2015 aimed to promote positive fatherhood and gender equality amongst expectant fathers and fathers of children under five years, and their partners. Its objective was to shift gender power imbalances and reduce intimate partner violence in the home.

The Bangladeshi Association for Life Skills, Income and Knowledge for Adolescents (BALIKA) programme (2012- 2016) implemented three separate interventions on educational support, gender rights awareness training and livelihood training in three districts of Bangladesh with the goal of empowering girls between the ages of 12 and 18 and delaying marriage.
A randomised controlled trial found that girls in intervention communities were one-third less likely to be married than girls in the non-intervention group.

Becoming One was a faith-based couples’ counselling intervention implemented in Uganda from 2018-2019 designed to strengthen relationships and prevent intimate partner violence. The programme was delivered by Christian religious leaders as a 12-session curriculum focusing on communication skills, emotional regulation, shared control over finances, sexual consent and pleasure.

Some interventions provide cash to participants, either conditionally (for example, depending on requirements such as school attendance of children) or unconditionally. The primary aim of these transfers from governments to the poorest households is the reduction of poverty.

The COMBAT programme developed a Rural Response System (RRS) to mobilise community members, state agencies and other key actors to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in rural communities in the central region of Ghana. Using Community-Based Action Teams (COMBAT), it aimed to raise awareness about the causes and consequences of violence against women and girls, change social norms and practices that drive intimate partner violence, and facilitate coordinated responses among community-based action teams, state agencies and key actors in order to support survivors of violence to access counselling, as well as legal and other social services.

The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality) Programme was implemented in Bihar, India between 2012 and 2016. The programme aimed to prevent violence by raising awareness about women’s rights, changing traditional notions of masculinity and female subordination, promoting women’s agency, building support systems to help women at risk of violence, and preventing incidences of violence within participants’ immediate environments.

The Food, Cash and Voucher Programme in Ecuador (2011-2012) and the Transfer Modality Research Initiative in Bangladesh (2012-2014) were two separate interventions that provided economic transfers with the aim of addressing poverty and food insecurity. The intervention in Ecuador also aimed to improve women’s participation in household decision-making. It was aimed at Colombian refugees and poor Ecuadorians in northern Ecuador.

The Gender Roles, Equality and Transformation (GREAT) programme, implemented in Uganda between 2010 and 2017, aimed to promote gender equitable attitudes and behaviours among adolescents and their communities to improve sexual and reproductive health and reduce gender-based violence in post-conflict northern Uganda. The intervention included four components: A community action cycle; a serial radio drama; a village health team linking to services; and a toolkit promoting reflection and dialogue to shift towards gender equitable attitudes, behaviours and norms.

The Good School Toolkit, implemented in Uganda, aimed to create a safe school environment for children. The objectives of the Good School Toolkit were to equip teachers for increasing student confidence and success, create a safe and respectful learning environment, and support the school administration to be more transparent and accountable. It adopts a whole-school approach preventing violence against children.

The Indashyikirwa programme, implemented in Rwanda, aimed to support equitable, non-violent relationships through a multi-component intervention, which used village savings and loans associations in which couples were already participating as the entry point for additional activities. A couples component included 21 weekly sessions with couples to discuss concepts of gender, power, rights, household roles, healthy relationships and support for those experiencing intimate partner violence.

MAISHA is a social empowerment intervention that was implemented in Tanzania. It replicated and built on the Interventions for Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity (IMAGE) project that had previously successfully reduced intimate partner violence in rural South Africa. MAISHA reached female participants of already established microfinance loan groups with social empowerment training curriculum.

The Responsible Engaged and Loving (REAL) fathers programme supported young fathers (between the ages of16 and 25) in Northern Uganda to build their knowledge and skills about and practice non-violent parenting and intimate relationships. The intervention included a 12-session curriculum for mentors, a mentoring programme for young fathers, awareness-raising activities and community celebrations as ways to reduce both intimate partner violence and the mistreatment of children.

The Preventing Violence against Women and Girls through Sports and Play programme aimed to prevent school-based violence in Hyderabad province of Pakistan. The intervention combined sport and play activities with children on the brink of adolescence with training of educators and wider engagement with parents and the community.

The Global Safe Cities programme was launched in 2010, following growing demands to address sexual harassment in public spaces. Port-Moresby, Papua New Guinea is one of the cities that participated in the global programme. City authorities together with UN Women developed two initiatives to address violence faced by women in market places where they gathered to sell their wares and on public transport.

The Safe Homes and Respect for Everyone (SHARE) programme was implemented in Rakai, Uganda. It involved multiple components aimed at integrating the prevention of intimate partner violence with HIV prevention. The intervention included a community mobilisation component to change the social norms that contribute to both intimate partner violence and HIV risk.

The Unite for a Better Life (UBL) programme was developed to reduce intimate partner violence and HIV transmission in rural communities in southwestern Ethiopia. The intervention activities included a curriculum delivered through 14 sessions over 7 weeks. There were groups of just women, others with only men and groups of couples which mixed women and men. Traditional coffee ceremonies, integral to the social life in rural Ethiopia, were used as opportunities to convene these groups.

The Zindagi Shoista (“Living with Dignity”) programme was implemented in Tajikistan in four rural villages. It used a family-centred approach to work with 80 families to transform attitudes and norms in order to strengthen relationships and empower women economically. Using trained facilitators, entire families, consisting of women, men, young and old people, were led through a process of critical reflection about gender relations, social norms and the causes and impacts of violence.