Impact of Microfinance and Participatory Gender Training for Women in Reducing Intimate Partner Violence

Conditions

Maltreatment by Spouse or Partner

Brief summary

Violence against women and girls is increasingly recognized as a major global public health and development concern. However, evidence on what forms of intervention should be prioritised is severely lacking. A cluster randomized controlled trial (The Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS & Gender Equity - IMAGE Project) in rural South Africa combined a group-based microfinance intervention with a participatory gender and HIV training curriculum for loan participants and showed that, over a two-year period, levels of physical and/or sexual partner violence experienced by participants in the past year were reduced by 55%. The overall goal of the current study is to design and implement a cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact on intimate partner violence of: 1) combining participatory gender training with microfinance for women in existing microfinance loan groups, and 2) a participatory gender training programme for women (not receiving microfinance) and their male partners.

Tanya Abramsky, Diana Sanchez Guadarrama, Saidi Kapiga, Grace Mtolela, Flora Madaha et al. (7 authors)

PLOS Global Public Health2023-11-13

10.1371/journal.pgph.0002497

Longitudinal inconsistencies in women's self-reports of lifetime experience of physical and sexual IPV: evidence from the MAISHA trial and follow-on study in North-western Tanzania.

Abramsky T, Harvey S, Mosha N, Mtolela G, Gibbs A, Mshana G, Lees S, Kapiga S, Stöckl H.

2022-04-1513 citations

10.1186/s12905-022-01697-y

A cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a gender transformative intervention on intimate partner violence against women in newly formed neighbourhood groups in Tanzania

Sheila Harvey, Tanya Abramsky, Gerry Mshana, Christian Holm Hansen, Grace Mtolela et al. (11 authors)

BMJ Global Health2021-07-0115 citations

10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004555

A social empowerment intervention to prevent intimate partner violence against women in a microfinance scheme in Tanzania: findings from the MAISHA cluster randomised controlled trial.

Kapiga S, Harvey S, Mshana G, Hansen CH, Mtolela GJ, Madaha F, Hashim R, Kapinga I, Mosha N, Abramsky T, Lees S, Watts C.

2019-10-0155 citations

10.1016/s2214-109x(19)30316-x

Women's income and risk of intimate partner violence: secondary findings from the MAISHA cluster randomised trial in North-Western Tanzania.

Abramsky T, Lees S, Stöckl H, Harvey S, Kapinga I, Ranganathan M, Mshana G, Kapiga S.

2019-08-1464 citations

10.1186/s12889-019-7454-1

A cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact on intimate partner violence of a 10-session participatory gender training curriculum delivered to women taking part in a group-based microfinance loan scheme in Tanzania (MAISHA CRT01): study protocol

Sheila Harvey, Shelley Lees, Gerry Mshana, Daniel Pilger, Christian Holm Hansen et al. (7 authors)

BMC Women s Health2018-04-0232 citations

10.1186/s12905-018-0546-8

Prevalence of intimate partner violence and abuse and associated factors among women enrolled into a cluster randomised trial in northwestern Tanzania

Saidi Kapiga, Sheila Harvey, Abdul Khalie Muhammad, Heidi Stöckl, Gerry Mshana et al. (9 authors)

BMC Public Health2017-02-13147 citations

10.1186/s12889-017-4119-9

Interventions

BEHAVIORALParticipatory gender training

10 sessions of participatory gender training

OTHERMicrofinance

Microfinance loan

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

FEMALE

Age

20 Years to 50 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

Arms 1 and 2 - microfinance loan groups: 1. there are between 15 and 30 active members in the group 2. less than 25% of the women have been members for less than one year 3. there is a good attendance (repayment) record 4. a minimum of 70% of active members consent to take part in the study Arms 3 and 4, women who: 1. are aged 20-50 years 2. are not formally employed, i.e. either self-employed or not currently working 3. have been resident in Mwanza for at least two years 4. have not been a member of a microfinance loan group in the past 12 months 5. are fluent in Swahili 6. have consented to take part in the study.

Exclusion criteria

None

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Past 12 months exposure to intimate partner violence	24 months post-intervention	Exposure to intimate partner violence will be assessed using the WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women questionnaire

Countries

Tanzania

Contacts

Primary ContactSheila E Harvey, Ph.D

sheila.harvey@lshtm.ac.uk+44 (0)207 612 7854

Backup ContactShelley Lees, Ph.D

shelley.lees@lshtm.ac.uk44 (0)207 327 2586

Outcome results

None listed