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Abstract
Objective This paper describes the design and methods of a cluster randomised controlled trial (C-RCT) to determine the effectiveness of a community mobilisation intervention that is designed to reduce the perpetration of violence against women (VAW).
Methods and analysis A C-RCT of nine intervention and nine control clusters is being carried out in a periurban, semiformal settlement near Johannesburg, South Africa, between 2016 and 2018. A community mobilisation and advocacy intervention, called Sonke CHANGE is being implemented over 18 months. It comprises local advocacy and group activities to engage community members to challenge harmful gender norms and reduce VAW. The intervention is hypothesised to improve equitable masculinities, reduce alcohol use and ultimately, to reduce VAW. Intervention effectiveness will be determined through an audio computer-assisted self-interview questionnaire with behavioural measures among 2600 men aged between 18 and 40 years at baseline, 12 months and 24 months. The primary trial outcome is men’s use of physical and/or sexual VAW. Secondary outcomes include harmful alcohol use, gender attitudes, controlling behaviours, transactional sex and social cohesion. The main analysis will be intention-to-treat based on the randomisation of clusters. A qualitative process evaluation is being conducted alongside the C-RCT. Implementers and men participating in the intervention will be interviewed longitudinally over the period of intervention implementation and observations of the workshops and other intervention activities are being carried out.
Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was obtained from the University of the Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee and procedures comply with ethical recommendations of the United Nations Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence. Dissemination of research findings will take place with local stakeholders and through peer-reviewed publications, with data available on request or after 5 years of trial completion.
Trial registration number NCT02823288; Pre-result.
- cluster randomized controlled trial
- behavioural intervention
- perpetration of violence against women
- working with men and boys
- gender-based violence
- South Africa
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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Footnotes
Contributors NJC: conceptualised the study together with AH and AP, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. AH: conceptualised the study together with NJC and AP, and made substantial contributions to the writing of the manuscript. RSM: refined the process evaluation and contributed to the description of the process evaluation in the manuscript. DP, DR, AP and AA: developed and refined the Sonke intervention which the C-RCT is evaluating and commented on the manuscript.
Funding The Sonke CHANGE Trial is funded by the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls programme, South African Medical Research Council and UKAID; contact person: Professor Rachel Jewkes, rachel.jewkes@mrc.ac.za
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval University of the Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.