What Works - Malawi SASA! Together

NCT06783400 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: NCR245830SASA
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 4,800
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

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). A cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT) will evaluate the effectiveness of the PKN programme, assessing the effectiveness of the SASA! Together programme at shifting individual behaviours and reducing violence in intimate relationships while also tackling community norms that drive these forms of violence against women. The cRCT will also assess the added value of combining SASA! Together and a women's social and economic empowerment programme (MO) for most at-risk households. This protocol focuses on the evaluation of the SASA! Together programme.

Conditions

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV); Norms, Social; Gender Inequitable Behavior

Keywords

intimate partner violence; gender; social norms; community mobilization; behavior change

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Indicator for Past year experience of any violence (physical, sexual, or emotional) from a partner (among women who have had an intimate partner in the past year)

  Defining past year experience of intimate partner violence using the World Health Organization's "Multi-country study measure for intimate partner violence" module.

  12 months

• Acceptability of violence (personal belief; among men and women separately)

  Sum of indicators that the respondent agrees that a man/husband has a good reason to hit or beat his wife/partner if she (1) goes out without telling him; (2) she neglects the children; (3) she argues with him; (4) she refuses to have sex with him; (5) she burns the food; (6) he suspects that she has been unfaithful

  From time of implementation to endline assessment is 3 years

Secondary Outcomes (7)

• Indicator for Past year experience of physical violence from a partner (among women who have had an intimate partner in the past year)

  12 months

• Indicator for Past year experience of sexual violence from a partner (among women who have had an intimate partner in the past year)

  12 months

• Indicator for Past year experience of emotional violence from a partner (among women who have had an intimate partner in the past year)

  12 months

• Indicator for Past year experience of economic violence from a partner (among women who have had an intimate partner in the past year)

  12 months

• Indicator for Past year experience of controlling behaviour from a partner (among women who have had an intimate partner in the past year)

  12 months

Study Arms (2)

Control

NO INTERVENTION

In control communities SASA! Together will not be implemented.

SASA! Together

EXPERIMENTAL

The SASA! Together programme will be implemented in communities in this arm.

Behavioral: SASA! Together

Interventions

SASA! Together BEHAVIORAL

SASA! Together is a community mobilisation approach that engages communities to create positive and sustainable changes around norms and behaviors that perpetuate violence against women. Some new features in this revision of SASA! include a distinct focus on IPV, including sexual decision-making; three strategies aligned to the socio-ecological model that reach across the whole community (individuals, groups, and institutions); and more support to get organisations and communities started and to sustain change. The evidence- and theory-based SASA! approach is grounded in: (1) benefits-based activism, (2) a gender-power analysis, (3) four phases of change (start, awareness, support, action) according to the stages of behaviour change, (4) holistic community engagement, (5) local activism, (6) community leadership, and (7) institutional strengthening.

SASA! Together

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 49 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Women and men aged 18-49 who have ever been in an intimate (romantic) relationship.
• Living in selected Group Village Heads (GVHs) in Lilongwe or Balaka districts for at least a year. The specific Traditional Authorities (TAs) in Lilongwe are: Kalolo, Chimutu, Kabudula; The TAs in Balaka are: Msamala and Nyanyala.

You may not qualify if:

• Women and men younger than 18 years or older than 49 years old
• Women who have never had an intimate relationship.
• Not living in selected TAs and GVHs in Lilongwe or Balaka districts, or living in selected GVHs for less than one year
• Paid employees of the PKN programme (any element), including SASA! Together community activists who deliver the programme activities.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• George Washington University: lead
• Global Women's Institute: collaborator
• University of Cape Town: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Women's Legal Resources Center (WOLREC)

Blantyre, Malawi

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Coitus

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Sexual Behavior; Behavior

Central Study Contacts

Jennifer Seager, PhD

CONTACT

202-994-4455; jseager@gwu.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 14, 2025
• First Posted: January 20, 2025
• Study Start: August 27, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2029
• Last Updated: February 12, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF
• Time Frame: Information will be made available upon request after primary manuscripts have been published

Locations

MA (1)