Indashyikirwa — Couples Curriculum for Preventing Intimate Partner Violence

Indashyikirwa ("Agents for Change") is an intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention programme implemented from 2014 to 2018 in seven Rwandan districts (Rwamagana, Kayonza, Bugesera, Burera, Musanze, Rubavu and Nyabihu) by CARE International Rwanda, the Rwanda Women's Network and the Rwanda Men's Resource Centre (RWAMREC), as part of the UK Department for International Development's multi-country "What Works to Prevent Violence" global programme.

The programme combines four components: a women's curriculum, a men's curriculum, a 21-session couples curriculum for heterosexual couples participating together in village savings and loan associations (VSLAs), and community activism led by trained "Women's and Men's Champions" who model and advocate for equitable, non-violent relationships. Impact was tested through a cluster-randomised controlled trial across 28 sectors, comparing the full community-level programme against a savings-group-only control; within participating sectors, couples were further randomised to the 21-session curriculum or standard savings-group activity.

At 24 months, women in intervention communities were significantly less likely to report past-year physical and/or sexual IPV than women in control communities (adjusted relative risk 0.44, 95% CI 0.34-0.59), and men were significantly less likely to report perpetrating physical and/or sexual IPV (adjusted relative risk 0.54, 95% CI 0.38-0.75). The intervention was more effective at stopping violence that was already occurring than at preventing its onset in relationships that had not previously experienced it — a nuance the evaluators reported openly rather than overstating the programme's reach.

The model is resource-intensive (21 structured sessions plus parallel community mobilisation over roughly two years) and its strongest evidence comes from this single rural Rwandan trial; independent replication in other settings would strengthen the case for wider transfer. The implementing partners have continued delivering further phases of the programme beyond the original pilot.

Read the full analysis: https://insights.careinternational.org.uk/publications/couple-curriculum-training-module-indashyikirwa-programme