Rural Response System (RRS) — Ghana's Community Action Teams Against Violence Against Women, Evaluated by Community-Randomised Trial

The Rural Response System was designed by the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre in 2002 and earlier ran in 18 communities (2002–2008). Each community has a Community Based Action Team (COMBAT) of six respected members, trained and supported over 18 months to raise awareness at community events and by megaphone, make home visits, counsel couples, and link survivors to police, health and social welfare services.
It was evaluated in an unblinded community-randomised trial (NCT03237585) in four Central Region districts, two per arm, across 40 localities. Repeated household surveys at baseline (2016) and endline (2018) interviewed 4,148 women and 4,454 men in total; analysis used difference-in-differences. Women's past-year sexual IPV fell from 17.1% to 7.7% in intervention areas against 9.3% to 8.0% in controls (adjusted DID −9.3, 95% CI −17.5 to −1.0). Women's depression (−4.75) and partner controlling behaviour (−2.66) fell significantly. Men's reported emotional/economic IPV perpetration fell (−15.0).
Several outcomes were not significant: women's physical and severe IPV, men's physical, sexual and severe perpetration, and gender attitudes and social norms. Men's exposure was low (about 25% had heard of COMBATs, 5% received a home visit), outcomes were self-reported, only two districts were in each arm and different individuals were surveyed each round. Funded by UK Aid through the What Works to Prevent Violence programme; the authors recommend careful scale-up and further research.

Read the full analysis: https://pure.ug.edu.gh/en/publications/evaluation-of-the-rural-response-system-intervention-to-prevent-v-3/