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Good practice Imported

Unite for a Better Life (UBL) — Gender-Transformative Violence Prevention Curriculum, Rural Ethiopia

Ethiopia · Butajira · See the Ethiopia profile

Evidence: Randomised controlled trial Top 26% 85/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A 14-session, coffee-ceremony-format curriculum for men, women or couples in Gurage zone, Ethiopia, to shift gender norms and prevent partner violence. A cluster-RCT of 6,770 households found the men's-only arm significantly cut male IPV perpetration, at $1,430 per case averted.

6,770 households
Households randomised
AOR 0.78
Male IPV perpetration, men's-only arm (p=0.037)
$1,430
Cost per case averted, men's-only arm

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
EngenderHealth, with Addis Ababa University School of Public Health and the Ethiopian Public Health Association
Period
Cluster-randomised trial 2013–2016; cost-effectiveness analysis published 2021
Keywords
gender-based violence prevention, HIV risk reduction, couples/community education

Context

Unite for a Better Life (UBL) is a 14-session, gender-transformative curriculum delivered via the traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, tested in Gurage zone, Ethiopia, by EngenderHealth with Addis Ababa University and the Ethiopian Public Health Association.

Results

A cluster-RCT randomised 64 villages and 6,770 households to men's-only, women's-only, couples', or control arms. Only the men's-only arm produced statistically significant reductions in IPV perpetration (AOR 0.78, p=0.037) and women's experience of IPV (AOR 0.81, p=0.036). A cost-effectiveness analysis found the men's-only arm cost about $1,430 per case of IPV averted among direct participants, versus $3,275 for the couples' arm.

Conclusions

The women's-only and couples' arms showed no significant reduction in physical IPV — a caution against assuming any gender-transformative format works regardless of who participates. No evidence of national scale-up or continued funding beyond the trial was identified.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
community facilitators trained to run coffee-ceremony discussion groups

Conditions for success

  • men's-only group format specifically (mixed formats underperformed)
  • 14-session curriculum length to shift norms on gender, alcohol and decision-making

Common failure modes

  • women's-only and couples' arms produced no significant reduction in physical IPV

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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