Effectiveness of the Communities Care programme on change in social norms associated with gender-based violence (GBV) with residents in intervention compared with control districts in Mogadishu, Somalia

Objective Determine the effectiveness of the Communities Care programme (CCP) on change in harmful social norms associated with gender-based violence (GBV) and confidence in provision of services with residents in intervention compared with control district. We hypothesised that residents in the intervention district would report a decrease in support for harmful social norms and increase in confidence in services in comparison with control district. Setting The study was conducted in Mogadishu, Somalia. Participants In the intervention district, 192 community members (50% women) completed baseline surveys with 163 (84.9%) retained at endline. In the control district, 195 community members (50% women) completed baseline surveys with 167 (85.6%) retained at endline. Intervention CCP uses facilitated dialogues with community members to catalyse GBV prevention actions and provides training to diverse sectors to strengthen response services for GBV survivors. Results Residents in the intervention district had significantly greater improvement in change in social norms: (1) response to sexual violence (b=â '0.214, p=0.041); (2) protecting family honour (b=â '0.558, p<0.001); and (3) husband's right to use violence (b=â '0.309, p=0.003) compared with control district participants. The greatest change was seen in the norm of â protecting family honour' with a Cohen's d effect size (ES) of 0.70, followed by the norm â husband's right to use violence' (ES=0.38), and then the norm of â response to sexual violence' (ES=0.28). Residents in intervention district had a significantly greater increase in confidence in provision of GBV services across diverse sectors than the control district (b=0.318, p<0.001) with an associated effect size of 0.67. There were no significant differences between residents in intervention and control districts on change in personal beliefs on the norms. Conclusion The evaluation showed the promise of CCP in changing harmful social norms associated with GBV and increasing confidence in provision of services in a complex humanitarian setting.