Exploring young women’s reproductive decision-making, agency and social norms in South African informal settlements
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights that focusing solely on individual agency overlooks the powerful role of social norms — particularly the expectation that young women should prove their fertility early. Programs aiming to reduce early, unplanned pregnancies must challenge these community and family pressures, while also supporting women’s increasing desire for reproductive control […]
Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention: shortened interrupted time series evaluation of a behavioural and structural health promotion and violence prevention intervention for young people in informal settlements in Durban, South Africa
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights that integrating economic empowerment with gender-transformative interventions can effectively shift social norms among young people in informal settlements. Notably, it found that material improvements in young women’s lives—such as increased income and reduced financial dependence—enabled them to better apply knowledge from gender-transformative programming, leading to reduced experience of […]
Effectiveness of a multi-level intervention to reduce men’s perpetration of intimate partner violence: a cluster randomized controlled trial
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study underscores the complexity of transforming deeply entrenched social norms and masculinities that sustain intimate partner violence in informal peri-urban contexts. While the Sonke CHANGE intervention aimed to shift gender norms through community mobilization and reflective dialogue, it was more effective among men with less violent behavior at baseline. The […]
Using soccer to build confidence and increase HCT uptake among adolescent girls: a mixed-methods study of an HIV prevention programme in South Africa
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The SKILLZ Street intervention highlights how challenging harmful gender norms in a girls-only, sport-based setting can enhance adolescent girls’ confidence, communication, and health-seeking behavior. By creating a safe space and using female community coaches as role models, the program addressed stigma, gender inequality, and the perception of soccer as male-only, fostering […]
Opportunities and Challenges in Preventing Violence Against Adolescent Girls Through Gender Transformative, Whole-Family Support Programming in Northeast Nigeria
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The SSAGE program demonstrates that synchronized, reflective engagement with caregivers, male siblings, and girls can shift household communication and decrease tolerance for violence. However, persistent patriarchal norms—particularly around girls’ obedience and mobility—limited the extent of norm change. This underscores the need for programs to simultaneously address broader structural and community-level drivers […]
Effectiveness of the Sista2Sista programme in improving HIV and other sexual and reproductive health outcomes among vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in Zimbabwe
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Sista2Sista programme demonstrates that peer group interventions rooted in dialogue, mentorship, and community involvement can influence social norms related to sexual health, education, and gender-based violence among adolescent girls and young women. The program’s emphasis on self-awareness, communication, gender and power, and rights-based decision-making helped shift individual attitudes and behaviors, […]
A Family-Focused, Sibling-Synchronous Intervention in Borno State, Nigeria: Exploring the Impact on Family Functioning and Household Gender Roles
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study highlights that improving gender equity and reducing violence within families demands more than targeting girls alone. Engaging boys, caregivers, and the broader household in open dialogue about power, roles, and relationships is essential for transforming social norms. Programs that create space for cross-generational, gender-inclusive conversations can help challenge entrenched […]
Examining diffusion to understand the how of SASA!, a violence against women and HIV prevention intervention in Uganda
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights the importance of community-led social norms transformation in reducing violence against women. The SASA! intervention facilitated behavior change by challenging gender norms that underpin intimate partner violence and HIV vulnerability. The success of SASA! was linked to its ability to diffuse ideas through multiple communication channels and within […]
Effectiveness of a multilevel intervention to reduce violence and increase condom use in intimate partnerships among female sex workers: cluster randomised controlled trial in Karnataka, India
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Samvedana Plus reduced the acceptance of intimate partner violence, increased awareness of self-protection strategies, and fostered solidarity among sex workers. These findings highlight the importance of addressing deeply embedded norms that normalize violence in intimate relationships but also emphasize that changing norms may require broader structural and community-level engagement beyond […]
“I got courage from knowing that even a daughter-in-law can earn her living”: Mixed methods evaluation of a family-centred intervention to prevent violence against women and girls in Nepal.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study underscores that transforming gender norms within families—by working with both women and men, as well as older and younger generations—can create meaningful change, reducing violence and enhancing women’s empowerment. Objectives: This study evaluates a family-centered intervention in Nepal designed to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) by addressing […]