Direct cash transfers coupled with behaviour change communication (BCC) can reduce violence against women inflicted by their partners by more than a quarter, according to a study.
The study said the reduction in violence was found six to 10 months after the intervention ended, providing the first evidence that such benefits can be sustained by means of cash transfers.
Researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Cornell University conducted the study.
"Our study in Bangladesh found that the combination of transfers and behaviour change communication led to women experiencing less violence from their partners even after the programme ended. But transfers alone did not have this effect," said Shalini Roy, a research fellow at the IFPRI.
"The study results suggest that behaviour change communication was necessary to sustain the reduction in violence. Given that the behaviour change communication was focused on child nutrition, not violence or gender, we think a key function it played was to bring women together and increase their social status," she said.
Intimate partner violence is pervasive globally, with estimates showing that one in three adult women worldwide has experienced some form of it, the IFPRI said in a statement.
Much of the existing research on the effects of cash transfers on this kind of violence has been conducted in Latin America, but South Asia has among the highest regional rates in the world, with 41 per cent prevalence.
In rural Bangladesh, this number is even higher, with over 70 per cent of married women having experienced this form of violence.
Authored by IFPRI's Shalini Roy, Melissa Hidrobo, Akhter Ahmed, and Cornell's John Hoddinott, the paper "Transfers, behaviour change communication, and intimate partner violence: Post-program evidence from rural Bangladesh" examined how providing cash or food transfers to very poor women in Bangladesh-with or without intensive nutrition behaviour change communication-affected this form of violence.
The study drew on the Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI), a pilot safety net programme in rural Bangladesh implemented from 2012 to 2014.
To assess its effectiveness, the World Food Program (WFP) in collaboration with the IFPRI conducted an impact evaluation of the programme.
Mothers of young children from poor households were randomly assigned to a control group or to groups that received cash or food transfers, with or without intensive BCC related to child nutrition.
The results suggested that transfers alone were not effective in reducing partner violence against women after the programme ended, but inclusion of BCC brought a more sustained reduction in violence against women.
The study highlighted three possibilities for why adding BCC led to a sustained reduction in violence against women: first, food or cash transfers linked to BCC caused sustained increases in women's bargaining power, more so than transfers alone.
"The transfers combined with BCC increased women's social interaction and knowledge, increasing their empowerment. This likely persisted after the programme ended, making them less willing to accept violent behaviour," said IFPRI's Ms Hidrobo.
Second, women's increased social interaction made any physical violence more visible to the community. This increased the probability that men inflicting it would be caught and face social disapproval, increasing the "social costs" to men of inflicting violence, even after the programme ended.
Third, combining transfers with BCC caused greater long-term improvements in household well-being than transfers alone. This eased poverty-related stress, a trigger for violence.
Partner violence is a pervasive public health problem worldwide. It has global economic ramifications, and it is the leading cause of women's death by homicide. Adverse effects are even transmitted inter-generationally, with IPV linked to poorer child development, nutrition, and health outcomes.
Researchers' analysis suggests that in cultural contexts like rural Bangladesh, partner violence may be curbed by giving mothers cash as well as BCC to further empower them.
The findings could have important policy relevance because cash transfers are widely-used policy tools in the developing world.
"Given that cash transfer programmes are scalable and globally relevant and given that many of these programmes include trainings or other group-based activities targeted to women, our findings suggest a promising approach to sustainably reducing partner violence," Ms Roy said.
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