Comparing Economic and Social Interventions to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Central and Southern Africa

Radha Iyengar and Giulia Ferrari

No 16902, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The empowerment of women within households remains a major issue around the world including in Africa. We have conducted a study in Burundi coupling discussion sessions with microfinancing to determine if they enhance the role of women in decisions regarding household purchases and the reduction of domestic violence. We compare our findings to that from a published study in South Africa that combined discussion sessions on life skills and health on reduction in domestic violence and decisions on economic issues. Both studies used randomized controlled experiments. Both studies show a trend towards increases in household authority, with the Burundi study showing statistical significance. In South Africa there was a large, albeit short lived decrease in domestic violence. In Burundi there was small reduction but trends suggest a longer duration. The effects on overall empowerment are small. These studies suggest that a more sustained use of discussion sessions may result in longer and more sustained economic and social empowerment. Future research could focus on the longer term effects of the use of discussion sessions and investigate how the observed impacts can be sustained in magnitude and duration.

JEL-codes: D12 G21 I12 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev, nep-hme and nep-mfd
Note: LS
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Comparing Economic and Social Interventions to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Central and Southern Africa , Radha Iyengar, Giulia Ferrari. in African Successes, Volume II: Human Capital , Edwards, Johnson, and Weil. 2016

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w16902.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: Comparing Economic and Social Interventions to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Central and Southern Africa (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16902

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w16902

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().