Sasa! Program (Uganda)
Life periods served
Where the program was applied
Country of application
Description

This is a community mobilization intervention that seeks to prevent violence against women by addressing gender inequality and social norms regarding the acceptability of violence. Based on the theory of states of change, SASA! is implemented through trained community activists and is organized in four phases: initiation, awareness, support, and action. Full implementation of the program typically takes three or more years.
SASA! focuses on critical analysis and transformation of gender inequality and is designed to work systematically with a wide range of stakeholders within the community, advocating a community-based approach to change inequalities and norms that perpetuate violence against women.

Impact evaluations

A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) found that the SASA! intervention had a significant impact on attitudes and behaviors, reducing social acceptance of gender inequality and intimate partner violence and decreasing the actual experience of this type of violence [1].
Both men and women reported lower social acceptance of intimate partner violence, although the result was statistically significant only for women. There was also, among both women and men, significantly greater acceptance of the idea that a woman can refuse sex.
Compared to women in the control group, there was a 52% reduction in episodes of physical violence by a partner and a smaller, statistically non-significant decrease in episodes of sexual violence.

Bibliographic reference

[1] Abramsky, T., K. Devries, L. Kiss et al. (2014). Findings from SASA! Study: A cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a community mobilization intervention to prevent violence against women and reduce HIV risk in Kampala, Uganda. BMC Med, 12: 122. doi: 10.1186/s12916-014-0122-5. https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-014-0122-5

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