An Integrated Approach to Increasing Women's Empowerment Status and Reducing Domestic Violence: Results of a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in a West African Country 

This article published in Psychology of Violence by CPC partner Josh Chaffin (former coordinator of the Livelihoods, Economic Strengthening, and Child Protection Task Force, which has become the Cash and Child Protection Task Force with the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action) and colleagues including principal investigator Dr. Leyla Ismailova presents findings from the first experimental study testing the effects of an economic intervention alone and in combination with a family-focused component on women's empowerment and family violence in Burkina Faso. The three-armed randomized control trial to evaluate the effectiveness of household economic strengthening on child violence and protection was undertaken as an initiative of the CPC Learning Network's Livelihoods and Economic Strengthening Task Force, the NGO Trickle Up, and the University of Chicago. Economic intervention shows benefits that go beyond changes in financial well-being and may increase women's status and improve family relationships. Integrating psychosocial components with economic strategies may be more effective for improving women's empowerment in West Africa. 

Read the article here, or contact corresponding author Dr. Leyla Ismayilova here. 

In a recent study relating to the first randomized controlled trial in Burkina Faso testing the effects of household economic strengthening (described in the above item), Dr. Leyla Karimli and colleagues explored the association between different forms of hazardous work and child's health outcomes in an article published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Results showed that children's health was significantly associated not with specific forms of work, per se, but with children's exposure to hazards and abuse while doing this form of work. Economic strengthening combined with family coaching on child protection issues, rather than economic strengthening implemented alone, may be more effective in reducing child's exposure to hazardous work. 

Read the article here, or contact corresponding author Dr. Karimli here. 

Director of the CPC Learning Network Lindsay Stark and CPC faculty affiliate Fred Ssewamala and colleagues from the International Rescue Committee recently published an article in the Journal of Adolescent Health examining the effects on a girls' social empowerment program, Creating Opportunities through Mentoring, Parental Involvement and Safe Spaces (COMPASS), on economic vulnerability of participating adolescent refugee girls in Ethiopia. Using logistic regression modeling, it was revealed that, following the intervention, girls in the treatment arm were no more or less likely than those in the control arm to attend school, work for pay, work for pay while not being enrolled in school, or engage in transactional sexual exploitation. Findings suggest that stand-alone social empowerment programs may not reduce economic vulnerability for adolescent girls without simultaneously implementing economic empowerment programs or taking additional measures to address broader structural barriers. 

Read the article here, or contact Dr. Stark here. 

Nearly 12 million children and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Within sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda has been greatly impacted, with an estimated 1.2 million orphaned children, nearly half of whom have experienced paternal loss due to the epidemic. Cost-effective and scalable interventions are needed to improve developmental outcomes for these children, most of whom are growing up in poverty. This article in the Journal of Adolescent Health by CPC faculty affiliate Fred Ssewamala and colleagues examines the direct impacts and cost-effectiveness of a savings-led family economic empowerment intervention, Bridges to the Future, that employed varying matched savings incentives to encourage investment in Ugandan children orphaned by AIDS. Findings suggest that governments intending to incorporate savings-led interventions within their social protection frameworks may not need to select a higher match rate to see positive developmental outcomes in the short term. 

Read the article here, or contact Dr. Ssewamala here. 

Delivery of effective mental health and psychosocial support programs requires knowledge of existing health systems and soci-cultural context. Familiarizing international humanitarian practitioners with local culture and contextualizing programs is essential to minimize risk of harm, maximize benefit, and optimize efficient use of resources. In an article recently published in Conflict & Health, CPC faculty affiliate Wietse Tol and colleagues draw on experience implementing desk review guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in four diverse humanitarian crises (earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal; forced displacement among Syrians and Congolese). The paper discusses critical parameters for the design and implementation of desk reviews, and discuss current challenges and future directions to improve mental health care and psychosocial support in humanitarian emergencies. 

Read the article here, or contact Dr. Tol here.

How can we best empower people living in the most economically disadvantaged areas of the world to improve their lives in ways that matter to them? CPC faculty affiliate Ben Cislaghi recently published a book investigating the work of the NGO Tostan as a working model of human development. The book is grounded in the ethnographic study of the actual change that happened in one West African Village; it mixes theory and practice in a way that questions existing approaches to development and that speaks to both development scholars and practitioners. Divided into three parts, the book first assesses why top-down approaches to education and development are unhelpful and offers a theoretical understanding of what constitutes helpful development. Part two examines Tostan's community-based participatory approach as an example of a helpful development intervention and offers qualitative evidence of its effectiveness. Part three builds a model of how community-led development works, why it is helpful, and what practitioners can do to help people at the grassroots level lead their own human development. 

Read more here, or contact Dr. Cislaghi here.

Alcohol use is a well-documented risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV); however, the majority of research on this issue comes from high-income countries. This article by CPC faculty affiliate Wietse Tol and colleagues evaluated the relationship between male partner alcohol use and experiencing IPV in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Results of this study suggest that partner alcohol use is a robust correlate of IPV in sub-Saharan Africa. However, drinking norms may independently relate to IPV and confound the relationship between partner alcohol use as a modifiable risk factor of IPV and as a novel target for treatment and prevention research to reduce IPV in sub-Saharan Africa.

Read the article here, or contact Dr. Tol here.

In November of this year, CPC affiliate institution the AfriChild Centre of Excellence for the Study of the African Child engaged district leaders countrywide in meetings where it disseminated findings from the national violence against children survey. The survey, undertaken in 2015, set out to determine the magnitude of violence against children aged 13-17; health consequences of violence; and utilization of services by victims. These meetings were held in nine districts: Masaka, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Arua, Lira, Soroti, Mbale, Jinja, and Mukono. The report includes recommendations from different regional leaders who suggested solutions to ending the scourge of violence against children in Uganda. 

Read the article here, or contact Rachael Ninsiima of AfriChild here.

The Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN) is seeking an Executive Director. ECDAN is a global network of countries, institutions, organizations, specialists, and donors committed to ensuring that all children from birth to 5 years of age, in all circumstances, reach their developmental potential. ECDAN has secured a grant to hire an Executive Director who will be hired initially by ChildFund. Responsibilities for the position include strategic planning, governance and management, representation, communication, advocacy, human and financial resourcing, and reporting. Applications should be submitted by January 15, 2018.  

Learn more here, and submit your application to Shekufeh Zonji, here.  

Better Care Network (BCN) is seeking a Regional Coordinator for the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Initiative on Children without Appropriate Family Care. The ESA Regional Coordinator will support practitioners in target countries and, where possible, more broadly in the region to document, share and access to learning about children's care and care reforms, and how learning can become practice. Applications are due by January 8, 2018. 

Learn more here, and submit your application addressed to BCN Director Florence Martin here. 

The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage--under the administration of UNICEF Child Protection section--is seeking an experienced Knowledge Management Specialist to support the design of the knowledge management strategy and implementation of internal and external knowledge sharing platforms for the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage.  In addition, the Knowledge Management Specialist will support the production, roll out and effective delivery of high quality knowledge sharing and web-based products for the Global Programme.  Applications must be submitted by January 4, 2018.

Learn more about the position and apply here.  

Consultancy: Mapping of residential care facilities in Uganda - UNICEF

The goal of this consultancy, which is being recruited by the Data and Analytics Section of UNICEF Headquarters, is to develop a standard, peer-reviewed and agreed-on methodological approach for mapping and enumerating residential care facilities (RCFs) and the children living in them that can be replicated and adapted for a variety of country contexts and to field this approach first in Uganda. The completed methodological protocol will enable UNICEF Uganda to support the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development to produce a nation-wide mapping of RCFs and count of children living in RCFs in Uganda.

Applications must be submitted by January 11, 2018.

Learn more about the position and apply here.