WORKING WITH FAMILIES TO PREVENT VIOLENCE IN TAJIKISTAN
Your complete source on everything Zindagii Shoista! Our goal is to make all materials on a programme easily accessible in one place. If you are aware of additional resources, please contact us.
Zindagii Shoista (Living with Dignity) is a livelihood-strengthening, social norms behaviour-change programme designed to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG). Piloted and implemented in Tajikistan in Central Asia, it takes a family-centred approach to address the intertwined drivers of household violence, including poverty and economic stress, patriarchal norms, and poor mental health. The programme engaged multiple generations within selected extended families in critical reflection sessions on gender dynamics, social norms, and the causes and impacts of violence. Additionally, it enhanced family livelihood security through income-generating activities (IGAs), with women playing a central role. Implemented over 18 months, Zindagii Shoista positively impacted 80 families across four villages, involving 270 participants with 60% women and 40% men.
Programme components:
- Two consecutive group-based curricula: an 11-session participatory curriculum on gender relations, social norms, and the causes and impact of violence, and a 12-session participatory curriculum on economic empowerment, livelihood-strengthening, financial management skills, and IGAs.
- Sessions were delivered separately to groups of 15-20 older men, older women, younger men, and younger women, all from the same extended families; two sessions brought together all groups to exchange ideas.
- Families received in-kind support amounting to $500 needed to establish their IGAs.
- Cost-sharing approach was implemented requiring families to make their own contribution (financial, labour, or materials) to build a sense of ownership.
A mixed-method evaluation of the piloted programme found that 15 months after the baseline survey, the number of young women experiencing violence from their husbands and in-laws dropped by 50%. Women’s and men’s gender attitudes became significantly more equitable, with particular changes in men’s attitudes. Positive findings on women’s financial status included a four-fold increase in women’s earnings and a ten-fold increase in the proportion of women with any savings. Finally, mental health improved, with depression rates and suicidal thoughts significantly decreasing among women and men. A follow-up study 30 months after the baseline found mostly sustained reductions in violence, and improvements in household financial status, mental health, and gender-equitable attitudes.
Zindagii Shoista was implemented by International Alert, Cesvi, ATO, Farodis, and Zanoni Sharq and some of the curriculum sessions were adapted from the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures programme in South Africa. If you plan to adapt this programme, we recommend contacting them first. The UK Department for International Development (now FCDO) provided funding for the programme and evaluation under the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls Programme.
- In cultures where young married women live with extended families, involving entire families in VAWG prevention interventions is important to transform power relations within the family.
- Pairing livelihood-strengthening activities with behavioural change components to address harmful gender norms can significantly reduce various forms of VAWG, and offer other positive outcomes, such as improved mental health.
- IGAs need sufficient time (at least 18 months in this programme) for meaningful impact on women’s status and for changes in relationships and power dynamics to unfold.
- Engaging extended families created a strong community mobilising force in the selected villages, and fostered community relations and village infrastructure.
- Local partners played a key role in supporting participants’ IGAs, which involved a significant investment of time and resources.
- IPV prevention and livelihood programmes can be adapted to new contexts with culturally appropriate methods to engage men and women in intervention activities; this intervention was lightly adapted to Nepal (named Sammanit Jeevan), and the results of the evaluation showed similar positive impacts.
“WHEN I SEE EDUCATED PEOPLE I REGRET THAT MY PARENTS COULD NOT EDUCATE ME. AFTER THE PROJECT SESSIONS THE WAY MY HUSBAND AND MOTHER-IN-LAW RELATE TO ME HAS CHANGED. I FOUND A JOB IN A BATHHOUSE AS A CLEANER. MY HUSBAND AND MY MOTHER-IN-LAW ARE NOT AGAINST MY WORK, ALTHOUGH BEFORE THEY WERE OPPOSED TO THIS IDEA. MY MOTHER-IN-LAW SAYS THAT I CAN WORK AND SHE WILL LOOK AFTER MY KIDS. MY MOTHER-IN-LAW NOW SUPPORTS ME; WHENEVER I GO TO WORK, SHE TAKES CARE OF MY CHILDREN, HELPS WITH DAILY CHORES. MY HUSBAND SUPPORTS ME TOO. MY BEHAVIOUR HAS CHANGED TOO. I HAVE HEARD IT FROM MY MOTHER, HUSBAND AND MOTHER-IN-LAW. I BECAME MORE BRAVE AND LIVELY AND HAVE A VISION FOR MY FUTURE.”
YOUNG WOMAN, AT THE END OF THE PROGRAMME
