Domestic Violence Discussion Session
Condition: Intimate Partner Violence
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Over the last twenty years micro-finance based interventions have proven to be a popular and
      often effective means of improving the economic outcomes of impoverished women. However, the
      gains to microfinance based interventions on women's decision making in both economic and
      non-economic arenas remains largely unknown. Specifically, the question of to what extent
      does access to small-scale credit alone, rather than other programs often combined with
      microfinance, affect women's empowerment is of particular interest when determining
      interventions in a variety of setting in developing nations. There exists evidence that
      women's empowerment is associated with reduced violence and as such maybe an important tool
      for improving adult women's wellbeing. In addition increased decision making power by women
      has been associated with improvement in children's health outcomes, especially for girls, and
      as such may be way generating intergenerational improvements in women's outcomes.

      The goal of this project is to disentangle the effects of access to credit alone from the
      information on financial and personal decision making that is frequently coupled with these
      programs. To accomplish this, the investigators use a randomized field experiment among
      participants in Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA's). VSLA participants are a
      self-selected group of people who pool their money into a fund from which members can borrow.
      The money is paid back with interest, causing the fund to grow. The regular savings
      contributions to the VSLA are deposited with an end date (usually less than 1 year) after
      which all or part of the total funds are distributed to the individual members. The small
      loans are paid back with interest which is determined by the group at the time of formation
      and the returns from these interest payments are also distributed to the groups. The
      investigators then test whether there are additional gains to women's well-being by providing
      VSLA participants with training on process-based decision making to determine if there is a
      need for additional efforts to improve the decision making structure in households. To the
      extent that increased access to credit and more broadly financial resources is limited by
      existing constraints on women's decision making power, this additional training may be a
      necessary part of the creation of credit markets in improving the health and well-being of
      women and children.
    

Detailed description: 
      -  How are subjects recruited? What inducement is offered? If participants are paid, what
           amount and when are they paid? Is there partial pay for partial completion? (Append copy
           of letter or advertisement or poster, if any.)

      Subjects are voluntary participants in a Village and Savings Group organized by the
      International Rescue Committee

        -  Salient characteristics of subjects--number who will participate, age range, sex,
           institutional affiliation, other special inclusion and exclusion criteria (if children,
           prisoners or other vulnerable subjects are recruited, explain why their inclusion is
           necessary):

      Subjects will be 600 individuals, predominantly women, aged 20-50, who reside in the Burundi
      province of Makamba (in the southern part of Burundi)

        -  Describe how permission has been obtained from cooperating institution(s)--school,
           hospital, corporation, prison, or other relevant organization. (Append letters.) Is the
           approval of other research compliance committees or another Institutional Review Board
           required?

      Jodi Nelson: (protocols)

        -  What do subjects do, or what is done to them, or what information is gathered? (Append
           copies of instructions, tests, questionnaires, or interview guides to be used.) How many
           times will observations, tests, etc., be conducted? How long will their participation
           take? Are interviews to be tape recorded or videotaped?

      Everyone in the sample (N=600) is in a VSLA with its financial design previously determined.
      Half of the sample will be treated as the "control" group and will not receive the treatment.
      Of this sample, in half of the VSLA's the investigators will ask the spouse to accompany the
      member to one payment meeting. A baseline survey will be conducted in January 2008 to gather
      basic demographic information as well as pre-treatment levels of variables of interest The
      training/discussion groups will take place over several months are intended to promote joint
      decision-making. conduct a post-treatment survey to determine immediate gains from the
      treatment. After another 1-2 months, the investigators will conduct a final survey to
      determine the survival rate of any changes. Interviews will be recorded in written form to be
      input into computerized data management systems.
    

Intervention name(s): Discussion sessions; Village Savings and Loans Associations
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Those selected were invited to attend a 6 session course on household decision-making with their spouses. Topics included budgeting, household financial management, and negotiation skills; The approach developed by CARE International develops Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs). A VSLA is a self-selected group of people who pool their money into a fund from which members can borrow. The money is paid back with interest, causing the fund to grow. The regular savings contributions to the Association are deposited with an end date in mind for distribution of all or part of the total funds (including interest earnings) to the individual members, usually on the basis of a formula that links payout to the amount saved. This lump sum distribution provides a large amount of money that members can then use as they want, without restriction.
Other intervention name(s): Household Financial Training; Village Microfinance
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research
Keywords: domestic violence