Impacts of Clean Cookstoves and Empowerment Training on Women's Health in Refugee Settings
Condition: Gender-based Violence; Adherence; Mental Health Wellness 1; Empowerment; Food Insecurity; Relationship, Family
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The main objective of this study is to understand the links and outcomes of adoption of a
      cleaner cookstove/fuel and exposure to a personal empowerment training on women's health
      outcomes in a Congolese refugee camp in Rwanda, with a focus on gender-based violence (GBV).
    

Detailed description: 
      This randomized controlled trial examines the impacts of a phased-in integrated technology
      -behavior change intervention on women's health with a focus on gender-based violence. In a
      population of approximately 1500 Congolese households in Kigeme refugee camp in Rwanda, two
      interventions are randomly deployed in the camp. The first intervention is the Inyenyeri
      cookstove/pellet fuel system, a Tier 4 clean cookstove system; the second intervention is a
      behavior change intervention (referred to as I-ACT, Individual-Agency-Centered Training)
      designed to foster personal agency and empowerment, given to women and, if applicable, their
      male partner. Analyses will be done with interviews on 1500 women (ages 18-45) from these
      households that may have received one, both or none of the interventions, either as the full
      sample or the sub-sample of partnered-only women.
    

Intervention name(s): Inyenyeri clean cookstove and fuel system; I-ACT (Individual, Agency-Centered Training) workshop
Intervention type(s): Device; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The Inyenyeri cooking systems includes a tier 4 clean cooking system with biomass pellets that are purchased through the unconditional cash transfer program in the refugee camp; The I-ACT (Individual, Agency-Centered Training) empowerment workshop consists of behavioral exercises drawn primarily from positive psychology, that provide the tools to foster a growth mindset by allowing participants to understand the link between their thoughts, beliefs, and past actions to their future actions. Conducted in a workshop setting, this locally adapted version of the I-ACT curriculum consists of two days for women and a 1 day workshop for their male partners (as applicable)
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Factorial Assignment
Intervention model description: In this natural experiment, we have two connected randomized intervention deployments. The cookstove/fuel program was randomly rolled out to 750 households in Kigeme camp over a 6-month period (September 2018-March 2019) by Inyenyeri (a Rwandan social business). A second intervention (I-ACT empowerment training) was rolled out by Plan, International (December 2018-March 2019). I-ACT was deployed to women and their male partners (if applicable and available). After March 2019, the cookstove/pellet program was available to the whole camp. Assessments of impacts are done at 6 months after deployment of the interventions. Due to the staggering of the intervention roll-outs, the midline follow-up includes a six-month follow-up of the cookstove deployment and approximately 2-3 months of the I-ACT intervention and includes both partnered and non-partnered women. The 12-month assessment includes a 6-month follow up of the I-ACT empowerment intervention for partnered women only.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: gender-based violence; intimate-partner violence; empowerment; food insecurity; humanitarian settings; depression; fuel use; clean cookstoves