opportunities, and, in some cases, access to health services. A more direct link between transport and violence would involve efforts to reduce harassment on public buses and trains. For example, all-women buses have been introduced in some settings, such as the “Lady Bus initiative” in Thailand (United Nations Center for Human Settlements, 2001). Similarly, women may benefit from projects that reduce the distance that girls and women travel along insecure routes to reach distant sources of water and firewood. Little information exists, however, about the effectiveness of these initiatives on improving women’s safety.

# **_Water and Sanitation projects_**

In many low-income cities, large proportions of the urban population lack access to adequate (or any) sanitary facilities, including, for example, nearly one-quarter to one-half of the population in Indian cities (United Nations Habitat, 2003). Burra, Patel, and Kerr (2003) profiled a relatively successful ten-year program to build community designed, built and managed toilet blocks in urban slum areas of various Indian cities (funded in part by the World Bank). Women’s cooperatives played a key role, both in advocating for the toilets and by ensuring that they met women’s needs. No information directly linked this project with specific outcomes related to gender-based violence. However, before the toilets were built, many women and men in urban slums were forced to defecate in outdoor public spaces. To obtain some privacy, many women waited until nightfall. Thus, the public toilets may have improved women’s safety by eliminating the need to go out at night for sanitary reasons.

# **Individual behavior change strategies**

Evaluations targeted at individual behavior change highlight the complexity of violence prevention. Changing and measuring reported attitudes and awareness appears to be much easier than changing or measuring violence-related behaviors.

# **_Mass media campaigns to increase awareness of women’s rights_**

Organizations (mostly NGOs) around the world have used mass-media campaigns to raise awareness of gender-based violence, promote nonviolent behavior and encourage women and men to be more supportive of their friends and family members who experience violence. These campaigns have included international campaigns (such as the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign), national campaigns (such as the annual campaigns conducted by the Nicaraguan Network of Women Against Violence), and local campaigns conducted within individual communities. These campaigns often appear to successfully raise awareness and increase knowledge. For example, national surveys suggest that-at least partly due to the annual campaigns--women in Nicaragua are increasingly aware of their rights. A Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) found that more than two thirds of women believed that violence against women was never justified and that they should be able to refuse sex with their partner for any reason. While it is difficult to sort out the contribution of multiple initiatives on changes in awareness and attitudes, the DHS found that one quarter of the women surveyed were able to repeat one or more messages from the annual campaigns (Ellsberg, Liljestrand, and Winkvist, 1997; Rosales, 1999; Herrera, 2001). Once again, however, researchers have not yet been able to measure the impact of these initiatives on the levels of violence against women. Moreover, experiences from other fields suggest that while these types of mass media campaigns play an important role in awarenessraising, strategies such as ‘edutainment’ are more likely to change behaviors over time (CDC, 2004).

# **_Multi-sectoral initiatives to reduce violence against women throughout the community_**

Association Najdeh, an NGO in Lebanon, operates 26 service centers for Palestinian refugees that offer vocational training, literacy, preschools, and income generation programs. In 1999, they launched a domestic violence initiative using action research, staff training, community awareness-raising, and four counseling centers. Community-based baseline and follow-up surveys found some attitudes and beliefs improved over the course of the initiative, including attitudes about whether physical violence against 41