The impacts of combined social and economic empowerment training on intimate partner violence, depression, gender norms and livelihoods among women: an individually randomised controlled trial and qualitative study in Afghanistan.

Introduction: We assessed whether the Women for Women International (WfWI) economic and social empowerment programme could reduce women's experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) and depression in Afghanistan.

Methods: We conducted a two-arm individually randomised controlled trial in six urban and peri-urban communities. Communities were selected by WfWI for being conflict affected and showing signs of economic vulnerability (eg, little or no education, living in extreme poverty).

An individually randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of the Women for Women International Programme in reducing intimate partner violence and strengthening livelihoods amongst women in Afghanistan: trial design, methods and baseline findings.

Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is the most common form of violence in conflict and post-conflict settings, but there are few evaluations of interventions to prevent IPV in such settings.

Methods: The Women for Women International (WfWI) intervention is a year-long combined economic and social empowerment intervention for marginalized women survivors of conflict. Primarily, it seeks to support women to achieve four key outcomes: women earn and save money; women improve their health and well-being; women influence decisions in their homes and communities; women connect to networks for support.