Mogadishu

Researchers are evaluating the Communities Care CC program to prevent violence against women and girls in Somalia. This program aims to change harmful social norms linked to gender-based violence GBV and increase confidence in services for women and girls. The study expands the existing CC program to include adolescent boys and girls, creating separate adult and adolescent interventions. Johns Hopkins University collaborates with local partners to assess the programs reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance in two Somali regions using a hybrid effectiveness-implementation design. The study involves districts in Banadir and Galmudug regions randomized to either receive the CC violence prevention program or continue usual programming. The CC program targets social norms and behavior change through community and school-based activities involving adults and adolescents aged 10 and older. The intervention is delivered in collaboration with local NGOs, the Somalia Ministry of Education, public schools, and women-led organizations. Control districts receive no CC program intervention but maintain standard violence prevention activities. Participants include adults and adolescents aged 10 years and older living in target districts, including internally displaced persons. Data will be collected at multiple time points baseline, midline 12 months, endline 24 months, and maintenance 36 months. Assessments include surveys measuring cyber-sexual harassment, peer-to-peer violence, intimate partner violence, harsh punishment, social norms, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health knowledge, and confidence in service providers. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will evaluate program outcomes and implementation over the study period.