Economic Evaluation of the MEWE Intervention (MEWE-EE)

London School of Economics and Political Science

Status: Completed

Conditions: Domestic Violence; Battered Women; Rape Sexual Assault; Mental Health Issue; Gender-based Violence; Depression; Intimate Partner Violence

Treatments: Other: Cash transfer to adult females; Behavioral: Life Skills Building (LSB) curriculum for females; Behavioral: Life Skills Building (LSB) curriculum for males

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05598697

108137

Details and patient eligibility

About

Cash transfers have shown promise in preventing intimate partner violence, and in reducing recipients' stress levels. Cash transfers with behavioral or psychological interventions have shown limited effectiveness at reducing stress in some African countries. Little is known of the cost-effectiveness of interventions delivered alongside cash transfer programs. The MEWE economic evaluation sub-study (MEWE-EE) runs alongside MEWE, a three-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial in Sindh, Pakistan. MEWE-EE will assess the costs and cost-effectiveness of delivering a cash-transfer program (BISP-CT) combined with a life-skills building curriculum (LSB curriculum), compared to the BISP-CT alone. The LSB curriculum is offered to either women who receive BISP-CT, or to women who receive BISP-CT and their husbands.

Enrollment: 1,536 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 15 to 49 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• In receipt of Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) cash transfers (CTs)
• Parity: have at least one child, at least 18 months old

Exclusion criteria

• Plan for the family to migrate out of the village within the next 2 years

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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1,536 participants in 3 patient groups

Cash Transfers only

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants allocated to this arm receive cash transfers. They are clients of a nation-wide cash transfer program.

Treatment:

Other: Cash transfer to adult females

Cash Transfers + LSB curriculum for females clients only

Experimental group

Description:

Participants allocated to this arm receive cash transfers and access to LSB curriculum training. Female cash transfer recipients attend 10 life-skills building sessions. Sessions are held weekly and are 90 minutes long. Two trained facilitators run the session for groups of 10 women over a ten-week period.

Treatment:

Other: Cash transfer to adult females

Behavioral: Life Skills Building (LSB) curriculum for females

Cash Transfers + LSB curriculum for females clients and their husbands

Experimental group

Description:

Participants allocated to this arm receive cash transfers and access to LSB curriculum training in gender-segregated groups. Men and women attend 10 life-skills building sessions in parallel. Sessions are held weekly and are 90 minutes long. Two trained facilitators, whose gender matches the participants', run the session for groups of 10 women or men over a ten-week period.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Life Skills Building (LSB) curriculum for males

Other: Cash transfer to adult females

Behavioral: Life Skills Building (LSB) curriculum for females