Transform Randomised Control Trial in Uganda

International Care Ministries, Philippines

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Health Behavior; Values, Social; Economic Problems

Treatments: Other: Transform program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05882097

icmugrct

Details and patient eligibility

About

In recent decades, the poverty rate in Uganda decreased by more than half, from 56% in 1992/1993 to 21.4% in 2019/2020. However, Uganda remains as one of the poorest countries in the world. Recognising that poverty is a multifaceted issue, International Care Ministries (ICM), a non-profit organisation, implements a program called Transform to target households living in poverty from 3 dimensions: values, livelihood and health. ICM first started the Transform program in the Philippines and recently expanded to Uganda and Guatemala. The program includes 15 sessions and delivers them to the participants during the course of a 4-month period. Previously, three randomised control trials found positive impacts of Transform on certain poverty indicators in the Philippines. Although positive impacts were found in the Philippines, the effectiveness of Transform in Uganda is unknown.

Full description

International Care Ministries (ICM) is a non-governmental organisation with a mission to reduce the burden of extreme poverty. ICM focused its work in the Philippines for more than 30 years and recently expanded to Uganda and Guatemala. The core poverty alleviation program at ICM is called Transform. Transform focuses on improving values, health and livelihood through a 15-week program (1 lesson per week). ICM has conducted three randomized controlled trials (RCT) in the Philippines. This RCT was designed in response to the expansion of ICM's work in Uganda. Realising the poverty issue that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, ICM implemented its first Transform program in Uganda in 2020. As of May 2023, more than 210 communities and 5,921 participants received the Transform program in the regions of Kiboga and Kyankwanzi. Despite the fact that previous RCTs found a positive impact of Transform on certain poverty indicators in the Philippines, the effectiveness of Transform is not known in another context. The Philippines and Uganda are vastly different in terms of their economies, cultures and demographics. This study builds on the previous RCTs and aims to evaluate the Transform program on measures of economic outcomes, social capital, health, hope and spiritual well-being in a different context. Whether there will be similar results in Uganda will deepen perspectives in the universal elements of success that can be further adopted and scaled up in other countries. While a key challenge in poverty alleviation initiatives is the lack of high quality evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of programs, this study will use the gold standard of effectiveness research - RCT, to deepen understanding in the causal impact of the Transform program in another context.

Enrollment: 4,800 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 90 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Poverty score of 50 and above in the Philippine Poverty Score Card Survey qualifies the person into Transform. Higher score indicates poorer households.
2. Only the top 30 poorest household will be selected once the community gets approve to host the Transform program.

Exclusion criteria

1. Participants who are above the threshold using the poverty score card (less than 50) will be excluded from the study.
2. Households also cannot participate in the study if they have previously received the Transform program, unless the implementation team overrides the score due to specific circumstances that only affect a minority of participants.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

4,800 participants in 2 patient groups

Treatment arm receiving the Transform program

Experimental group

Description:

Transform: Participants will receive ICM's Transform program. In the treatment arm, the full 15-session Transform program will be delivered once a week for 15 consecutive weeks in a venue located within the community. In each session, there will be 90 minutes lessons on livelihood and health delivered by trained ICM staff. Separately, a voluntary values lesson will be delivered by the host community leader.

Treatment:

Other: Transform program

Control arm receiving no Transform program

No Intervention group

Description:

Control: Participants will not receive any intervention during the study period.