Long-term impacts of the Bandebereho program on violence against women and children, maternal health-seeking, and couple relations in Rwanda

Programs that work with parents to build couple relationship and parenting skills and include critical reflection on gender norms are a promising approach for reducing violence against women and children. However, there is limited evidence of their longer-term impact. In Rwanda, the Bandebereho program, an adaptation of Program P, engaged expectant and current parents of children under five years. At 21-months, Bandebereho demonstrated positive impacts on intimate partner violence (IPV), child physical punishment, maternal health-seeking, and couple relations. This study seeks to explore whether those outcomes are sustained six years later.

This article demonstrates that programs engaging men and women to promote collaborative and non-violent couple relations can result in sustained reductions in family violence six years later. We find that Bandebereho has lasting effects on IPV and physical punishment of children, alongside multiple health and relationship outcomes. Compared to the control group: intervention women report less past-year physical, sexual, economic, and moderate or severe emotional IPV. Intervention couples report less child physical punishment, fewer depressive symptoms, less harmful alcohol use, and improved maternal health-seeking, father engagement, and division of household labour and decision-making.