Becoming One
Across the world, intimate partner violence continues to be prevalent. The WHO reports that 1 in 3 women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. Most of this violence is intimate partner violence.
In 2018, an approach emerged in Uganda to respond to the fact that 42% of ever-married rural women reported experience of physical, sexual or emotional IPV in the last 12 months. Like many contexts, Uganda is highly religious, with more than 80% attending religious services weekly. Many couples attend pre-marital counselling.
Becoming One is a counselling programme designed to bring couples closer and prevent intimate partner violence. The programme is delivered in partnership with local faith leaders, who guide couples through engaging workbooks and videos that teach communication skills, emotional regulation, shared control over finances and household duties, sexual consent and pleasure.
Couples attend 12 in-person group sessions over 3-4 months and are encouraged to practice what they learn at home. Becoming One aspires to improve the quality of relationships to make them more equitable and reduce violence. In addition to building on trusted structures, the programme is rooted in biblical principles and verses, and addresses biblical justifications frequently offered to legitimise male dominance and violence against women.
The results are dramatic. A randomised controlled trial showed that Becoming One led to a reduction in both women’s experience and men’s perpetration of violence, among other positive outcomes related to the quality of the relationship and equality in household decision-making. It is also a startling cost-effective response, with even greater margins when a project is scaled across a country or national church context.
In Uganda, the cost per couple for Becoming One was $183 (2019 USD), including support costs. Becoming One would have very large cost-effectiveness gains (dropping to as low as $30 per couple) with an increase in scale through additional rounds of implementation, utilising the same faith leaders each round.
World Vision is scaling this relationship-strengthening, violence reduction and cost-effective approach across East Africa and the South Pacific.
Before the programme, we never used to sit and have a decent conversation, and he could drink a lot and was never open with his finances. He used to shop for all foodstuffs, even onions, but since the programme, he has started leaving money for me to buy the foodstuffs. We even have peaceful and loving conversations. It is surprising that he has proposed that I should start a small business with his support, something that he never agreed to at all before.
- Becoming One participant
