Engaging men in women's empowerment: impact of a complex gender transformative intervention on household socio-economic and health outcomes in the eastern democratic republic of the Congo using a longitudinal survey

BACKGROUND

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women in (peri-)urban areas are commonly engaged in small trade, which allows them to meet the basic needs of their families. Microsaving approaches are a low-risk option to obtain financing for economic activities. A project combining men's sensitization on gender equity and women's empowerment through village savings and loan associations were implemented in North and South Kivu to raise the household economic level.

OBJECTIVE

This study assessed how involving men in gender equity affects women's health and socio-economic outcomes, including food security.

METHODS

A cohort study was conducted with 1812 women at the baseline; out of them 1055 were retrieved at the follow-up. Baseline data collection took place from May to December 2017 and the follow-up from July 2018 to January 2019. To identify socio-economic changes and changes of gender relations, linear and logistic regressions were run.

RESULTS

Results showed that the household income improved with intervention (coefficient = 0.327; p = 0.002), while the capacity to pay high bills without contracting debts decreased (coefficient = 0.927; p = 0.001). We did not find enough statistically significant evidence of the influence of the intervention on skilled birth attendance (coefficient = 0.943; p = 0.135), or family planning use (coefficient = 0.216; p = 0.435) nor women's participation in the decision-making (coefficient = 0.033; p = 0.227) nor on couple's cohesion (coefficient = 0.024; p = 0.431). Food insecurity levels decreased over time regardless of being in the intervention or control area.

CONCLUSION

Empowering women while sensitizing men on gender aspects improves financial well-being (income). Time, security, and strong politics of government recognizing and framing the approach are still needed to maximize the benefit of such projects on social factors such as women's participation in decision-making and social cohesion.

National data study showed that adolescents living in poorer households and with one parent were more likely to be bullied

Aim

The aim of this study was to assess whether sociodemographic household characteristics were associated with which Swedish adolescents were more likely to be bullied.

Methods

The data were derived from the Swedish Living Conditions Survey and its child supplements from the survey years 2008–2011. The analyses included information on 3951 adolescents aged 10–18 years. Exposure to bullying was reported by adolescents, and information on sociodemographic household characteristics was reported by parents and obtained from official registers. Binary logistic regression was used to analyse the data.

Results

Adolescents were more likely to be bullied if they lived in households with no cash margin, defined as the ability to pay an unexpected bill of 8000 Swedish Kronor or about 800 Euros, and if they lived with just one custodial parent. In the unadjusted analyses, elevated risks were identified if adolescents lived in working class households and had unemployed and foreign‐born parents. However, these associations were at least partly accounted for by other sociodemographic household characteristics, in particular the lack of a cash margin.

Conclusion

This study showed that Swedish adolescents living in households with more limited financial resources had an increased risk of being bullied, supporting results from previous international research.