Final Evaluation: Community-Based Prevention of Violence against Refugee Women and Girls in Nairobi

Location: Nairobi County, Kenya 
Grantee: HIAS Refugee Trust of Kenya (HRTK)  

Grant period: September 2019 – September 2022  

Grant amount: USD 652,362 
Authors/editors: The Leviathan Kenya  

Publication year: 2022  

HIAS Refugee Trust of Kenya (HRTK) implemented the “Community-Based Prevention of Violence against Refugee Women and Girls in Nairobi” project, funded by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, from 2019 to 2022. The main goal was to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) against urban refugee women and girls in Nairobi County through conducting training, discussion groups and a social media campaign to achieve five outcomes:  

• enable community-based refugee-friendly IPV prevention; 
• increase refugee women and girls’ understanding of IPV; 
• change refugee men’s negative masculinity; 
• increase the accountability of the programme’s staff; and 
• adapt existing interventions to end violence against women and girls, focusing on the most vulnerable women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Main findings of the evaluation:  

• 920 women and girls were reached as primary beneficiaries through discussion groups and survivor accompaniments, including 513 refugees and internally displaced asylum-seekers; and 235 secondary beneficiaries were reached through discussion groups, training sessions and social norm campaigns.
• Evaluation surveys showed 94% of men were aware of the various forms of violence against women and girls at the end of the project compared to 64% at the start. In the same period, the percentage of men who take action to prevent IPV increased from 25% to 74%.
• 95% of women and 88% of refugee adolescent girls demonstrated an increased understanding that IPV is a violation of their rights and felt more confident to seek help from the police (63%) as well as friends or neighbours (62%).
• In focus group discussions and interview transcripts, community leaders and members demonstrated increased knowledge of IPV and its prevention.