Lack of enforcement of child maintenance orders is currently one of the most prevalent and systemic challenges in accessing justice for many adolescent girls and women who are mothers. Abusive former partners often use failures of child maintenance enforcement as a weapon in post-separation control and economic abuse. Research on economic violence largely focuses on cohabiting couples, but there are limited detailed explorations of women’s longer-term experiences after separation. Economic abuse is a widespread element of intimate partner violence. Failures to effectively enforce child maintenance orders normalises the potential for post-separation economic abuse.

This research therefore intends to unpack the intersectionality between intimate partner violence and child support as an important, yet often overlooked prognosis. More pragmatically, this research responds to a call made to Tithetse Nkhanza’s Technical Legal Advisor by the Malawi Judiciary to undertake an analysis of best practices to inform the better enforcement of child maintenance orders by the Courts – both as an end in itself but also as a means to lessen the prevalence of economic violence on women who often shoulder the primary responsibility of child care.

This Gender, Inclusion, Power and Politics (GIPP) research report examines the impact of the 2020 Presidential election and of COVID-19 on the operating environment in Malawi.

The report focuses in particular on the effects of these events on the programme’s work on violence against women and girls prevention and response.

This is a rapid review of disability-inclusive Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) programming in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review was produced under Tithetse Nkhanza! (TN), a UK government Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)-funded VAWG Prevention and Response programme in Malawi, which has chosen to prioritise disability inclusion in its Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Strategy.

The purpose of this review is to assess the programming landscape on disability-inclusive VAWG programming to identify any promising practice and to locate the Tithetse Nkhanza! programme within this context. The review also examines evidence on disability inclusion in VAWG interventions during crises which may be applicable to the current COVID-19 pandemic. It will be followed by a short summary and recommendations paper for the TN programme, based on this literature review and discussions with Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) in the context of the COVID-19 crisis in Malawi.

Tithetse Nkhanza is piloting and evaluating prevention interventions with the potential for scale up. One of these prevention models is Champions of Change, an approach developed by Plan International, which is a part of the programme consortium with Tetra Tech International Development and Social Development Direct. Champions of Change aims to promote positive changes in gender attitudes and behaviours and healthy relationships among adolescents, and is being implemented in three districts in Malawi.

This document presents a snapshot of findings from the baseline study from the Champions of Change cohort study in Malawi. This study was implemented by the Tithetse Nkhanza Programme with the Centre for Social Research, supported by the UK government.

This document presents a snapshot of findings from the baseline study for the Moyo Olemekezeka (MO) intervention, a social and economic empowerment model designed to address intimate partner violence. The study aimed to provide a baseline for the MO intervention, with the ultimate goal of understanding whether and how the lives of individuals participating directly in MO activities had changed as a result of the intervention.

When the Malawi Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Prevention and Response Programme, also known as Tithetse Nkhanza (TN), came to a close, the TN team was committed to ensuring that the experiences, perspectives, and learning from the two and a half years of implementation were documented and published to inform future programmes which aim to prevent and respond to VAWG in Malawi and beyond.

This learning brief aims to capture reflections from implementation of TN interventions at community and district level.

This report provides information and learning from existing gender-based violence (GBV) referral pathway best practices to support Tithetse Nkhanza Programme staff in developing a referral pathway for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) survivors in Malawi.

This study design outlines the approach and strategies of Moyo Olemekezeka, an intervention aiming to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG), Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and improve women and men’s social and economic statuses.

This Technical Briefing Note provides an overview of the Survivor Satisfaction Survey designed by Tithetse Nkhanza (TN). Survivors of violence, particularly those who seek services, are generally a difficult population to reach, and conducting research on this group is ethically complex. This brief presents an approach to gathering feedback on the experiences of this group, supporting the larger aim of understanding, measuring, and improving response services, particularly in Malawi. This brief was produced in line with TN’s larger commitment to disseminate research approaches and findings, and contribute to the Community of Practice on VAWG. The thinking behind the survey design may be helpful to those seeking to implement a similar survey.

Tithetse Nkhanza has developed accessible posters displaying the key information for women, girls and community members on what services are available to VAWG survivors and how they may access them. These posters have been designed to be accessible to people with disabilities and low literate audiences, so it is important that they are well-presented and a discussion is facilitated, such that they are well understood.

The set of four posters along with the facilitator guidance note below form a ‘ready to use’ orientation package which can be used by any programme or organisation who wants to mainstream gender equality, social inclusion, and VAWG response into their activities.

 

 

The Facilitators Notes seek to provide clear guidelines on how to present the posters to meet these aims. The notes are intended for use by anyone working in community development or humanitarian response in Malawi who wants to ensure that their team members or programme participants are aware of how and where to report violence or seek support if they or someone else experiences it.

The team on the Malawi Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Prevention and Response Programme designed a curriculum to guide the learning and skills-building of Justice duty bearers to effectively support survivors of VAWG. The curriculum was divided into two parts; Part A for all Justice duty-bearers, and Part B with modules specifically designed for the Judiciary, Police, Social Welfare and Health Service Providers, and Traditional and Community Justice Duty Bearers.

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Gender Transformative Curriculum Part A:
Formal and Informal Justice Sector

 

 

 

 

 

Gender Transformative Curriculum Part B:
Justice Duty Bearers – Judiciary

 

 

 

 

 

Gender Transformative Curriculum Part B:
Malawi Police Service

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gender Transformative Curriculum Part B:
Social Welfare and Health Service Providers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gender Transformative Curriculum Part B:
Traditional and Community Duty Bearers

Moyo Olemekezeka is a workshop series designed to help promote harmony, reduce violence and improve the economic
conditions of women within families. By considering wider family dynamics when working with local communities, it aims
to create a socio-economic environment that enables women to enjoy greater protection from sexual and gender-based
violence, with a focus on violence against women and girls.

The below workshop manuals comprise two parts, exploring social and economic empowerment.

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Moyo Olemekezeka Social Empowerment

This workshop manual enables participants to examine their values and attitudes towards gender and relationships within the family, to build their knowledge on health and to develop skills to help them communicate effectively.

 

 

 

 

 

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Moyo Olemekezeka Economic Empowerment

This workshop manuals helps promote women and families’ understanding of managing household budgets in order to strengthen household economies, building an understanding of budgeting, spending and saving while assisting families in developing their own income-generating activities.

 

 

 

 

 

Income-generating activities (IGA) Manual Appendices

 

 

 

 

 

These National Referral Pathways and Guidance Notes outline the referral mechanism for the informal justice sector.
Through the intervention, the Malawi Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Prevention and Response Programme team provide vital support to improve coordination and provision of services for VAWG survivors, and help ensure that all relevant players have adequate knowledge of the referral pathways and can easily refer clients and follow up or receive feedback.

The documents are available in the following languages: English, Chichewa, Kyankhonde and Tumbuka.

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National Referral Pathways and Guidance Notes – English version

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Referral Pathways and Guidance Notes – Chichewa version

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Referral Pathways and Guidance Notes – Kyankhonde version

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Referral Pathways Guidance Notes – Tumbuka version

 

 

 

Tithetse Nkhanza has developed this multilingual survivor rights charter, displaying the four key principles that guide the Malawi Judiciary when dealing with survivors of gender-based violence.

This helps ensure that the approach to justice delivery is survivor-centred and is led by respect, confidentiality, safety & security and equality.

This paper discusses the lessons learnt from implementing the Tithetse Nkhanza (TN) Programme’s national influencing interventions: the Strategic Opportunities Fund (SOF) and the CSO-led National Advocacy Strategy on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), which was spearheaded by the programme. The paper looks at how these interventions contributed to an improvement in both formal and informal justice services in terms of accessibility, responsiveness, and accountability, and what can be learnt in terms of the design, relevance, suitability and utility of these interventions. Furthermore, the paper discusses the effectiveness of linking local engagement to national level change and vice versa, in order to influence the whole Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) ecosystem and build a movement for change.

The Tithetse Nkhanza programme placed a Technical Legal Advisor (TLA) in the Malawi Judiciary whose role was to support the Judiciary on a broad range of issues relating to VAWG and access to justice. This learning product sets out the lessons learned from this model of embedding an advisor within an institution.

The Survivor Support Fund was a community-level mechanism that aimed to increase access to response services for VAWG survivors by addressing physical and cost barriers to justice, health and psychosocial facilities. This briefing note shares lessons garnered from Tithetse Nkhanza’s implementation of the Survivor Support Fund in Malawi. It seeks to provide actors operating in VAWG prevention and response with recommendations to consider in the design of such an intervention, should others be interested in implementing a similar approach in Malawi or elsewhere.

This learning brief shares the adaptation process that the Tithetse Nkhanza programme undertook to adapt a combined social and economic empowerment model, proven to reduce intimate partner violence in other contexts, to Malawi. The adapted model is called Moyo Olemekezeka, or Living With Dignity, and was adapted from the Zindagii Shoista model, which was successfully implemented in Nepal and Tajikistan.

Champions of Change (CoC) was selected as one of TN’s three VAWG prevention interventions, implemented in TN’s three impact districts of Karonga, Mangochi and Lilongwe. This learning brief documents how CoC was adapted to reflect its focus on violence and harmful practices, as well as to improve its relevance to specific areas in which it was implemented.

This brief piece provides an overview of the adaptation process for the SASA!
Together approach by the Malawi Violence Against Women and Girls
(VAWG) Prevention and Response Programme.

The learning brief presents the adaptation processes that took place and
the different considerations that were made, before providing a reflection
on what went well and an overview of key lessons and recommendations
for future programming.

This learning brief provides an overview of the approach to disability
inclusion adopted by the Malawi Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
Prevention and Response Programme.

It presents the processes undertaken by the programme to incorporate
disability inclusion, providing a reflection on what worked well, as well as an
overview of key lessons learnt and recommendations for future programming.

This article shares some reflections on working with Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs) through the Tithetse Nkhanza (TN) programme in Malawi. The article shares the TN programme’s approach to supporting WROs and outlines the importance of listening to WROs, building relationships and leaving room to continuously learn and adapt.

The UN has warned that ‘during the current pandemic, as people spend more time in close proximity in household isolation, coping with additional stress such as school closures, increased care burden and financial constraints, women and children are at risk of experiencing higher levels of violence.

This article is a reflection on the measures the Malawian Government adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to prevent its spread, and how this has impacted the provision of essential health, justice and policing and social services for women and girls who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing violence.

Based on global best practices on what works to reduce Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), The Tithetse Nkhanza (TN) programme is implementing SASA! Together as the foundational prevention approach.

This article outlines the approach taken, using a series of new activities that have been created by Raising Voices to support activist organisations in safely engaging communities to prevent violence against women (VAW) during the global COVID-19 crisis with some old activities that already existed before the pandemic that were safe to use.

Tithetse Nkhanza recognises the right of partners, beneficiaries and community members to give feedback and seek response from the programme activities where they are engaged.

This report details the processes adopted by the Tithetse Nkhanza (TN) Programme for setting up a community feedback and response mechanism.

This technical briefing note provides and overview of how effective safeguarding practice was implemented by the consortium delivering the Malawi Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Prevention and Response Programme, also known as Tithetse Nkhanza. This paper is for practitioners implementing safeguarding policies and procedures within a consortium.

Tithetse Nkhanza presented to the Community of Practice on VAWG in December 2020 on evidence and lessons from adapting a VAWG programme in the context of COVID-19.

The standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been developed for the Survivor Support Fund (SSF) that have been provided
to survivors of VAWG in the Tithetse Nkhanza programme impact areas.

This brief outlines the main objectives of the SOPs and guiding principles for partners to provide SSF and ensure a survivor-centred approach.

The severe and high prevalence of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Malawi is a serious violation of women’s and girl’s rights and undermines the country’s development with increasing costs at individual, family, community and national levels.

This advocacy strategy is a critical tool for addressing structural challenges to prioritse and sustain efforts across the Malawi Government and civil society to end VAWG.

This Tithetse Nkhanza (TN) Programme’s Advocacy Strategy was designed to guide TN’s work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strategy outlines what TN wants to achieve through advocacy during this period and how this will be done, and ensures that the programme and its partners and stakeholders are more intentional, strategic and result-oriented with respect to the integration of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in the broader national response interventions.

Global evidence has found that cash transfers, compounded with social components or combined economic and social empowerment interventions, are the types of economic interventions yielding the most results in terms of reducing violence against women and girls (VAWG) and more specifically intimate partner violence (IPV).

Based on the analysis of the district-level context in addition to global evidence, the TN programme has adapted the Zindagii Shoista model used in Tajikistan, which was then adapted for Nepal and funded as part of the Foreign,
Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) What Works programme.

The Economic Empowerment model Moyo Olemekezeka has shown to reduce IPV and improve both women’s and men’s social and economic status and reduce VAWG. This model used a family-based social empowerment as well as economic empowerment curriculum in addition to income generating activities.

Experience from past public health emergencies, and emerging evidence from the COVID-19 outbreak, shows that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a significant impact on VAWG and on the health, wellbeing and status of women and girls more broadly, which is sustained beyond the duration of the outbreak. This policy brief outlines the programme’s policy recommendations in terms of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic