Existing evidence – especially from low- and middle-income countries - demonstrates that many successful relationship interventions (which have reduced violence against women and/or children) have implemented a series of participatory workshops which equip children, women, men and gender-diverse people with skills for building healthy, non-violent relationships and address gendered power imbalances in relationships. Interventions typically work with peer groups based on age and gender (e.g. adolescent boys and girls, young parents, married couples) and sometimes intergenerationally (e.g. with in-laws and couples or parents and adolescents). The most successful approaches have been based on a carefully-designed curriculum of at least 12 sessions, adapted to the socio-cultural context and implemented by skilled facilitators. These gender-transformative curricula create a safe space for reflection and critical thinking about power and gender, address and discuss inequalities, and promote new, positive and aspirational gender norms around working together for the household, being good parents and improving sexual relationships. It is often appropriate to combine single-sex and mixed-sex sessions, depending on consultations with participants and the context.

In cases where couples or families are already experiencing relationship breakdown or violence, therapeutic or counselling approaches can be most effective. These can support couples or caregivers and children to examine and address dysfunctional relationship patterns, including communication difficulties, conflict management issues and, in the case of couples, sexual problems. Therapy-based approaches are also appropriate where one or more family members are struggling with alcohol and mental health issues. Various therapeutic approaches have been tried and adapted across contexts, including Western talking therapies and locally developed approaches, for example using theatre and movement. Existing evidence suggests the need for at least 3-6 months of relationship therapy to allow healthier relationships to develop. It is also important that therapeutic approaches include analysis of gender and power in relationships and how this might be playing out in the individual relationship problems being experienced.

Given evidence that gendered attitudes and behaviours are learned through socialisation from a very young age, it is important to start as early as possible to work with children and adolescents through age-appropriate school and out-of-school activities so they can learn and practice healthy relationships skills. Developing Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) curricula - which integrate material on gender and power in relationships and VAWG prevention - for use in schools as well as out of school contexts is a well-tested approach. Another effective approach to building healthy relationship skills with adolescents and young people can be to engage them via sports, arts and play, particularly where young women and men collaborate on teams and in creative projects. Sessions can combine a gender transformative workshop to look at key areas like gender roles, user of power, relationships, and non-violence with a sporting or creative activity, which gives young people the opportunity to practice key communication and collaboration skills. Learning suggests the need for strong stakeholder engagement at national level – to ensure that ministries of education, health and youth own and finance the roll out of curricula – as well as at community level – to ensure teachers, school administrators, community leaders and parents are on board with the need for CSE. In terms of delivery, there is a need for strong training of facilitators to ensure they can conduct the training in interactive ways, respond to challenging questions and deal with cultural sensitivities. 

The most successful programmes have focused on building practical skills, not just raising awareness or increasing knowledge, for example of laws on women’s rights and GBV. Key areas of skills building include communication skills, emotional and anger management skills, conflict resolution skills and skills in positive and age-appropriate discipline of children and adolescents – all using a gender transformative approach. When working with adolescents, a broader life skills approach can be effective in building a range of skills including self-esteem, relationship skills, and vocational or entrepreneurial skills. Workshop or counselling sessions should include opportunities to learn and practice skills – and are best combined with take-home exercises where participants commit to practice new skills and behaviours in-between sessions.

A key trigger of relationship conflict is stress around the use of household income and assets – especially for low-income households. It can therefore be effective to combine healthy relationship approaches with some form of economic support for the household. In the Indashyikirwa programme in Rwanda, at least one partner of the couples recruited was a member of a village savings and loans association (VSLA) which was supporting the household to improve its livelihood. Some programmes combine livelihoods training for family members with relationship or gender transformative curricula, or they support participating households with cash transfers or participation stipends. In many cases, the curriculum will also support the couples or family members to work together to invest the payments into a livelihood project, which also gives an opportunity to practice communication and joint decision-making skills. The critical learning here is that combined gender transformative and economic empowerment approaches tend to produce the most positive impacts on reducing violence in the family.

Read more on the pages about social empowerment and economic empowerment approaches

Household and family structures vary across and between societies. Some couples live in nuclear families, alongside in-laws, or in larger, extended intergenerational family structures. There are also polygamous households, single-parent or caregiver households, as well as couples in same-sex or gender-diverse partnerships. In some households, one or more family members might regularly migrate for work or other reasons. It is critical to understand these different kinds of family and household structures and the different relationship dynamics they entail and to design interventions that are appropriate.

When engaging to foster shifts in gender power relations and prevent harmful practices, there can be resistance and backlash from community members, including local religious, traditional, and other community leaders. This resistance can be particularly acute in contexts where norms of family privacy and non-interference in other households are strong. It is therefore important to involve local leaders in the development and implementation of interventions designed to improve family relationships and prevent violence in families. It is often possible to identify leaders who are open to change and willing to advocate and model change to their communities as well as other leaders. Interventions that have engaged leaders in this way have tended to be more successful.

One of the key success factors in workshop and curricula-based approaches is the skills of the facilitators. It is good practice to have both men and women facilitators work together to deliver mixed sex sessions. It is also critical that facilitators experience the programme first as participants to go through their own process of transformation and learning. Furthermore, facilitators need specific training to adopt a participatory facilitation style and be able to handle different questions and dilemmas that come up as participants go through their journey of change. High quality facilitator training usually takes at least two full weeks and involves longer term mentoring to support further development of skills.

There is a growing evidence base across different countries of interventions which have successfully reduced violence against women and children in the family, and/or addressed risk factors for violence. Rather than starting from zero, it is a good idea to look at these interventions and consider carefully whether they might be adapted to the specific context in which you are working or whether there are key learnings and good practices which can inform your intervention design. Examples of programmes which you can review include:

• Indashyikirwa: This intensive couples’ intervention was first developed for heterosexual co-habiting couples from low-income households in Rwanda and has since been adapted to other contexts including Syria. In Rwanda, it consisted of a 21-week curriculum delivered to groups of 15 couples by two trained facilitators (1 man, 1 woman). Workshops - and weekly take-home tasks - developed knowledge and skills around power and gender, rights, managing triggers of intimate partner violence (e.g. alcohol abuse, jealousy, economic difficulties), sharing gender household roles, building healthy relationships, and supporting those who have experienced violence. It was evaluated through a randomised control trial and showed reductions in reports of experience and perpetration of physical and sexual IPV, reduced rates of corporal punishment against children, and improved relationships quality.  
• Becoming One: This programme was developed in Uganda through a human-centred design approach working with faith leaders who often counselled heterosexual couples in their communities. Faith leaders (Christian and Muslim) were trained to deliver 12 sessions covering communication skills, emotional management, shared control over finances, sexual consent ad pleasure. The intervention worked with principles and verses from the bible and Quran and addressed the ways some religious texts are used to justify male dominance and violence against women.
• PREPARE: This HIV and IPV prevention programme was delivered to students aged 13-14 in Western Cape Province in South Africa. It consisted of 21 sessions delivered to groups of 25 young people over 12 months by trained facilitators. Sessions covered communication skills, healthy relationships, reflecting on gender power inequalities and understanding and preventing intimate partner violence. An impact evaluation (RCT) showed a reduction in dating violence experiences by girls 12 months after the baseline.
• REAL Fathers: This programme supported young fathers (aged 16 to 25 years) in Northern Uganda to build the knowledge and skills to practice non-violent parenting and non-violent intimate partner relations. It comprised a 12-session curriculum for mentors who then, in turn, delivered a mentoring programme to young fathers. This was complemented by community awareness-raising initiatives and celebrations. An impact evaluation (RCT) showed that the programme successfully reduced men’s perpetration of both IPV and physical punishment of their children. The programme has been adapted to other contexts including DRC.

For more evidence-based approaches, Strategy R from the RESPECT framework highlights several interventions which work to build healthy relationships.