Impact Evidence

Mobile-phone-based communication programme for maternal and child health

RCT

HIV prevention and sexual health improvement intervention using participatory learning approaches to build knowledge, risk awareness, and communication skills and to stimulate critical reflection

RCT

Male circumcision outreach activities that included the involvement of Christian church leaders in the promotion of male circumcision after they were given training on circumcision and given tools to lead their congregation in the understanding and practice of male circumcision

RCT

A theory-based HIV/sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk-reduction intervention delivered in schools that involved facilitated sessions seeking to increase knowledge about HIV/STDs, enhance behavioural beliefs that support abstinence and condom use, and increase skills and self-efficacy to negotiate abstinence and condom use - as well as to encourage caregiver involvement

Cluster RCT

A school-based intervention that sought to reduce sexual initiation and promote condom use through peer education, teacher-led lessons, and youth-friendly health service clinics

Cluster RCT with 5,091 adolescents

An unconditional transfer of US$20 per month directly to the main caregiver in the household

RCT

Empowerment self-defense to bolster self-confidence and verbal and physical safety skills in order to prevent sexual violence perpetrated again adolescent girls and young women

Cluster RCT with 7,832 students

Facilitated lifeskills sessions, caregiver discussion groups, savings start-up for girls, community action events, and capacity strengthening for local health and psychosocial service providers (with the GE+ variation adding an incentive payment to caregivers tied to girls' participation in weekly sessions)

Parallel cluster RCT

Mobile-based conditional cash transfers (mCCT) with varying amounts, schedule, design, and payment method with or without automatic short messaging service (SMS) reminders

7-arm, factorial RCT with 5 mCCT arms, one reminder (SMS)-only arm, and one control arm; 11,197 caregiver-child pairs

Agriculture production activities integrated with nutrition and health behaviour change communication (BCC), along with home visits by either an older woman leader or health committee member

Cluster RCT

Focused psychosocial support interventions for children exposed to traumatic events in humanitarian settings in low-income countries (LICs)

Systematic review of 11 RCTs

Culturally adapted, family-centred approach that relies on widely distributed religious infrastructure and church-based community networks

RCT

Using cash for prevention of sexual transmission of HIV, with the purpose of the transfer varying by study (and conditionality or not): school attendance, school completion, poverty alleviation, and completion of health promotion activities, such as sexually transmitted infection (STI)/HIV testing

Systematic review with 16 studies, of which 15 are RCTs

A gender-transformative, participatory intervention delivered to men, women, or couples in Ethiopia to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) that was implemented in the context of the coffee ceremony, a traditional community-based discussion forum

Cluster RCT with 6,770 households

Psychological and/or social interventions (not simply provision of material resources) in individual and group format, sexual and/or health education and counselling, and educational discussion groups, as well as community mobilisation interventions and comprehensive community resource provision that included psychosocial support

Meta-analysis of 13 RCTs

Peer education in primary and middle school to improve mental health and resilience

Cluster RCT

A hand washing with soap communication intervention that established social norms for child and mother, used the fear of contamination and disgust, and created peer pressure.

RCT

An intensive campaign involving students, teachers, and parents that used booklets, games, and fun activities to promote hand hygiene

RCT (20,882 students in the intervention schools and 23,569 students in the control schools)

A comprehensive, scalable programme that combines evidence-based curricula that promote health [the Girls First Health Curriculum (HC)] as well as resilience/psychosocial wellbeing [the Girls First Resilience Curriculum (RC)] for marginalised girls in India

RCT

Interpersonal violence is a critical public health concern in humanitarian contexts, but evidence of effective violence prevention programmes targeting adolescent girls is lacking. We investigated the efficacy of a life skills and safe spaces programme to reduce adolescent girls’ experiences of interpersonal violence in a refugee setting.

RCT

Activities for teachers, students, and school administration that promote respect, participation, and reflection on concepts and exercise of power in an effort to prevent emotional, physical and sexual violence in schools perpetrated against students by school staff or their peers

RCT

A clinic-based support intervention that involves HIV-positive peer mentors, in addition to standard clinic (SC) care, to improve maternal and infant well-being among women living with HIV (WLH) from pregnancy through the infant's first year of life

Cluster RCT

Sexuality education programme using a participatory action methodology to reduce sexual risk behaviours

Cluster RCT

Discussion-based, facilitated classroom sessions to create awareness of gender-based discrimination, change dominant gendered perceptions, promote gender-equitable attitudes, raise girls' aspirations, and provide tools to participants to translate attitude change and greater aspirations into behaviour change

RCT with 14,809 students at baseline (across 149 treatment schools and 164 control schools)

An unconditional cash transfer programme

RCT

A community-based intervention that sought to address violence against women and support victims of violence through action teams that are nominated by the community to carry out awareness of VAW, change gender norms, and create referral systems for victims

RCT (3,280 participants with 1,640 per trial arm)

Community participation and employment of village health workers to support home-based child care (HBCC) in an impoverished area

Cluster RCT

A structured play-based life-skills intervention implemented in schools in Pakistan to reduce intolerance, gender discrimination, and peer violence

Cluster RCT

An e-reader intervention embedded in a "safe space" platform and including community engagement activities, which sought to improve literacy, as well as numeracy and non-verbal reasoning in adolescent girls

3-arm RCT

A school-based health hygiene education intervention integrated into a general school deworming programme

Cluster RCT

A set of educational sessions designed to involve the male partners of pregnant women in facility-based maternity care in order to influence care-seeking, healthy breastfeeding, and contraceptive practices after childbirth

RCT

Behaviour-based sexual assault prevention intervention in informal settlements involving classroom-based separate training sessions for girls and boys

Matched-pairs, cluster-randomised study

Conditional cash transfer programme in Indonesia that seeks to improve academic performance of the most economically vulnerable students by ensuring increased student school enrollment and attendance at elementary and junior high school level

RCT with 14,400 households

Engaging in community mobilization activities, harnessing networks for message dissemination, and forging organised community action

Cluster RCT with 8 intervention communities (n=20,544 residents) and 7 control communities (n=17,848)

A gender socialisation (GS) intervention that addresses harmful gender norms and inculcates egalitarian spousal relationships, layered with components on financial literacy (FL) education and contraceptive counselling to bolster women's empowerment

Cluster RCT

Cash transfers and monthly group nutrition education sessions led by locally recruited community health volunteers

RCT

Nutrition social behaviour change communication (NSBCC) interventions (interpersonal counselling, use of media (IEC materials, mass media, phone messaging), community mobilisation)

Systematic review with 80 studies (51 cluster RCTs and 13 RCTs)

Community mobilisation, peer education, supporting health workers to provide youth-friendly sexual health services, and peer condom social marketing

Community-randomised trial

Mentor-facilitated life skills programming, with some also providing caregiver sessions

Systematic review with 7 studies (2 of them cluster RCTs)

Life skills programmes that addressed adolescent health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including mental health

Systematic review of 33 RCTs

Three-layered interventions involving (i) gender socialisation and relationship training, (ii) financial literacy and household budget management, and (iii) couples' counselling on modern contraceptive methods with vouchers available

4-arm cluster RCT with 1,064 couples

An intervention, Becoming One (B1), that works with religious leaders to introduce a range of relationship skills as part of their traditional role as couples counsellor in an effort to address intimate partner violence (IPV)

RCT

Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BPCR) interventions - often using community health workers and health promotion groups or women's groups and often incorporating community mobilisation activities - that engage women, families, and communities during the prenatal, postnatal, and neonatal periods to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in developing countries

Systematic review

A standard school-based handwashing programme as compared to an expanded version that included soap for school sinks and student handwashing champions/peer hygiene monitors

Cluster RCT

Curriculum-based programming for adolescent girls and boys, group meetings for parents, and facilitated community conversations on gender norms with the objective to address gender norms around menstruation and improve menstrual health literacy

Cluster RCT

Universal home visits that discussed risk factors with pregnant women and their spouses, such as domestic violence and heavy work during pregnancy, that could lead to maternal morbidity

RCT

A community-based intervention that sought to address violence against women and support victims of violence through action teams that are nominated by the community to carry out awareness of VAW, change gender norms, and create referral systems for victims

RCT (3,280 participants with 1,640 per trial arm)

Study participants were randomised into 3 arms: The first arm continued standard instruction of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) (control). In the second arm, (CSE + Health Outreach), information on available sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services was provided in schools though health fairs run by health workers to complement CSE. In the third arm (CSE + Responsive Adolescent SRH Services), learners receiving CSE were encouraged or supported to access SRH services where health providers had been trained to be more receptive to adolescents’ SRH health needs. Teachers were also encouraged to introduce students to health services.

3-arm RCT

A curriculum delivered within savings groups to help caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) affected by HIV in Uganda to plan and save for the education-, nutritious food-, and health-related expenses for all the children in their care

RCT

A social accountability tool to improve maternal and reproductive health outcomes by empowering community members, health service providers, and others to identify and overcome obstacles in resource-limited settings

Cluster RCT

Preventing early marriage and delaying first childbirth within marriage through: involvement of community leaders, parents, and in-laws; training of unmarried adolescents, newlywed couples, and health service providers; group meetings and counselling for young people; and general messaging through street theatre and wall paintings

RCT - Editor's note: One research expert involved in reviewing these studies is of the opinion that this study is not an RCT but, rather, a pre-post design (as it does not measure effects on the same participants). It is The CI's decision to include.