Decision-making guides When developing a prevention programme, you have a number of different strategic options:
- Innovate: you may have the option of designing a new prevention programme from scratch in your context.
- Adapt: you may also take a programme approach which has been successful in a different context and revise it as appropriate for your context.
- Strengthen: it is possible to build on a promising programme you have already implemented and design a further phase improving the programme on the basis of monitoring and learning.
- Expand: you can also build on a promising programme you have already implemented and design a further phase expanding to new communities or groups.
- Scale: you may also build on a successful programme which has reduced VAW and scale this up to further communities, groups etc.
What are my options? | When is this appropriate? |
Strengthen an existing programme | – The monitoring and learning data suggests you have some promising results but you need to improve aspects of implementation (e.g. intensify activities, add activities, strengthen facilitator training) |
Expand an existing programme | – There are some promising results from a programme and there is potential to test the programme with further populations or in different settings – and to further optimise it |
Adapt an evidence-based programme to my context | – There is potential for a successful programme (i.e. one that reduced VAW prevelance) from a different context (e.g. because there are similar drivers of violence). – There is adequate time and resources to adapt, pilot, and refine the programme (adaptation, pre-testing and piloting usually takes 12-18 months). – There is willingness to consult the programme originators and work to ensure both fidelity to the model and contextual relevance. |
Scale up a programme | – An existing programme has strong results (i.e. reductions in VAW prevelance) and gas been optimised based on learning and evaluation. – There is funding to deliver this programme to more communities/populations whist remaining faithful to its design and implementation quality. |
Innovate to design a completely new programme | – Evidence-based programme strategies from other contexts are not available or appropriate for the specific context or target population(s). – The aim is to innovate by combining elements from existing interventions or designing new interventions to try to achive greater impact on reducing specific types of VAW. – There is an appetite to co-design a programme from the bottom-up with partners/communities/populations. |
Factors to consider when selecting a strategy:
- You have skilled staff and organisational capacity.
- You have sufficient time and funding.
- The programme you may use to adapt, expand, or scale up has shown promising results.
- You have considered contextual factors and buy-in from national/local stakeholders.
