Gender-Based Violence Community Dialogue Sessions in Urban South Africa: An Effectiveness Study

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a significant public health issue in urban South Africa, affecting both women and children disproportionately. Community dialogue sessions have been proposed as an intervention to reduce GBV incidents among perpetrators. A mixed-methods approach, including surveys and focus group discussions, was employed. Data were collected from a sample of 300 participants in three urban areas. Community dialogue sessions led to significant reductions (p<0.05) in reported incidents of GBV perpetration among male participants compared to baseline levels. The effectiveness of community dialogue sessions was confirmed, with a notable decrease in perpetrators' GBV-related behaviors post-intervention. Policy makers should consider implementing and funding more community dialogue sessions as part of comprehensive GBV prevention strategies. Treatment effect was estimated with logit(pᵢ)=β₀+β^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.