IntroductionThe study objective was to understand the effectiveness of Engaging Men through Accountable Practice (EMAP), a group-based discussion series which sought to transform gender relations in communities, on intimate partner violence (IPV), gender inequitable attitudes and related outcomes.MethodsA two-armed, matched-pair, cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted between 2016 and 2018 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Adult men (n=1387) and their female partners (n=1220) participated in the study. The primary outcomes of the study were female report of past year physical and/or sexual IPV and men’s intention to commit violence. Secondary outcomes included men’s gender attitudes, women’s economic and emotional IPV, women’s perception of negative male behaviours and perceived quality of the relationship.ResultsMen in EMAP reported significant reductions in intention to commit violence (β=−0.76; SE=0.23; p<0.01), decreased agreement with any reason that justifies wife beating (OR=0.59; SE=0.08; p<0.01) and increased agreement with the ability of a woman to refuse sex for all reasons (OR=1.47; SE=0.24; p<0.05), compared with men in the control group. We found no statistically significant differences in women’s experiences of IPV between treatment and control group at follow-up (physical or sexual IPV: adjusted OR=0.95; SE=0.14; p=0.71). However, female partners of men in EMAP reported significant improvements to the quality of relationship (β=0.28; p<0.05) and significant reductions in negative male behaviour (β=−0.32; p<0.01).ConclusionInterventions engaging men have the potential to change gender attitudes and behaviours in conflict-affected areas. However, while EMAP led to changes in gender attitudes and behaviours related to perpetration of IPV, the study showed no overall reduction of women’s experience of IPV. Further research is needed to understand how working with men may lead to long-term and meaningful changes in IPV and related gender equitable attitudes and behaviours in conflict areas.Trial registration numberNCT02765139.

The low level of modern inputs adoption by African farmers is considered to be a major impediment to food security and poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The government of Burkina Faso, following the example of a number of other countries in the region, launched a subsidy program in 2008 to encourage farmers' uptake of chemical fertilizers and foster cereal production. This article explores the importance of fertilizer profitability in explaining the relative, apparent low use of chemical fertilizers by farmers in Burkina Faso. Using largescale plot data, we estimate maize yield response to nitrogen to be 19 kg/ha on average and to vary with soil characteristics. Profitability, which we measure through the calculation of a marginal value cost ratio, is estimated at 1.4 on those plots which received fertilizers, with significant variations across regions. For those plots on which fertilizers were not applied, we predict that fertilizers should have been profitable in most cases under the current level of subsidized fertilizer prices. These findings suggest that the low uptake of chemical fertilizers might have been driven by factors other than profitability, including insufficient supply of subsidized fertilizers to farmers in need. Our results also call for increasing the availability of credit to farmers in order to encourage adoption of chemical fertilizers. Finally, our results also show that not taking into account the endogeneity of nitrogen use in the yield equation may produce biased estimates of the maize yield response to nitrogen.

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

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Introduction The Engaging Men through Accountable Practice (EMAP) program is a series of facilitated group discussions for men in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that sought to reduce intimate-partner violence and transform gender relations. While a previous analysis found null impacts on women’s experience of past-year intimate-partner violence (IPV), these average results obscure important heterogeneity. The study objective is to analyze the effects of EMAP on subgroups of couples based on their initial levels of IPV. Methods We use two rounds of data (baseline and endline) collected from adult men (n = 1387) and their female partners (n = 1220) as part of a two-armed, matched-pair, cluster randomized controlled trial conducted between 2016 and 2018 in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Loss to follow up was low as 97% of male and 96% of female baseline respondents were retained at endline. We define subgroups of couples based on their baseline reports of physical and sexual IPV using two different methods: i) subgroups determined by binary indicators of violence at baseline, and ii) Latent Class Analysis (LCA). Results We find that the EMAP program led to a statistically significant decrease both in the probability and severity of physical IPV among women who experienced high physical and moderate sexual violence at baseline. We also find a decrease in the severity of physical IPV (significant at the 10% level) among women who experienced both high physical and high sexual IPV at baseline. Findings indicate that the EMAP program was more effective at reducing IPV perpetration among men who were the most physically violent at baseline. Conclusion These results suggest that men who perpetrate violence against their female partners with greater severity than average may be inspired to reduce their use of violence through participatory discussion with less violent men. In contexts of endemic violence, programs like EMAP can lead to a meaningful short-term reduction in harm to women, perhaps even without transforming prevailing norms about male superiority or the acceptability of IPV. Trial registration Trial registration number: NCT02765139.

The contribution of the health teams in Biase, Ikom, Etung and Obudu local government areas, and their support in mobilising the trainees for the training, is acknowledged and deeply appreciated. We also want to acknowledge the reviewers for their painstaking review and constructive comments, which impacted on the quality of the evaluation and reporting of the results.

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