SASA! Together: An Evolution of the SASA! Approach to Prevent Violence against Women

"...this learning underscores the importance of providing resources - both time and funding - for activist organizations to lead efforts to create (or revise) methodologies that can successfully prevent violence against women..."

While prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) remains high globally, violence against women is not inevitable. Community mobilisation approaches have emerged as particularly promising for transforming the gender-inequitable norms and practices that underlie violence and fostering more equitable and respectful relationships within families and communities. This article aims to contribute to the knowledge base around what works to prevent violence against women (VAW) by highlighting the practice-based knowledge that comes from more than a decade of experience at Raising Voices, a Uganda-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), and partners in implementing the SASA! Activist Kit to Prevent Violence Against Women (2008), as well as a two-year process culminating in the revised methodology, SASA! Together (2020). (See Related Summaries, below.)

The article begins by describing SASA!, an evidenced-based programme with demonstrated impacts on preventing violence at the community level. (Evaluation results are described in detail in the article and at Related Summaries, below). In brief, SASA! is both a Kiswahili word that means "now" - underscoring the urgent need to prevent VAW - and is an acronym for its four phases: Start, Awareness, Support, and Action. This phased-in approach reflects the transtheoretical change model, where community members from different social and economic strata are engaged in a structured process that begins with pre-contemplation (Start) and moves to contemplation (Awareness), preparation for action (Support), and action and maintenance (Action). Using interactive and reflexive activities, SASA! unpacks different dimensions of power and other key themes (gender, violence, activism, collective responsibility), and the specific content evolves throughout the programme cycle.

From 2008 to 2012, the SASA! study was conducted in Kampala, Uganda by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Raising Voices, the Center for Domestic Violence Prevention, and Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda. The study included a randomised controlled trial (RCT), an economic evaluation, rigorous monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and qualitative research. Overall, the study demonstrated that it is possible to achieve meaningful change and prevent violence at the community level - beyond the individual women and men engaged in programme activities - within a relatively short time frame in an African setting. The RCT results led to global uptake, and, in the decade that followed the study, SASA! has been used by over 65 organisations in over 25 countries. This diversity of experiences has rapidly deepened experiential learning, and there have been considerable advancements and changes in the broader field since SASA! was first published. These developments motivated Raising Voices to update SASA!.

The article goes on to describe the two-year revision process. One lesson learned: "Program development and design requires grounding in communities, as well as sufficient time for iterative learning and meaningful collaboration. Moving systematically through each step in the revision process contributes to innovation and quality, ultimately enhancing the potential for the methodology to create change."

While the original SASA! and SASA! Together share the same programming essentials, the revision process resulted in several core enhancements (see Figure 1 in the paper). The following sections of the paper describe the experiential learning and the broader evidence that informed each of the substantive changes. For example, SASA!'s structure was organised around four strategies; however, in practice, many partners were found to prioritise the Local Activism strategy, which primarily engages women and men as individuals. Subsequently, engagement that would support structural change was often limited, and at times leaders or institutions resisted SASA! ideas undermining the community transformation process. To address this gap, SASA! Together uses three distinct strategies, each focused on sparking change within a specific circle of the social ecology supporting individual, social norm, and systemic change:

• In Local Activism, SASA! Together is led by community activists (women and men who live and work in the community) who facilitate reflective activities and support change at the individual and interpersonal levels.
• In Community Leadership, community leaders (a diverse group of formal and informal leaders) use SASA! Together materials to integrate new ideas into their leadership roles and platforms, with the aim of influencing broader transformation and social norms at the community level.
• In Institutional Strengthening, SASA! Together impacts systemic change at the level of institutions and society by working with one or two institutions that influence how the community addresses VAW (e.g., a religious institution or media house) or serves women experiencing violence (e.g., health services, police department, local government).

Other types of evolution discussed are in the areas of: an explicit focus on IPV against women, an elevation of sexual decision-making as a core theme, diversification of activities and training materials, revisions to the learning and assessment (L&A) process, and integration of guidance throughout. Together, the changes are expected to make the approach easier to use, accessible to more organisations and communities, and more effective at sparking transformational change (both individual and community) and preventing VAW.

The revision process was not without challenges, including around the questions of: whether to simply/shorten SASA!, and to what extent to integrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex, and queer/questioning (LGBTIQ) issues in the content and visual materials. These areas of tension are discussed, as well as how each was resolved in SASA! Together. Lessons learned from the overall revision experience include:

• While drawing on the existing evidence base is critical, there is no substitute for grounded expertise gained through deep programming experience.
• Revising a comprehensive methodology that works across the socio-ecological framework for sustainable change is a substantial undertaking.
• It is important for organisations to leverage their strengths rather than attempting to try to meet the needs of all contexts and potential partners.
• The more personal the work, the more profound an impact it can have on an individual, a community, and a wide range of social justice issues: "The authors aspired to ensure that the language, types of activities, content, structure and overall approach is firmly grounded in - and actively encourages—the feminist values of activism, solidarity, a politicized analysis of power, collaboration and deep respect for women in men who are striving to create more equality in their own lives and the community."

The authors conclude: "The development of SASA! Together is itself a form of activism - it is Raising Voices' activism. In order to prevent violence against women and create safer communities around the world, a wide range of organizations are needed, each playing different roles from program design and development, implementation, research, etc. If each organization can leverage and use their niche to build the collective ecosystem, we can better strengthen, support and foster growth in the VAW prevention field."