Understanding the Drivers of Intimate Partner Violence in Malawi
In 2024, over a third (37%) of ever-married women ages 15-49 in Malawi reported experiencing violence by an intimate partner; for 29% of those women, the violence took place in the 12 months before the survey[1]. These figures speak to the high prevalence of gender based violence (GBV) in Malawi, and illustrate the size of the challenge when it comes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of eliminating all forms of violence in SSA. The experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) has direct implications for women’s health, including short- and long-term injuries, poor mental health, and even death. At a national level, IPV carries economic costs for Malawi’s development: it can limit women’s participation in work and education, increase demand on health and justice services, and reduce the productivity of households and communities.
What do we, as researchers, know about the drivers of IPV in Malawi? While poverty is a well-known risk factor[2] , it does not fully describe the underlying attitudes and beliefs, known as social norms, that interact with contextual factors to fuel violence against women and girls (VAWG). The pervasive belief that some level of violence in relationships is not only acceptable but expected is underpinned by the power assigned to men as household heads in many households and communities. When IPV occurs within a relationship, however, the preservation of the marriage is often valued above all – a burden which largely falls on the woman. It is within this context that a woman experiencing IPV must weigh reporting abuse against the reality that societal and household norms assign control of the household’s money to her husband.
Financial Control and the Barriers to Seeking Help
Financial constraints are one of many frequently cited barriers to seeking help or reporting IPV in Malawi. This is true in a material sense, for example, the availability of funds for transport to a health centre, as well as in terms of societal attitudes towards gender and financial control that are sometimes shared by frontline service providers themselves. According to the 2024 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey, 26% of women decide mainly on how to use their earnings, while 28% reported their husband mainly decides[1]. In a 2025 survey of 350 frontline service providers – individuals positioned to handle cases of women reporting IPV, Imani Consultants Ltd. (ICL) found that 37% did not agree that a woman should be able to spend her own money according to her will. These figures suggest that a woman’s control over money is not only shaped by existence of income, but by norms held by both men and women in households, communities, and even service providers meant to support them. The current weight of the evidence on what types of interventions are most successful in reducing violence against women and girls (VAWG) in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) suggests that poverty reduction interventions may be most effective when combined with efforts to empower women and girls and transform gender attitudes[3].
Addressing Violence Through Integrated Interventions
The What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale programme is a 7-year initiative funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) aimed at scaling up evidence-based interventions to prevent violence against women and girls[4]. In Malawi, a consortium of three local Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs) are the recipients of a What Works grant to adapt and scale an innovative, multi-component intervention known as Pamodzi Kuthetsa Nhkanza (PKN). Built on the socioecological model often used in violence prevention work[5], PKN utilizes three models to address multiple underlying drivers of violence – the norms that underpin its acceptance and normalisation, the systemic poverty that increases the risk of IPV and limits a survivor’s agency to access help, and problematic attitudes and beliefs, such as victim-blaming, that are embedded in the response system itself.
Two models – SASA Together!, developed by Raising Voices, and Moyo Olemkezeka (MO), adapted from Zindagii Shoista in Tajikistan, have independently shown to reduce violence in communities in different contexts[6][7]. PKN is the first initiative to test the added effect of layering the two approaches alongside response system strengthening components bolstering Malawi’s response system and referral pathways for survivors.
Evaluating What Works: ICL’s Research in Malawi
ICL belongs to a consortium of research institutions, including the University of Cape Town and the Global Women’s Institute at the George Washington University to evaluate the effectiveness of these two models through two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and a third study using an implementation science approach to document the process of delivering these interventions in the Malawian context. Of note are initial baseline findings from a survey of frontline service providers who stated physical beatings and refusal of a spouse to fulfil financial responsibilities as the most common types of violence that are reported to them or to their institutions. In focus groups, economic violence was often linked to gendered norms and expectations that extend to a woman’s control of money she earns. The quote below illustrates this dynamic, and highlights the pressure a woman may face to preserve the marriage:
“Sometimes there are some families where the man is not employed, it is the woman who is employed […] He says, bring the money here. But if you don’t want to, then you don’t want to stay in the marriage, and you will leave this place. So, even though some of the women are employed, they are in some form of slavery because of the financial violence which some husbands are doing.” [Male FGD participant, Malawi, 2025]
Building the Evidence for Long-Term Change
Social norms change work takes time, and PKN is being implemented in only two of Malawi’s 28 Districts over a period of 4.5 years. However, results from this important trial will add to a growing evidence base to help researchers, practitioners of violence prevention programmes, WROs, and policy makers identify and deploy the best tools to prevent and respond to IPV in Malawi.
About Liana
Liana is an Associate Consultant on the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team in Malawi. Since 2016, she has worked in Malawi’s NGO sector, leading project design, fieldwork operations, and managing teams. Liana has vast experience building community-based health programmes focussed on WASH education and interventions, community empowerment and mobilization, as well as promoting inclusive access to services for people living with disabilities.
References:
[1] National Statistical Office (NSO) (2025). Utica International, and ICF. Malawi demographic and health survey 2024: Final report. Zomba, Malawi; Columbia, Maryland, USA; and Rockville, Maryland, USA: NSO, Utica International, and ICF.
[2] Ullman C (2025). Amin a, Bourassa a, Chandarana S, Dutra F, Ellsberg M. Interventions to prevent violence against women and girls globally: a global systematic review of reviews to update the RESPECT women framework. BMJ Public Health. 3:e001126. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjph-2024-001126.
[3] UNICEF Malawi (2020). Ending violence against women and girls in Malawi: What do we know? Lilongwe. Malawi: UNICEF.
[4] https://ww2preventvawg.org/.
[5] Bronfenbrenner U (1994). Ecological models of human development. International encyclopedia of education. 3(2):37-43.
[6] Abramsky T (2014). Devries K, Kiss L, Nakuti J, Kyegombe N, Starmann E,. . Musuya T. Findings from the SASA! study: a cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a community mobilization intervention to prevent violence against women and reduce HIV risk in Kampala, Uganda. BMC medicine. 12:1-17.
[7] Mastonshoeva S (2019). Shonasimova S, Gulyamova P, Jewkes R, Shai N, Chirwa E, Myrttinen H. Zindigaii Shoista: Living with dignity. Mixed-methods evaluation of intervention to prevent violence against women in Tajikistan. What works to prevention violence against women and girls.