Marginal funding to expand an innovative domestic violence prevention strategy to Burundi and Tanzania

By I.J.J., AlexisAt @ 2025-11-17T08:34 (+34)

TL;DR

Who we are: NOVAH (No Violence At Home) launched in 2024 via Ambitious Impact/ Charity Entrepreneurship. We pioneer large-scale prevention of domestic violence through mass media.

What we do: We produce radio drama edutainment—stories that emotionally engage listeners and change beliefs and behaviours more effectively than traditional education. Our programmes help listeners (mainly men) share decisions more equally, reduce harmful alcohol use, and better communicate at home. These changes together lead to a reduction in domestic violence.

Why we do it: Over 230 million women experience intimate partner violence each year. In East Africa, one in four women is affected annually, resulting in around 18 million DALYs lost, notably to injury, depression, and HIV/AIDS.

Evidence base: Peterman (2025) finds that 60 percent of edutainment studies reduce domestic violence (featured on the VoxDev podcast). This approach (similar to the work of e.g.DMI, PMC, and FEM) is endorsed by IPA, Founders Pledge, the Global Innovation Fund, and the Prevention Collaborative.

Traction: Our first series in Rwanda Twubakane, reached about 30,000 listeners (about seven percent of adults in the broadcast area) and showed promising reductions in violence. In particular, a baseline-endline pilot study with 200 couples (including a control group) showed a 40 percent relative reduction in physical or sexual violence (−6 pp), a 15 pp increase in women’s participation in financial decisions, a 0.5 SD improvement in relationship quality, and an 11 pp decline in acceptance of violence (see our two-page quantitative summary).
These promising results led us to i) produce a second season (done) and ii) evaluate it rigorously in a randomized control trial (RCT) (already started, in partnership with Innovations for Poverty Action).

Cost-effectiveness: In 2026 (after the RCT ends), we will broadcast nationally, estimating to reach over a million listeners. We estimate we can reach one couple experiencing IPV for $3, protect one woman from violence for $25 per year, avert one DALY for $85, and generate one WELLBY for $20—comparable to GiveWell and Happier Lives Institute benchmarks.

2026 plans / Funding need: We are raising $190 K to start scaling our intervention by hiring an M&E officer at HQ, expanding to Burundi, producing a season 3 in Rwanda and exploring Tanzania.

About NOVAH

NOVAH (short for No Violence At Home) is a nonprofit dedicated to preventing intimate partner violence using mass media. Founded in 2024 during the AIM / Charity Entrepreneurship program by Ivy van Regteren Altena and Alexis Atlani, NOVAH began operations that same year in Rwanda.

In our first year, we produced, aired, and evaluated Twubakane (“Let’s Build Together”), a six-episode radio drama developed with local partners (summary, script, audio). Building on this foundation, we have completed production of a second, 12-episode season, which will be rigorously evaluated through a randomized controlled trial conducted with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA).

What we do

Edutainment, or entertainment-education, strategically combines educational messages within entertaining media programs such as radio dramas. By telling stories that emotionally touch listeners and in which they recognize themselves, we can influence beliefs and behavior in a way that traditional education cannot achieve.

Read an example of a script here: short stories used for testing.

Why this matters

Every year, 230 million women suffer violence at the hands of their partners. In East Africa, the numbers are especially stark: one in four women faces abuse annually. The consequences are devastating—not only physical injuries but also depression, anxiety, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Altogether, this represents roughly 18 million DALYs lost each year.

Despite the scale of the problem, global progress is almost stagnant. In low-income countries, violence has been decreasing by only about 0.2 percent per year. Yet only 0.2 percent of international development aid is dedicated to preventing it.

You can read more about why we think Violence Against Women is a cause area worth prioritizing in this blog post.

Results to date

Our first radio drama, Twubakane, aired on a regional radio station in Rwanda in 2024 and reached an estimated 30,000 listeners—around seven percent of adults in the broadcast area. Listeners heard a story of couples navigating everyday challenges around money, trust, and communication.

Quantitative and qualitative evaluations show very promising results:
- Improved gender equality (men began sharing more financial decisions), women gained more self-confidence to voice their opinions, and relationships became healthier through better communication and empathy → read our qualitative research report and summary.
- A relative decrease of 40% in physical or sexual violence (-6pp) was found in a baseline-endline study with 200 couples (including a control group, although the study was not designed to be statistically significant). In addition, we found an increase of 15pp in women's involvement in financial decisions about their partner's income, an improvement of 0.5 SD in relationship quality, and a decrease of 11pp in the acceptance of violence against women → read the 2-pager with the main results of our quantitative study.

Cost effectiveness

In 2026, NOVAH will broadcast nationally in Rwanda, estimated to reach 1 million + listeners.
We estimate we can reach one couple experiencing IPV for $3, and protect one woman from violence for $25 per year.
According to AIM’s IPV burden model, this equates to $85 per DALY averted, comparable to GiveWell’s top charities.
According to Founders Pledge’s WELLBY model, this equates to $20 per WELLBY, comparable to the Happier Lives Institute’s top recommendations.

Plans for 2026: scaling and regional expansion

In 2026, NOVAH will build on its early success and test its model at scale. Together with IPA, we will implement a randomized controlled trial with 1,200 couples to rigorously assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of Twubakane.

Following the trial, we will broadcast Season 2 nationally on Rwanda’s most popular radio station, reaching more than one million active listeners. Based on conservative modelling, we expect to protect about 13,000 women from domestic violence over the broadcast period.

At the same time, we will adapt the program for Burundi, where important cultural and linguistic similarities make replication efficient and inexpensive - a typical low-hanging fruit. In Tanzania, we will begin exploratory research and partnership building to prepare for a full launch in 2027, informing our future scaling strategy.

To support these expansions, we plan to hire our first HQ staff member focused on monitoring and evaluation, an essential role for ensuring data quality and learning across countries.

How marginal funding accelerates our work

Marginal donations in 2026 can unlock the next phase of NOVAH’s growth:

$60 K will fund our first HQ hire, strengthening M&E capacity and enabling multi-country learning.
$50 K will adapt and launch the program in Burundi, bringing our model to a second country.
$60 K will finance the production of Season 3 in Rwanda, maintaining audience engagement and momentum.
$20 K will fund formative research and partnership development in Tanzania.

Each of these steps compounds our ability to generate robust evidence, sustain high-quality content, and reach hundreds of thousands more listeners. Our endgame is to both scale this intervention and make it an industry standard for violence prevention.

Why your support matters

Early-stage, evidence-driven organizations often face a funding gap between proof-of-concept and large institutional grants. NOVAH is at precisely this stage. Individual and philanthropic support now can bridge that gap and ensure that our upcoming randomized trial—and subsequent scale-up—move forward on schedule.
Mass media interventions can be easily scaled and replicated across different contexts. Read also our previous blogpost about why we believe in the high cost-effectiveness potential of mass media.
Violence against women is often overlooked as a GHD cause area because of how complex it is to measure the violence burden and an intervention’s impact. As we generate evidence, we’re also generating data on the magnitude of this global health crisis and what can be done.
In particular, for those with suffering-focused ethical priorities, IPV prevention directly reduces some of the most intense and prolonged forms of human suffering—physical pain, fear, and psychological trauma—while empowering families and communities toward healthier, more equal relationships.

How to donate

Please find different ways to donate here. Donations are tax-deductible for Dutch citizens and US tax residents.

We really are grateful for any level of donation. If you’d like to take a more detailed look at our plans or budget, or if you’re curious about tax deductibility in other countries, please reach out to ivy@novah.ngo.

Learn more and get in touch

Read our blog and subscribe to our quarterly posts (also on LinkedIn)
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Contact: ivy@novah.ngo and alexis@novah.ngo