Becoming One: Leveraging Data and Faith to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence
MWALA, MACHAKOS COUNTY, Kenya — Elizabeth Mutunga had decided to leave her husband, Frederick, 36, when their pastor announced a new program for couples after Sunday service. The vegetable seller and carpenter, married seven years with two children, were on the brink of divorce.
"He would come from work and not talk to me. I felt lonely and neglected,” reflected Elizabeth, 34, through a translator while sitting in the World Vision offices where they were interviewed.
Frederick's silence at home stemmed from workplace frustrations. Facing irregular income, unsuccessful workdays triggered feelings of failure in his role as family provider, causing him to withdraw rather than communicate.
Despite Frederick's reluctance, Elizabeth insisted they participate in Becoming One, a 14-session counseling program delivered by faith leaders. Three months later, both say their marriage was transformed.
"We learned how to address issues in our marriage, and we are now very happy."
Elizabeth and Frederick Mutunga, a married couple from Kenya who participated in Becoming One. © 2025 Annastasia Mutunga
Elizabeth and Frederick Mutunga, a married couple from Kenya who participated in Becoming One. © 2025 Annastasia Mutunga
The Origins of Becoming One
Becoming One's development began with research in Liberia, according to researcher Rachel Lehrer, who was involved in designing the program in Uganda.
"We chose to work with a religious institution, and churches specifically, simply because we talked to women and men about who they trusted in their community to help them with conflicts in their relationships," Lehrer said in an interview. “We heard over and over again faith leaders—their pastors. These individuals were incredibly influential in setting the norms and behaviors considered acceptable or unacceptable within homes. They were deeply local, readily available to both women and men, and played a central role in shaping what was seen as acceptable. When we spoke with these community and faith leaders, many shared that they were struggling to know what to say to help reduce conflict and violence in families over the long term."
In the video to the right, Lehrer described a pivotal moment with Pastor Patrick, a community leader in Liberia who taught couples counseling.
"So, we created a team of people like myself—experts in preventing violence from these countries—who understood the religious institutions, the hierarchies, the norms, and who the key influencers were in those environments," Lehrer said. "It was a truly interdisciplinary and diverse group, with each person bringing a different perspective. Through this interdisciplinarity, we were able to tackle the issue in a really innovative and fresh way."
Addressing Intimate Partner Violence in East Africa
The World Bank estimates that around two in five women aged 15 to 49 have endured physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime. More than 40 percent of women in Kenya and more than 50 percent of women in Uganda who have ever had a partner have experienced intimate partner violence, according to the data.
Becoming One represents an effort to address these statistics through an approach developed by researchers Jeannie Annan, Christopher Boyer, Jasper Cooper, Lori Heise, Rachel Lehrer, Jackie Namubiru, Tvisha Nevatia, and Elizabeth Paluck. They worked together with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), the International Rescue Committee, which designed the program, and World Vision, which implemented it.
The program uses faith leaders to guide couples through illustrated workbooks teaching communication skills, emotional regulation, shared control over finances, and what program materials describe as healthy sexual relations.
According to the program design and to encourage men’s participation, Becoming One was developed not as a “behavioral change” intervention targeted towards men but rather marketed as an opportunity for couples to strengthen their relationships, to enjoy each other’s company, and to make decisions together as a unit.
From Pilot to Proof
Researchers began piloting Becoming One in Northern Uganda in 2017 with 35 faith leaders. The pilot phase revealed that faith leaders had varying literacy levels, prompting changes to make materials more visual. Researchers also adjusted the frequency from twice-weekly to once-weekly sessions after finding the latter more feasible.
In 2018, IPA conducted a randomized controlled trial with 1,680 couples and 140 faith leaders across three districts in Western Uganda. Half the couples received the program immediately, while the other half served as a comparison group.
The study found:
12% fewer women experienced violence
The results imply that, on average, for every 20 couples that go through the program, violence against the female partner is prevented in at least one couple.
Women became more involved in decision-making around men's earnings and financial planning.
Couples strengthened the quality of their relationships, including improved communication and conflict resolution.
The results were published after a one-year follow-up period. Then couples in the comparison group received the program.
The research also revealed that faith leaders' pre-existing views on gender equality and their adherence to the program curriculum were the strongest predictors of impact.
Andrew Amanga from World Vision explained the rationale for using faith leaders:
"Faith leaders become the central figures in running this program because they are among the most trusted individuals in society. They tend to know the issues affecting the community, as many people—especially families and couples—confide in them."
Expanding Becoming One
In Uganda, IPA has collaborated with World Vision and International Care Ministries (ICM) to scale Becoming One nationwide, reaching over 10,000 couples to date. IPA is also working with ICM to test the program with 20 faith leaders to adapt it for ICM’s own programming. Beyond this pilot, ICM plans to implement Becoming One through 400 faith leaders within its already existing network to reach 4,000 couples in one cohort and approximately 12,000 couples in a year.
IPA and its partners are now testing the program's replicability beyond Uganda. In Kenya, we are working with World Vision to pilot the program with 80 faith leaders. Early adaptations include updating illustrations and character names to reflect Kenyan cultural context.
The Kenya pilot is also testing a "Becoming One Champions" model, where senior faith leaders receive additional training to provide ongoing support to session facilitators.
"It's been amazing to hear women testify how good it feels for them to come to sessions or to church on Sunday on their husbands' motorcycles, to attend the sessions together, talk together, and even make jokes, which is something that isn't the norm."
Jackie Namubiru, Senior Associate, Gender Research and Policy and co-lead of the Intimate Partner Violence Initiative at IPA, observing changes in community dynamics.
"IPA have led in training and helping facilitate training sessions for faith leaders to understand the program, how the program should be delivered and try to as much as possible help us to respond to some of the questions, especially when it comes to training and related staff."
Becoming One as a Best Bet
In 2023, IPA identified Becoming One as an emerging innovation in its Best Bets report, which highlights interventions with potential for transformative impact at scale with further research and partnership development.
This expansion to Kenya serves as a critical test: can the program work in a new country with different customs, religions, and populations? How much adaptation will be needed to fit this new context while ensuring proper implementation?
One of the keys to Becoming One’s success in Uganda that could bolster its implementation elsewhere is that it uses what researchers describe as universal design: workbooks couples received were visual as well as in local languages, allowing people of all literacy levels to easily understand the content.
Whether their transformation can be replicated across different cultural contexts remains a central question as researchers continue testing the program's adaptability beyond its original Uganda setting.
Why did IPA support the scaling of Becoming One?
Nonetheless, as Becoming One expands, the science of data plays an increasingly valuable role alongside faith in bringing about lasting impact in communities.
More Resources
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A Faith-Based Couples' Counseling Program Reduced Intimate Partner Violence in Uganda Becoming One project page and research paper featured on the IPA website |
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Can Religious Leaders Be Agents of Change in the Fight Against Intimate Partner Violence? IPA blog post interviewing Jackie Namubiru of IPA's Intimate Partner Violence Initiative about the Becoming One program |
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Becoming One, A Religious Couples’ Counselling Programme to Prevent Violence in Western Uganda Program summary of Becoming One from the Prevention Collaborative |
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Key insights and resources on Becoming One from the Prevention Collaborative |
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Becoming One Curriculum for Faith Leaders Guide for faith leaders written by the Prevention Collaborative |
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Becoming One project page and related resources on the World Vision website |
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Becoming One: Leveraging Science and the Church to Reduce Violence Explanatory presentation about Becoming One, from research > prototyping > piloting > testing > scale |
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