Legal Aid Service Interventions And Women Empowerment Against Violence In Morogoro Rural And Kongwa Districts, Tanzania

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

Legal Aid Services (LAS) providers have paid much attention to advocating women’s human right issues. Yet, violation of women rights manifested in various forms of Gender Based Violence (GBV) against Women is still rampant. Experience shows that, in most cases, victims remain silent and therefore perpetrators of violence are not reported to formal or informal institutions for legal actions. Since most of the perpetrators are men, violation of women rights is one of the most direct expressions of the power imbalance between men and women. Therefore, women empowerment through LAS interventions is believed to be a crucial strategy for tackling the existing problem of GBV against women. However, information on whether LAS interventions have any influence on women empowerment and attitudes towards GBV against women in Tanzania is scantily discussed. This study was conducted in Morogoro Rural and Kongwa districts to address knowledge gap. The study specifically: (i) assessed common forms of GBV against women practised in the study areas; (ii) analysed actions taken by women victims of violence against perpetrators of GBV against women; (iii) examined women's attitude towards GBV against women with regard to their involvement in LAS interventions; and (iv) analysed determinants of women's empowerment in relation to LAS interventions. A cross-section research design was adopted, involving 240 women of equally sampled beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of LAS interventions. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Qualitative data were collected through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informants Interviews (KIIs). Quantitative data were collected by using a household questionnaire. Content analysis approach was used to analyze qualitative data, while descriptive statistical analysis, index scales, Composite Empowerment Index (CEI), Mann Whitney U test and ordinal logistic regression were used to analyse quantitative data. The findings of the study show that women, both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries iii of LAS interventions, experienced certain levels of violence, regardless of their involvement in LAS interventions. Wife battering, depriving women of acquiring basic necessities, early marriage and marital rape were the most common forms of GBV against women practised in Morogoro Rural and Kongwa districts. There were a number of actions taken against perpetrators of GBV against women by reporting to formal or informal justice system. However, the actions were statistically significant different between LAS beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries (U = 2837, Z = -4.730, p < 0.001). With respect to attitude towards GBV against women, slightly more than half (57.1%) of women had a negative attitude while 35.4% had a positive attitude. Though, nonbeneficiaries were more likely to be upholders of positive attitude towards GBV against women compared to beneficiaries of LAS interventions. There was a strong effect between: women involvement in LAS interventions (Exp = -3.172, Wald = 26.27, p < 0.001); and ethnic background (Exp = -1.62, Wald = 19.82, < 0.001) on of women’s attitude towards GBV. With respect to levels of empowerment, results showed that women in the study areas were categorised in medium level of empowerment. Comparatively, beneficiaries of LAS interventions were found to be more empowered than non-beneficiaries. Ordinal logistic regression analysis shows that marital status and involvement of women in LAS interventions have stronger influence on women’s empowerment. It is concluded that women still experienced various forms of GBV against women including those involved in LAS interventions. However, some significant differences were found between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in the actions taken against perpetrators of violence, attitudes towards GBV against women and their levels of empowerment; this has an implication on changing the odds of GBV happening against women. Therefore, it is recommended that the government and LAS stakeholders should expand LAS interventions to other villages where there are no LASs, so as to raise awareness about women’s human rights education to communities.