Between June 30 and July 2, the Leme team conducted a field agenda in Ceará to advance the impact evaluation of Empodera, a domestic violence prevention program that is part of PReVio (Integrated Program for Violence Prevention and Reduction of the State of Ceará). The agenda included visits to Crato and Juazeiro do Norte, in the Cariri region, and Iguatu.

In the three municipalities, the team spoke with the technical advisors responsible for implementing the program and monitored the administration of questionnaires to participants, one of the stages of the data collection conducted by Leme. Palloma Marciano, Project Leader, and Nina Rosa, volunteer, participated in the agenda.

Empodera: personal and economic autonomy in addressing violence

Focused on addressing violence against women, Empodera combines actions to strengthen personal development and economic autonomy. Lasting approximately ten months, the program is organized into three modules. The first, focused on personal empowerment, addresses topics such as self-esteem, self-care, and socioemotional skills through meetings and discussion groups.

In the second, focused on economic empowerment, participants develop their business plans and receive guidance on pricing and costs. At the end of this module, they receive seed capital, financial resources intended to support the establishment or strengthening of their businesses. In the final incubation module, they receive support to put into practice and develop the activities planned throughout the program. During the program, participants also receive an incentive stipend.

Perspectives on Empodera across the territories

During the conversations held throughout the visits, the technical advisors highlighted personal changes among the most noticeable aspects of the program. According to their accounts, women who arrive at the first meetings more withdrawn gradually begin to participate in the activities, showing changes in their attitude, self-esteem, and self-care, as well as a greater ability to recognize and identify situations of violence.

The technical advisors also reported changes related to economic autonomy. Examples included participants who began reviewing the pricing of products they had been selling for years, women who resumed activities interrupted as a result of situations of violence, and participants who used the seed capital to structure businesses that had previously operated informally.

Demand for the program also caught the team’s attention. In Iguatu, an open session introducing Empodera, held before the selection of participants, brought together more than 90 women. In Crato, the waiting list reached 178 interested women, indicating demand exceeding the program’s service capacity.

Monitoring data collection

In addition to interviews with local teams, Leme monitored data collection for the evaluation at different stages of the program. In Crato, during the field agenda, the team observed the administration of a questionnaire to participants who had completed the economic empowerment module.

The monitoring continued in August. On August 10, Giovanna Úbida, Leme’s Project Leader, visited the Vicente Pinzón area in Fortaleza during the administration of the questionnaire to a group that had completed the personal empowerment module. The two visits made it possible to observe data collection at different stages of the participants’ trajectory and to follow, together with the technical advisors responsible for the groups, how this process takes place in practice.

Next steps in the evaluation

The lessons learned during the field visits and monitoring of questionnaire administration will be incorporated into the next stages of Empodera’s impact evaluation. Closer engagement with teams and participants makes it possible to better understand the particularities of implementation across the territories and improve the instruments and procedures used in the research.

The work is part of Leme’s partnership with the Government of the State of Ceará under PReVio and seeks to produce evidence that can contribute to improving violence prevention and reduction policies and strengthening the use of data in the formulation and implementation of public policies.