Design Justice in Delivering ESD Globally: The Social Franchise Advantage

By Dr Dawn Malotane- Lindsey

Executive Summary

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains one of the most urgent global challenges, affecting 1 in 3 women worldwide. Beyond the individual trauma, GBV extracts heavy social and economic costs, draining an estimated 2% of global GDP annually (World Bank, 2019).

Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) has emerged as one of the few prevention interventions backed by randomized controlled trial (RCT) evidence, consistently showing reductions in sexual assault alongside lasting gains in confidence, boundary-setting, and bystander actions. However, the delivery model matters as much as the curriculum.

ESD Global’s social franchise model ensures that communities do not simply receive ESD but own, adapt, and benefit from it. Anchored in the principles of design justice, this approach redistributes power by training local instructors, embedding governance in community hands, and sustaining impact through cooperative infrastructure and financing.

1. The Scale of the Problem

• Prevalence: Approximately 1 in 3 women globally have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime (WHO, 2021).

• Lethality: In 2023, an average of 140 women and girls were killed each day by partners or family members (UN News, 2023).

• Economic impact: GBV costs economies up to 2% of GDP—more than most nations spend on education (World Bank, 2019).

2. Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) Works

ESD equips participants with awareness, verbal assertiveness, boundary-setting, physical defense techniques, and help-seeking strategies while challenging harmful norms.

Evidence of effectiveness:

• Canada (EAAA RCT): Women trained in ESD experienced a 46% reduction in completed rapes over one year, with sustained results at two years (Senn et al., 2015).

• Kenya (No Means No / Ujamaa): Girls receiving ESD reported a 38% decrease in sexual assault; boys trained as active bystanders reported lower perpetration (Sinclair et al., 2013).

• Malawi (school-based trial): Adolescent girls demonstrated reduced vulnerability to assault and higher self-efficacy post-training (BMC Public Health, 2018).Conclusion: ESD is one of the rare prevention methods with strong multi-context RCT backing.

3. Why Design Justice is Essential

Design justice asks who designs, who delivers, and who benefits. Too often, violence prevention programs are designed and owned by external actors, leaving communities with little governance, adaptation rights, or economic benefit.

Applying design justice to ESD means:

• Ownership: Communities govern program design and delivery.

• Representation: Local instructors and leaders reflect those most affected by violence.

• Equity of value: Economic benefits (jobs, certifications, funding) remain in the community.This reframes ESD from a “program delivered to” communities into a “movement owned by” communities.

4. ESD Global’s Social Franchise Model

ESD Global has adopted a social franchise model—borrowing from global health and education—to ensure scale without sacrificing justice.

Core elements:

• Local autonomy + global fidelity: Community franchisees deliver accredited ESD, adapting pedagogy to language, culture, and lived realities while maintaining evidence-based standards.

• Instructor pipelines: Survivors, youth, and marginalized people are trained, certified, and mentored into professional ESD roles.

• Shared global infrastructure: Curriculum libraries, safeguarding systems, digital tools, and brand credibility reduce startup costs.

• Financial sustainability: Braided revenue (school contracts, public safety budgets, philanthropy, and cross-subsidies) ensures access across income levels.

Why this matters: It decentralizes power, distributes value, and creates pathways for long-term sustainability.

5. Risks and Mitigations

• Quality drift: Mitigated by certification, mentoring, and external audits.

• Cultural mismatch: Addressed through local co-design, translation, and adaptation.

• Mission drift: Prevented by requiring scholarship quotas and annual equity audits.

• Safeguarding risks: Global codes of conduct, survivor-led review panels, and transparent reporting systems.

6. Path Forward

For funders: Invest in franchise start-up packages, multi-year reserves, and equity-focused audits.

For governments: Integrate ESD into national curricula, public safety programs, and GBV budgets.

For researchers: Partner with franchisees on pragmatic trials, disaggregating data for equity outcomes.For communities: Apply as franchisees to anchor ESD locally and ensure cultural fit.

Conclusion

Empowerment Self-Defense has proven itself effective in reducing violence. But delivering it equitably requires more than access—it requires ownership, governance, and justice. By pairing evidence-based fidelity with local control, ESD Global’s social franchise model represents a pathway for sustainable, just, and scalable violence prevention worldwide.

References

·       BMC Public Health. (2018). Cluster randomized trial of school-based ESD in Malawi.

·       Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. MIT Press.

·       ESD Global. (2024). Social Franchising Model: Scaling empowerment through equity.

·       Hollander, J. (2021). Women’s self-defense and sexual assault resistance. Sociology Compass.

·       Sinclair, J. et al. (2013). No Means No Worldwide: ESD in Kenya. PLoS ONE.

·       Senn, C. et al. (2015). Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) trial. JAMA Pediatrics.

·       UN News. (2023). Femicide statistics: 140 women killed daily by partners or relatives.

·       WHO. (2021). Violence Against Women Prevalence Estimates, 2018.

·       World Bank. (2019). Economic costs of gender-based violence.