Preventing violence against adolescents in schools: understanding implementation of the Empateach intervention in Nyarugusu refugee camp

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School is one of the most common settings where children and adolescents may experience violence; and emerging evidence suggests that in some settings, school staff may be one of the most common perpetrators. This may be even more common in emergency settings where people have been displaced, as histories of trauma may contribute to increased likelihood of violence. This study aims to understand whether a school based intervention can reduce violence against children in schools in Nyarugusu, a refugee camp in Tanzania, which provides refuge for populations fleeing conflict from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. The Empateach intervention leverages behavioural science techniques to change teachers' beliefs and behaviours towards corporal punishment. With funding from MRC, we will conduct a mixed-methods process evaluation to explore how the Empateach intervention reduces violence against adolescents in schools; which factors make it easier and more difficult to implement the intervention is practice; and whether the intervention is cost-effective. This research will run parallel to a randomised controlled trial aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing levels of violence against students. We will speak to both individuals and groups of students, teachers, parents, headteachers, discipline teachers and other key stakeholders to understand their conceptualisations of 'violence' and 'discipline' among students, parents, teachers and administration and delve into the experience of teachers, students and school administration with the intervention to understand what participants felt 'worked' and 'didn't work' and to gain insight into the mechanisms of action (or lack of action) of the intervention.We will also conduct quantitative analyses of survey data to explore whether the intervention works better in schools with certain characteristics, what was and was not implemented according to plan, to what extent individual teachers and schools participated in the planned activities, and which individual teachers participated in the intervention and which completed a high proportion of activities. We will also use a number of intermediate indicators in the intervention theory of change to understand pathways of change in individual teachers' and students outcomes. The study will also include an economic evaluation to estimate the costs and cost-effectiveness of the Empateach intervention.