International Research and Program Evaluation Collaborative

CVT is leading an International Research and Program Evaluation Collaborative (IRPEC) project to build the research and program evaluation capabilities of centers involved in CVT’s larger International Capacity-Building Project. This six-year project uses a participatory, holistic approach to develop research programs and departments in international centers.  

The goal is to assist torture rehabilitation centers in learning how to evaluate their own programs and begin to understand what types of interventions promote the greatest recovery for torture survivors. Current IRPEC partners include:

• Center of Psychosocial Treatment in Peru
• CVT West Africa Project
• Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO), Cambodia.

The partners provide a range of programs and treatment approaches for survivors of torture. 

IRPEC explores the effectiveness of various types of intervention strategies across populations, cultures and contexts. The project also uses cross-cultural research methods to create tools and validated measures of adaptation in the local context.

Measures of Adaptation

CVT uses data to define what “adaptation” means for resettled torture survivors and to develop tools to measure adaptation. These will be used in future research and, more importantly, in clinical practice to track clients’ improvement.