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Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Asset Cards [Arabic], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document contains the Building Assets Toolkit’s Asset Cards (110), set of Age Cards (age 6 to 20), and Program Planning Worksheet (sample provided). The Age Cards are to be printed out and placed according to the instructions. The Asset Cards are to be printed out and cut in half. Blank Asset Cards are provided to create customized assets. The Building Assets Toolkit is an approach for developing programs for specific segments of girls that will prepare them to better face the challenges of growing up. It will help program managers understand the needs of the girls in their community, …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Instruction Guide [Arabic], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

English Summary:
The Building Assets Toolkit is an approach for developing programs for specific segments of girls that will prepare them to better face the challenges of growing up. It will help program managers understand the needs of the girls in their community, engage stakeholders at different levels and with different viewpoints, and build concrete and meaningful programming for adolescent girls. The toolkit contains all the materials needed to help make a preliminary assessment of the assets a girl should acquire and the age by which she should acquire them. This document contains the Building Assets Toolkit’s List of …

Building Assets For Humanitarian Settings, Women's Refugee Commission, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document is the Women’s Refugee Commission and the Population Council’s adaptation of the Building Assets Toolkit and its core activity, the Asset Exercise, for use in humanitarian contexts. An asset-building exercise is a thoughtful way to build intentional program content for girls to determine what assets they need in order to survive and thrive. This is particularly important for programs intended to reach the poorest girls in the poorest communities based on sound evidence on the reality of their lives. The Council’s Building Assets Toolkit is rooted in this exercise, helping practitioners, policymakers, and advocates build tailored, meaningful, …

Adapting The Asset Exercise For Humanitarian Contexts, Women's Refugee Commission, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

As a guiding program theory, asset-building centers on the idea that skills, knowledge, relationships, and concrete resources can all constitute assets, or “stores of value,” that girls can, in turn, mobilize to make healthy choices, seek support, navigate institutions, and access entitlements. This approach is inherently multisectoral, rooted in a commitment to prioritize understanding of and respond to the diversity of girls’ needs, capacities, and experiences. The Asset Exercise operationalizes the concept of “asset-building” into concrete terms. The exercise consists of a deck of 100 “asset cards,” and eight “age cards.” Asset cards reflect both intrinsic qualities, concrete knowledge, and …

Examining Early Marriage In India: Qualitative Findings, Neelanjana Pandey, Komal Saxena, Andrea J. Melnikas

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The More Than Brides Alliance (MTBA) implements the “Marriage: No Child’s Play” program (2016–20) in India, Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Pakistan. The MTBA is a holistic program that addresses early marriage through multiple strategies, including: sexual and reproductive health and rights, livelihoods, education, and prevalent community social norms around marriage. Furthermore, the program operates at multiple levels (girl, family, community, block, and district) to address individual, familial, and structural barriers to reducing child marriage in these communities. This report first looks at the legal environment in which programs operate by examining participants’ awareness of laws, acts, and programs related to …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Asset Cards [Spanish], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

La Caja de herramientas: Fortalecimiento de habilidades del Population Council ayuda a los profesionales, los encargados de formular políticas y los defensores a crear contenido personalizado, significativo y positivo para ayudar a subpoblaciones específicas de niñas. La caja de herramientas guía a los profesionales a través de una serie de pasos que deben tomarse para definir objetivos de sentido común: qué información, habilidad o activo físico (como una tarjeta de identificación) debe tener una niña en un entorno particular para una edad en particular. Este documento consta de las tarjetas de activos que forman parte de la Caja de herramientas: …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Asset Cards [Swahili], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document contains the Building Assets Toolkit’s Asset Cards (110), set of Age Cards (age 6 to 20), and Program Planning Worksheet (sample provided). The Age Cards are to be printed out and placed according to the instructions. The Asset Cards are to be printed out and cut in half. Blank Asset Cards are provided to create customized assets. The Building Assets Toolkit is an approach for developing programs for specific segments of girls that will prepare them to better face the challenges of growing up. It will help program managers understand the needs of the girls in their community, …

Building Assets Toolkit: Developing Positive Benchmarks For Adolescent Girls—Asset Cards [Portuguese], Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document contains the Building Assets Toolkit’s Asset Cards (110), set of Age Cards (age 6 to 20), and Program Planning Worksheet (sample provided). The Age Cards are to be printed out and placed according to the instructions. The Asset Cards are to be printed out and cut in half. Blank Asset Cards are provided to create customized assets. The Building Assets Toolkit is an approach for developing programs for specific segments of girls that will prepare them to better face the challenges of growing up. It will help program managers understand the needs of the girls in their community, …

Does Education Improve Health In Low- And Middle Income Countries? Results From A Systematic Review, Stephanie Psaki, Barbara Mensch, Erica Chuang, Andrea J. Melnikas

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Despite enormous progress in expanding school enrollment globally, improvements in health have not always followed, raising important questions: Does education, in fact, enable women, men and their families to be healthier? And if so, how? To fill this gap in knowledge, the GIRL Center conducted a systematic review of the evidence for the effects of education on health in low- and middle-income countries.

Married Adolescent Girls In Rural Assiut And Souhag: Limited Choices And Unfulfilled Reproductive Health Needs, Nahla G. Abdel-Tawab, Doaa Oraby, Omaima El-Gibaly, Manal Darwish, Mirette Aziz, Amira Elgazzar, Heba Mahmoud

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

According to the Survey of Young People in Egypt 2014, a significant proportion of young women residing in rural Upper Egypt were reported to be married before 18. Early marriage deprives a girl of education and employment opportunities and places her at risk of early and repeat pregnancy, gender-based violence, and sexually transmitted infections. The present study examines the sexual and reproductive health needs of married adolescent girls (MAGs) in rural Upper Egypt and identifies key contextual and cognitive factors that could mitigate or exacerbate the effects of early marriage on their sexual and reproductive health. The report finds that …

The Nia Project: Baseline Survey Instruments, Karen Austrian

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document includes all of the Nia Project baseline survey instruments used to collect data in Kenya, providing a multidimensional description of a sample of the participating girls and the schools they attend. The Project is one of the first randomized controlled trials to explore the role of sanitary pad distribution and reproductive health education—individually and in combination—to improve girls’ educational and sexual and reproductive health outcomes. The study collected data from 3,489 girls from 140 schools in three rural Kilifi subcounties: Magarini, Kaloleni, and Ganze.

The Nia Project—Brief, Eunice N. Muthengi, Emily Farris, Karen Austrian

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This brief provides highlights from the Nia Project conducted in Kenya. The study found that while gaps exist in girls’ capabilities, particularly knowledge and attitudes related to menstruation and reproductive health, the Nia Project has the potential to bridge those gaps. The Project is one of the first randomized controlled trials to explore the role of sanitary pad distribution and reproductive health education—individually and in combination—to improve girls’ educational and sexual and reproductive health outcomes. The findings of this study will make a critical contribution to filling an evidence gap in the field of menstrual health and hygiene management, and …

The Nia Project: Baseline Report, Eunice N. Muthengi, Emily Farris, Karen Austrian

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The onset of puberty and menarche is a particularly vulnerable time for girls, when external pressures are exacerbated by their lack of knowledge of their bodies, their rights, and the implications of their decisions, and by their inability to manage puberty and adolescence safely and comfortably with appropriate menstrual health and hygiene management (MHM) products. Although several programs have previously been developed to address girls’ MHM needs globally, few have been evaluated, and where evidence does exist the results have been mixed. In collaboration with ZanaAfrica, the Population Council is evaluating the Nia Project, a set of interventions for adolescent …

Construyendo Activos Protectores En Niñas Adolescentes: Una Colección De Herramientas Para El Diseño De Programas, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Las niñas adolescentes se han convertido en una población clave para las iniciativas que promueven el empoderamiento, mejoras en salud y desarrollo en países de renta baja y media. Esta colección de herramientas se elaboró con el objetivo de proveer recursos a las organizaciones comprometidas con la expansión de sus programas, a modo que incluyan a los grupos y subpoblaciones de mujeres y niñas que han sido excluidas de la cobertura y participación comunitaria—como las niñas adolescentes que viven en los hogares y comunidades en mayores condiciones de pobreza, niñas adolescentes entre los 10 y 14 años que están fuera …

Acceptability And Effectiveness Of Helpline Services: Perspectives Of Women In Distress And Service Providers—Policy Brief, K.G. Santhya, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In Bihar, characterized by the highest prevalence of marital violence in India, helplines for women who experience violence exist in almost every district. Notwithstanding the availability of these helplines, little is known about the perspectives and experiences of women who have these services. This brief describes, from the perspectives of women who sought services from the helpline, the range and perceived quality of services received, and the extent to which these services succeeded in helping them to stop the violence; access permanent shelter, economic opportunities, and resources; resolve claims on family assets; or improve overall well-being. It also presents, from …

Reducing Violence Against Women And Girls In India: Lessons From The Do Kadam Programme, K.G. Santhya, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

A key challenge underlying the gap between policy and program commitments in India and the reality of women’s lives is the dearth of evidence on what works and what does not work to change notions of masculinity and femininity, reverse norms at the community level that condone marital violence, and reduce women’s experience of intimate partner violence. The Do Kadam Barabari Ki Ore (Two Steps Towards Equality) program aimed to fill this evidence gap. Do Kadam was implemented by the Population Council, the Centre for Catalyzing Change, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, with support from the …

Développer Les Compétences De Protection Des Filles: Ensemble D’Outils Pour La Conception D’Un Programme, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Les adolescentes sont devenues une population cible clé pour les initiatives d'autonomisation, de santé et de développement dans les pays en développement. Cette collection d’outils est destinée aux organisations qui se sont engagées à étendre leurs programmes pour atteindre les sous-catégories de filles et jeunes femmes exclues: les filles les plus pauvres dans les communautés les plus pauvres; les filles âgées de 10 à 14 ans non scolarisées et n’habitant pas avec leur père ou leur mère; ou d’autres sous-catégories de jeunes filles qui sont tout simplement susceptibles d’être laissées pour compte. Cet ensemble contient des outils et des exercices …

Addressing Adolescent Girls' Vulnerability To Hiv/Aids: Lessons From The Meri Life Meri Choice Project, Sunil Mehra, Rajesh R. Singh, Vandana Nair, K.G. Santhya, A.J. Francis Zavier

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This report details findings from an assessment of the Meri Life Meri Choice (MLMC) project in India, implemented by MAMTA—Health Institute for Mother and Child, with the support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The MLMC project sought to reduce the vulnerability of rural adolescent girls to HIV by enhancing their knowledge about sexual and reproductive matters and equipping them with skills that enable them to address vulnerability to HIV; increasing their utilization of sexual and reproductive health services from the public sector; and developing a supportive environment that enables adolescent girls to adopt protective actions to reduce vulnerability to …

Abriendo Oportunidades Para Alcanzar Mi Plan De Vida: Programa De 5 Meses—14 A 18 Años, Cecilia Garcés, Paola Broll

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Esta es la guía curricular del programa Abriendo Oportunidades del Population Council de Guatemala. Este programa de cinco meses ayuda a las niñas a desarrollar pasos para lograr su plan de vida, en módulos sobre los temas siguientes: llevarse bien con otras mujeres; conocerse y valorarse a sí mismo; autoestima; derechos humanos; aprendiendo a ser mujer; la fertilidad y el embarazo; reconociendo el peligro; y la importancia del ahorro.

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This is the curriculum guide for the Abriendo Oportunidades program of the Population Council of Guatemala. This five-month program helps girls develop steps to achieve their life plan, in modules …

Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Savings Account, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Through the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP), the Population Council and partners implemented a social, health, and economic asset-building program for over 10,000 vulnerable adolescent girls aged 10–19 years in Zambia. The AGEP intervention was comprised of three major components: 1) safe spaces groups in which girls met once a week over the course of two years for training on sexual and reproductive health, life skills, and financial education; 2) a health voucher that girls could use at contracted private and public facilities for a package of general wellness and sexual and reproductive health services; and 3) a savings account …

Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Research And Evaluation Mid-Term Technical Report—Executive Summary, Karen Austrian, Paul C. Hewett, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Fiammetta Bozzani, Jere R. Behrman, Jean Digitale

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme (AGEP) was an ambitious project directed toward changing girls’ lives in a significant and meaningful way across areas of education, sexual and reproductive health, marriage and fertility, and experience of violence. This Executive Summary of the project’s findings shows that, overall, the AGEP cohort data, and lessons they have generated from the AGEP are rich, nuanced, and important for informing the next generation of programs for adolescents in Zambia and elsewhere. Even though the study is still under way, and the full longer-term effects of AGEP remain to be seen, the information presented in this …

Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya: Qualitative Report, Eunice N. Muthengi, Karen Austrian, Amanda Landrian, Benta Abuya, Joyce Mumah, Caroline W. Kabiru

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya (AGI-K) is currently delivering multisectoral interventions, targeting violence prevention, education, health, and wealth creation, to adolescent girls aged 11–14 in two marginalized areas of Kenya. This report provides a brief overview of the research design and intervention components being delivered in AGI-K, and presents findings from the first round of qualitative data collection intended to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation processes thus far. The findings provide important information about the perceived effects of the program from a diverse set of respondents. Overall, beneficiaries, their parents/guardians, and other key stakeholders value the program and …

Building Girls' Protective Assets: A Collection Of Tools For Program Design, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Adolescent girls have become a key target population for empowerment, health, and development initiatives in low- and middle-income countries. This collection of tools is intended for organizations that are committed to extending their programs to reach excluded subpopulations of girls and young women—whether they are the poorest girls in the poorest communities, the 10–14-year-old girls who are out of school and not living with either parent, or another subpopulation of young girls who are likely to miss out. The collection contains tools and exercises to help programmers translate evidence on “what works” into girl-centered programming. The resources in this collection …

Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme In Zambia: Qualitative Evaluation Report, Zoe Duby, Chipo Natasha Zulu, Karen Austrian

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) reaches over 10,000 vulnerable girls 10–19 years old in five urban and five rural sites spread across four provinces in Zambia. The program works to build adolescent girls’ social, health, and economic assets, providing them with key skills and opportunities to help them transition from adolescence to adulthood in a healthy way. This report presents these valuable insight into the views and experiences of girls who were involved in the AGEP program, as well as the perceptions of program mentors, the girls’ parents, and community leaders. In addition, these findings highlight the areas in …

Boîte À Outils: Renforcement Des Compétences, Judith Bruce, Sarah Engebretsen, Kimberly Glazer

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Grâce à un processus appelé «conception intentionnelle», les outils d’apprentissage du Population Council aident à centraliser les besoins des filles. Ces outils s'appuient sur des preuves de la nécessité de maintenir les filles en bonne santé, de les intégrer socialement et de les préparer économiquement. La boîte à outils Renforcement des Compétences du Population Council aide les praticiens, les décideurs et les défenseurs à élaborer un contenu adapté, significatif et positif pour aider des sous-populations spécifiques de filles. La boîte à outils guide les praticiens à travers une série d'étapes qui doivent être suivies pour définir des cibles de bon …

Abriendo Oportunidades Para Alcanzar Mi Plan De Vida: Programa De 5 Meses—8 A 13 Años, Cecilia Garcés

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Esta es la guía curricular del programa Abriendo Oportunidades del Population Council de Guatemala. Esta guía es para niñas de 8 a 13 años. Este programa de cinco meses ayuda a las niñas a desarrollar pasos para lograr su plan de vida, en módulos sobre los temas siguientes: llevarse bien con otras niñas; conocerse y valorarse a sí mismo; autoestima; derechos humanos; aprendiendo a ser mujer; la fertilidad y el embarazo; reconociendo el peligro; y la importancia del ahorro.

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This is the curriculum guide for the Abriendo Oportunidades program of the Population Council of Guatemala. This guide is for …

Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Research And Evaluation Mid-Term Technical Report, Karen Austrian, Paul C. Hewett, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Fiammetta Bozzani, Jere R. Behrman, Jean Digitale

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme (AGEP) was a social, health, and economic asset-building program targeting vulnerable adolescent girls aged 10–19. The Population Council, in partnership with the Young Women’s Christian Association of Zambia, successfully implemented the AGEP program from late 2013 to early 2016. The results presented in this midterm report have implications for recommendations on future programming for adolescent girls in Zambia and elsewhere and should be coupled with burgeoning evidence from AGEP and the literature to adapt programming for vulnerable adolescent girls in order to improve impact. While the underlying root causes of girls’ vulnerabilities are interrelated, it …

Methodology: Reaching The Most Vulnerable Adolescent Girls, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The objective of the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme (AGEP) is to provide vulnerable adolescent girls with needed social, health, and economic assets that they can draw upon to overcome their vulnerabilities and expand their opportunities. As a component of the AGEP evaluation, a household census was conducted in 2013 in the areas where the program was to be implemented. The census revealed that a significant percentage of adolescent girls aged 10–19 contend with multiple levels of socioeconomic vulnerability that include—but are not limited to—geographic remoteness, social isolation, living without parents, living in low-income households, and not attending school. The analysis …

Sexual Behaviors And Biomarkers: Baseline Findings, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) is a program for girls ages 10–19 in rural and urban Zambia that aims to find the best ways to improve their social, health, and economic resources. More than 10,000 girls participated in weekly girls’ group meetings, received health vouchers, and opened savings accounts. More than 5,000 girls, unmarried at baseline, were enrolled in a randomized, controlled trial and followed over four years—two years in the program and two years after the program ended. This brief describes the characteristics of enrolled girls at baseline.

Understanding Factors Influencing Adverse Sex Ratios At Birth In Bangladesh, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Ubaidur Rob, Md. Irfan Hossain, Forhana Rahman Noor

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Nationally, the sex ratio at birth has persisted at its natural level of 105 male per 100 female newborns for the past half century in Bangladesh. However, at the regional level, Bangladesh is characterized by an east-west divide in sex ratios at birth. While the western region shows normal sex ratios at birth, the eastern region displays distorted sex ratios. To understand the factors that contribute to regional variations, a household survey was conducted among married women aged 18–49 years who had at least two living children. Views of health-care providers on gender-biased sex selection and of program implementers on …