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Evidence-Informed Planning And Action In Central Asia: Learnings From The Tajikistan Adolescent Wellbeing And Health Pilot Project, Population Council Nov 2021

Evidence-Informed Planning And Action In Central Asia: Learnings From The Tajikistan Adolescent Wellbeing And Health Pilot Project, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

To address adolescent health and wellbeing in Tajikistan, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and Population Council used a hybrid human-centered (HCD) and evidence-based program design to engage adolescent girls, boys, and caregivers in a guided process of defining key issues and program areas. The design informed the development of a first-of-its-kind program model for AKF and in Tajikistan: coordinated community-based groups for adolescent girls and boys, caregivers' groups, and an institutional stakeholder community of practice in Tajikistan. Design and implementation experiences established "proof of concept" as a basis to expand the approach across the country and region. The pilot generated …


Learning Loss Among Adolescent Girls During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Rural Bangladesh, Sajeda Amin, Md. Irfan Hossain, Sigma Ainul Nov 2021

Learning Loss Among Adolescent Girls During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Rural Bangladesh, Sajeda Amin, Md. Irfan Hossain, Sigma Ainul

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Poor learning remains a central challenge in Bangladesh despite considerable progress in advancing schooling access and reducing gender gaps in education. The learning crisis is feared to have been exacerbated during extended school closures and limited alternative opportunities for schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief summarizes findings on learning loss among adolescent girls during the pandemic in rural Bangladesh.


Findings From The Violence Outcomes In Covid-19 Era Study (Voces-19): Baseline Results, Silvana Larrea-Schiavon, Lina López-Lalinde, Isabel Vieitez Martínez, Ricardo Regules, Juan Pablo Gutiérrez, René Nevárez, Cristina Macgregor, Pablo López, Nicole Haberland, Thoai Ngo Nov 2021

Findings From The Violence Outcomes In Covid-19 Era Study (Voces-19): Baseline Results, Silvana Larrea-Schiavon, Lina López-Lalinde, Isabel Vieitez Martínez, Ricardo Regules, Juan Pablo Gutiérrez, René Nevárez, Cristina Macgregor, Pablo López, Nicole Haberland, Thoai Ngo

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This report presents findings from the baseline survey of the Violence Outcomes in COVID-19 Era Study (VOCES-19). The study, conducted by Population Council Mexico in collaboration with the National Institute of Youth and the National Center for Gender Equity and Reproductive Health aims to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying mitigation measures on the experience and perception of violence among 15–24-year-olds living in Mexico, as well as its effects on other social, economic, and health, related outcomes. The primary objectives for this first survey round were to gather baseline information on several outcomes of interest, assess differential …


Conceptual Framework Of The Drivers Of Child Marriage: A Tool To Guide Programs And Policies, Stephanie Psaki, Andrea J. Melnikas, Eashita Haque, Grace Saul, Christina Misunas, Sangram Kishor Patel, Thoai Ngo, Sajeda Amin Oct 2021

Conceptual Framework Of The Drivers Of Child Marriage: A Tool To Guide Programs And Policies, Stephanie Psaki, Andrea J. Melnikas, Eashita Haque, Grace Saul, Christina Misunas, Sangram Kishor Patel, Thoai Ngo, Sajeda Amin

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This brief presents a simplified framework to provide key entry points for understanding which drivers of child marriage may be most important in particular contexts. Decision-makers such as researchers, donors, and program practitioners can use the framework to help design programs and policies tailored to these contexts.


Harnessing Data To End Child Marriage: Summarizing Learnings To-Date, Stephanie Psaki, Momoe Makino, Christina Misunas, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Fatima Zahra Oct 2021

Harnessing Data To End Child Marriage: Summarizing Learnings To-Date, Stephanie Psaki, Momoe Makino, Christina Misunas, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Fatima Zahra

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This brief summarizes key findings from five papers that examine child marriage and interventions to address it. While the findings from each of the papers are briefly noted, the brief focuses on the importance of context in understanding the drivers and impact on child marriage. Based on key findings, the brief offers cross-cutting recommendations for research and programs.


Adolescent Girls And Covid-19: Mapping The Evidence On Interventions, Sarah Blake, Miriam Temin, Tara Abularrage, Nihal Said Oct 2021

Adolescent Girls And Covid-19: Mapping The Evidence On Interventions, Sarah Blake, Miriam Temin, Tara Abularrage, Nihal Said

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

With the COVID-19 crisis continuing to evolve, evidence on the effectiveness of short-term emergency-oriented responses and long-term mitigation strategies is expanding but still limited. There are, and will continue to be, substantial evidence gaps on programming to address risk across outcomes of importance to adolescent girls. More evidence is needed to slow the risks posed by the pandemic for this subpopulation, which can help guide gender- and age-responsive prevention and impact mitigation investments. Evidence from approaches delivered in other unstable contexts may offer important lessons for decision-making in the current context. Recognizing this, the Population Council conducted a structured review …


Getting Girls Back To School In Kenya: The 4ts ('Trace, Track, Talk And Return') Initiative Implementation Report, George Odwe, Chi-Chi Undie, Ann Gachoya, Truphena Kirongo, Fredrick Kiiru, Jane Njogu Sep 2021

Getting Girls Back To School In Kenya: The 4ts ('Trace, Track, Talk And Return') Initiative Implementation Report, George Odwe, Chi-Chi Undie, Ann Gachoya, Truphena Kirongo, Fredrick Kiiru, Jane Njogu

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Covid-19 pandemic led to devastating economic and social disruptions globally including in the education sector. The pandemic disrupted access to both sexual and reproductive health services and safe spaces. As a result, many girls faced vulnerabilities that inhibited access to basic education, including risks of child marriage, early pregnancy, gender-based violence, female genital mutilation/cutting, sexual exploitation, and child labor. The negative impact of Covid-19 on girls' education underscores the need for interventions addressing the effect on school re-entry and retention. Kenya has a favorable policy environment for supporting retention within, and re-entry into, schools for vulnerable girls. Notable core …


More Than Brides Alliance—Marriage: No Child’S Play, Endline Evaluation Brief, Population Council Jul 2021

More Than Brides Alliance—Marriage: No Child’S Play, Endline Evaluation Brief, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This brief summarizes key results from the endline evaluation of the More than Brides Alliance (MTBA) project “Marriage: No Child’s Play” (MNCP) in India, Malawi, Mali, and Niger. The MTBA consists of partners Save the Children Netherlands, Simavi, Oxfam Novib, and the Population Council, along with 25 local implementing partners. The MNCP project—which took place from 2016 to 2020—aimed at being holistic and targeting pathways to child marriage on multiple levels simultaneously, treating communities as either having the full MNCP package or no intervention. The Population Council’s MNCP evaluation was designed to estimate program impact and trends among girls at …


Health And Ideations Of Married Female Adolescents, Breakthrough Research Jul 2021

Health And Ideations Of Married Female Adolescents, Breakthrough Research

Reproductive Health

This brief provides rigorous evidence-based insights to implementers and researchers of social and behavior change (SBC) programs that seek to improve knowledge, attitudes, norms, and behaviors of married female adolescents. The brief focuses on married adolescents’ uptake of services and health knowledge in Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara states in northwestern Nigeria using a subset of data from a household survey of married women ages 15–49 years. It is one of a series of briefs that present findings from a Breakthrough RESEARCH study that uniquely captures data on a wide range of psychosocial drivers of behavioral outcomes in the areas of …


Effectiveness Of Interventions Designed To Prevent Or Respond To Female Genital Mutilation: A Review Of Evidence, Dennis Matanda, Melanie Croce-Galis, Jill Gay, Karen Hardee Jun 2021

Effectiveness Of Interventions Designed To Prevent Or Respond To Female Genital Mutilation: A Review Of Evidence, Dennis Matanda, Melanie Croce-Galis, Jill Gay, Karen Hardee

Reproductive Health

Girls are one-third less likely to be subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) today than 30 years ago. However, rapid population growth in some of the world’s poorest countries, where FGM persists, threatens to roll back progress. In 2020 alone, an estimated 4.1 million girls were at risk of being subjected to FGM. Without concerted and accelerated actions to end the practice, an estimated 68 million additional girls will have been subjected to FGM by 2030. Despite intensified global research efforts to inform strategies to address FGM, there has been little synergy between evidence generation and the implementation of programs …


Effectiveness Of Interventions Designed To Prevent Or Respond To Female Genital Mutilation: Evidence Brief, Dennis Matanda, Melanie Croce-Galis, Jill Gay, Karen Hardee Jun 2021

Effectiveness Of Interventions Designed To Prevent Or Respond To Female Genital Mutilation: Evidence Brief, Dennis Matanda, Melanie Croce-Galis, Jill Gay, Karen Hardee

Reproductive Health

Despite intensified efforts to conduct research globally that informs strategies to address female genital mutilation (FGM), there has been limited rigorous high-quality evidence on interventions that are effective in ending the practice. As we begin the final decade of acceleration toward zero new cases of FGM by 2030, increasing the rigor, relevance, and utility of research for programming, policy development, and resource allocation is critical. This brief highlights key findings from an evidence review that synthesized and assessed the quality and strength of existing evidence on FGM interventions from 2008 to 2020. A number of studies have collated evidence on …


Endline Results Brief: What Works To Improve Outcomes For Kenya's Adolescent Girls?, Population Council Mar 2021

Endline Results Brief: What Works To Improve Outcomes For Kenya's Adolescent Girls?, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Adolescent Girls Initiative–Kenya is a study that evaluates the long-term impact of a multisectoral intervention targeted at adolescent girls aged 11 to 15 years from Kibera and rural Wajir. The intervention consists of four components: a community-based violence-prevention program, an education conditional cash transfer (CCT), health-focused girls-empowerment clubs, and wealth creation for girls via financial education and savings. A random selection of 6,000 girls were exposed to different components of the intervention. Key results, noted in this brief, are: conditional cash transfers are a key driver of improvement in education outcomes, and of delaying sexual debut and pregnancy in …


The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya—Executive Summary: Two-Year Follow Up Results, Population Council Mar 2021

The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya—Executive Summary: Two-Year Follow Up Results, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In Kenya, early pregnancy is a challenge for girls that often has immediate effects on their educational opportunities, future implications for their social, health, and economic outcomes, and immediate and ongoing negative impacts on their children. Early pregnancy is an outcome shaped by a myriad of issues affecting an adolescent girl’s life—including community norms on gender roles, violence, and the social value of girls; barriers to formal education; household poverty; lack of economic independence; experience of violence; and social isolation. For girls to achieve well-being in early and late adolescence, no single-sector intervention—whether it be education, health, wealth creation, or …


Positioning Community-Based Girl Group Programs For Success: Lessons Learned From The Population Council's Technical Assistance Partnership With Unfpa-Mozambique's Rapariga Biz, Miriam Temin, Arune Estavela, Craig Heck, Natalie Jackson, Joana Mendes Jan 2021

Positioning Community-Based Girl Group Programs For Success: Lessons Learned From The Population Council's Technical Assistance Partnership With Unfpa-Mozambique's Rapariga Biz, Miriam Temin, Arune Estavela, Craig Heck, Natalie Jackson, Joana Mendes

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Population Council provided technical assistance and strengthened capacity for Rapariga Biz, a large-scale UN program in 20 districts across Nampula and Zambezia provinces in Mozambique. The program was established to reduce child marriage and early pregnancy through a set of multisectoral interventions. The partnership between the Council and UNFPA-Mozambique generated useful lessons regarding the opportunities and challenges of using the community-based girl groups (CBGG) model in low-resource settings, especially when implemented at scale. In CBGG programs, girls and young women meet regularly with a leader (e.g., a mentor) who uses a variety of pedagogical methods to address sexual and …


The Imagen Story: A Framework For Restoring Indigenous Girl Societies, Kelly Hallman, Lisa Polen, Katey Peck Jan 2021

The Imagen Story: A Framework For Restoring Indigenous Girl Societies, Kelly Hallman, Lisa Polen, Katey Peck

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Indigenous Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Network (IMAGEN) builds upon long-standing Native cultural traditions, providing platforms for intergenerational transmission of matrilineal knowledge. Girl Societies recognize the unique responsibilities held by and challenges facing Native girls, thus offering culturally grounded, Indigenous-led systems of support.