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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Health, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Paul C. Hewett
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Health, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Paul C. Hewett
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) intervention was conducted over two years to support more than 11,000 vulnerable adolescent girls in Zambia. It was led by the Population Council in partnership with the Young Women’s Christian Association of Zambia (YWCA), the National Savings and Credit Bank of Zambia (Natsave), and the Government of Zambia. To assess the impact of AGEP on mediating and longer-term demographic, reproductive, and health outcomes, Population Council researchers designed and implemented a longitudinal, cluster randomized controlled trial across all program areas. This brief presents the final AGEP findings, highlighting, in the Zambian context, what can be …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Financial Literacy And Savings—Two-Year Follow-Up, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Paul C. Hewett
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Financial Literacy And Savings—Two-Year Follow-Up, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Paul C. Hewett
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 in Zambia for over 11,000 vulnerable adolescent girls aged 10–19 years. The AGEP intervention was comprised of three major components: 1) weekly safe spaces groups in which girls met once a week for 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 general wellness and sexual and reproductive health services; and 3) a savings account that was designed by the …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Endline Technical Report, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Paul C. Hewett, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Jere R. Behrman
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme: Endline Technical Report, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Paul C. Hewett, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Jere R. Behrman
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The theory of change behind the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) posited that adolescent girls are empowered by building social, health, and economic assets that they can then draw on to reduce vulnerabilities and expand opportunities. In the long term, they will then increase their likelihood of completing school, delaying sexual debut, and reducing risks of early marriages, unintended pregnancies, acquisition of HIV, and other possibly detrimental outcomes. This endline report indicates that, while there were some changes for the program participants in the medium and long term, they did not translate into longer-term effects on reproductive and demographic outcomes …
Girlsread! Girls’ Rights: An Empowerment Curriculum, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Nicole Haberland, Barbara Mensch, Pamela Nyirenda, Diana Bulanda-Shalala
Girlsread! Girls’ Rights: An Empowerment Curriculum, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Nicole Haberland, Barbara Mensch, Pamela Nyirenda, Diana Bulanda-Shalala
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This curriculum guide is designed to help female mentors in the GirlsRead! program in Zambia to directly engage girls in critical thinking about gender inequalities and discrimination, and help them build the assets and confidence needed to act on their own behalf and as progressive voices in their communities. GirlsRead! participants are girls in grade 7—the last year of primary school—when they are at high risk of leaving school. The curriculum includes 19 sessions that cover a range of topics from gender equality to sexuality to rights, in meetings that provide a space and opportunity for girls to regularly interact …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Nutrition, Paul C. Hewett, Amanda L. Willig, Jean Digitale, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Jere R. Behrman, Karen Austrian
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Nutrition, Paul C. Hewett, Amanda L. Willig, Jean Digitale, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Jere R. Behrman, Karen Austrian
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Adolescence is a critical period in the lives of young people and potentially a time to reap lasting benefits from interventions that improve general, sexual, nutritional, and maternal and child health. The government of Zambia is committed to improving the nutritional status of adolescents and pregnant women and their children. Nonetheless, adolescent girls in Zambia remain at risk for macro- and micro-nutrient deficiencies that have deleterious effects on growth, development, and maternal and child health. The Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) nutritional curriculum, developed in partnership with PATH, was tailored to provide age-appropriate information and covered six sessions on nutrition. …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep), Population Council
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep), Population Council
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
For Zambian girls, social isolation, economic vulnerability, and lack of appropriate health information and services are critical problems that prevent a healthy transition from girlhood to womanhood. The challenges that girls are confronted with—high rates of gender-based violence, unsafe sex that puts them at risk for unwanted pregnancy and HIV infection, school dropout, lack of economic resources and income-generating options, lack of agency and participation—are linked together through their root causes. Through the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP), the Population Council and partners implemented a social, health, and economic asset-building program for vulnerable adolescent girls in Zambia. This brief summarizes …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Endline Results—Executive Summary, Population Council
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Endline Results—Executive Summary, Population Council
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Adolescent girls in Zambia face a range of risks and vulnerabilities that challenge their healthy development from girls into young women, and they often lack the social, health, and economic assets that are necessary to mitigate these risks. The issues that confront vulnerable girls—high rates of gender-based violence, unsafe sex that puts girls at risk for unwanted pregnancies and HIV infections, school dropout, lack of economic resources and income-generating options, and lack of agency and participation—are interdependent and have similar causes. The vulnerabilities confronting Zambian adolescent girls formed the basis for designing the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP), which 1) …
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Sexual And Gender-Based Violence, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Paul C. Hewett
Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (Agep): Sexual And Gender-Based Violence, Karen Austrian, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Paul C. Hewett
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Acceptability and experience of sexual and gender-based violence is alarmingly high among adolescent girls in Zambia. Even more striking is the very young age from which notions of violence are ingrained and experience with violence begins. This brief summarizes the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) evaluation which demonstrated that in the Zambian context, a program focused on changing norms among girls themselves is not enough to impact attitudes toward and experience of violence. Social and cultural norms are shaped by households, schools, communities, and all of the adults that girls interact with in these places—even the mentors of their own …
Girlsread! E-Reader Curriculum, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Nicole Haberland, Abdul-Kahad Alhassan, Beatrice Ani-Asamoah, Pamela Nyirenda, Barbara Mensch
Girlsread! E-Reader Curriculum, Natalie Jackson Hachonda, Nicole Haberland, Abdul-Kahad Alhassan, Beatrice Ani-Asamoah, Pamela Nyirenda, Barbara Mensch
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Zambian adolescent girls are at risk for premature school leaving and HIV infection due to a host of contextual factors including child marriage, early childbearing, harmful gender norms, and intimate partner violence. This report describes the GirlsRead! program, whose overall goal is to enhance learning and increase progression to secondary school among Zambian adolescent girls in grade 7, the last year of primary school. Through GirlsRead!, the Population Council, together with FAWEZA and Worldreader are aiming to improve school retention by bolstering girls’ learning outcomes, furthering social connections, improving critical thinking skills, increasing agency, and fostering community norms supportive of …