Findings from a GAGE study on the Act With Her intervention programme's outcomes for adolescent girls.

1. April 2021
Regional findings from Amhara
Primary school students in Ebenat, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2020
Act With Her Ethiopia:

2. Presentation outline
1
• Introduction: GAGE, Act with Her, Amhara
2
• Findings
3
• Questions and next steps

3. Group of children in Afar, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019
Introduction
Student during a break, Amhara, Ethiopia© Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2020

4. GAGE Overview

5. Adolescent girl with her grandmother
© Nathalie Bertrams GAGE 2020
Act with Her – Intervention arms

6. Desired outcomes of AWH for girls
We hope to see improvements in:
• Education
• Bodily integrity
• Physical health, nutrition and SRH
• Psychosocial wellbeing
• Voice and agency
• Economic empowerment
• Cross-cutting: attitudes,
knowledge, support systems

7. Other desired AWH outcomes
Desired outcomes for adolescent boys:
• Reduced peer violence (perpetration and victimization)
• Improved psychosocial wellbeing
• Cross-cutting: attitudes, knowledge, support systems
Desired outcomes for female caregivers:
• Improved aspirations for adolescents
• Improved support for adolescent
education, nutrition, psychosocial
wellbeing
• Improved attitudes

8. Amhara: research sample
Quantitative sample:
• 74 kebeles
• 1,113 girls
• 819 boys
Qualitative sample:
• 248 adolescents
• 208 parents
• 30 mentors/supervisors
• 77 government officials
Primary school students, Ebenat, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams
GAGE 2020

9. Amhara: context snapshot
Education statistics:
• Net enrolment in grades 4-8 is 77% for girls and
72% for boys (MoE, 2020)
• Net enrolment in grades 9-10 is 31% for girls and
25% for boys (ibid.)
• Gender Parity at secondary level is 1.05—
compared to .87 nationally
Rising levels of unrest at midline
—more violence and sexual
violence in study communities.
Gender statistics:
• Median age of marriage for women is 16.2—compared to 17.5 nationally (2016 DHS)
• Marriages are usually arranged
• Prevalence of FGM for girls 10-14 is 39% compared to 28% nationally
• Usually Type 1 in infancy
• Teenage motherhood: 8.3% of girls 15-19 have begun childbearing, compared to 12.5%
nationally
• Current use of contraception among women is 47%%--compared to 36% nationally

10. Amhara: GAGE baseline snapshot
Overall
HH size 5.653
HH head literate 0.375
HH currently receives PSNP benefits 0.330
Girls Boys
Age 10.968 10.981
Enrolled in school during most recent
session
0.975 0.899
Reported having control over money in past
12 months
0.092 0.082
Has savings 0.039 0.039
Has not experienced or witnessed HH
violence in last 12 months
0.343 0.277

11. Findings
Adolescent girls fetching water, Amhara, Ethiopia© Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2020

12. Positive effects on girls’ knowledge
‘If a girl is raped, they told us that she
has to get an examination at the clinic.’
(13-year-old girl)
‘We think it will be important for girls to
be given these lessons on a more
permanent basis’. (mother)

13. Girls in all arms of AWH saw
approximately a 30% increase in
knowledge about menstruation.
‘I would be ashamed when I had my menstruation
and become absent from school. But after I joined
Pathfinder, I understand that menstruation is
nature’s gift and I don’t get ashamed.’
(13-year-old girl)
Normalisation of menstruation—for girls and boys
‘When they are on their period, we shouldn’t make them feel embarrassed. The
company provide pads for them and there will be no problem if they use that. We
also have to let them know that it is a blessing.’ (12-year-old boy)
Teacher showing the sanitary kit, Ethiopia © Nathalie
Bertrams / GAGE 2020

14. Positive effects on girls’ voice
‘I can speak up in class when I have a comment or
question or if I see something wrong in school or in the
neighbourhood, I feel I can tell someone and they will
listen and can ask adults for help.’ (12-year-old girl)
‘Before it was hard to stay peacefully with my friends.
…I started to play and live peacefully with friends.’
(13-year-old girl)
‘They make us to stand up and talk
to the group.’ (14-year-old girl)

15. Positive impacts on girls’ economic empowerment
‘My child began saving money… They learn in the Act With Her
training by mentors… She [the daughter] asked me for money and I
gave her money – for instance, I gave her 10 birr when she opened a
bank account.’ (mother)
• 11% of girls in control communities report control over money
• Compared to 24% in Arm 1 and 26% in Arms 2 and 3
Girls report increased control over money
• In Arms 2 and 3, girls are 22% more likely to have savings
• Arm 3 (systems strengthening) has larger impacts than Arm 2
Girls report increased savings

16. Positive impacts on boys
 Some boys are doing more household chores.
 Boys are less likely to report having
perpetrated peer violence in the last year.
 Boys are more likely to believe that boys
should be able to show feelings.
‘Our sons are now willing to assist their sisters.’ (mother)

17. Positive impacts on parents
 Some fathers report improved attitudes on child marriage and GBV—
and suggested that that programming for boys is a key driver.
‘I have two daughters who are now in school…Though it is our
culture, I have a firm stand so as not to marry my daughters before
completing their education.’ (father)
‘As a result of the training, husbands are no longer punishing their wives,
which is mainly due to the advice that we got from our sons [participating
in the programme].’ (father)
 Some mothers report handing out chores more equitably.
‘We are now sharing household jobs to our sons and daughters without any
gender bias.’ (mother)

18. Positive impacts on mentors
 Mentors are learning:
 about reproductive biology and
gender inequality
 soft skills including communication
and perseverance
 hard skills such as money
management
‘The change is not only for the trainee girls
but also for myself… When I was in school
and also before I joined Act With Her, I was
so shy; I was not even sharing ideas with
others. However, after I joined this
programme I began to communicate with
everyone without fear and shyness.’
(female mentor)
 Many are also just pleased to be
helping children learn.
‘What makes me happier is children laughing and getting happier due to the training.
They never want to go home even after we complete the time of our sessions. Always I
remember children’s happiness during the training.’ (female mentor)

19. Mixed effects on girls’ gender attitudes
Dancing adolescents, Amhara © Nathalie Bertrams
GAGE 2020
 No change—or even negative change--
on another scale.
Boys should be able to show feelings.
Girls should be humble.
 Improvements on one scale of gender-
equitable attitudes—driven by Arm 3.
Girls and boys should share work equally
It is OK to tease a boy who acts like a girl
(or a girl who acts like a boy)
 No change on gendered attitudes
towards education.

20. Girl-parent communication: some positives but…
‘I think the problem was that we weren’t
appreciative enough when it comes to our
mothers… We weren’t able to show affection
for our mothers.’
‘If they’re planning to make me skip school so
that I’ll do something for them, I’ll tell them
whatever it is they want me to do, I’ll get it
done after school.’
‘Since I joined this [AWH] programme, I understand
that child marriage is a harmful tradition. Therefore,
I would tell them that I will only marry once I
complete my education and once I am self-
sufficient.’ (12-year-old girl)

21. Also some negative aspects to changes in girl-parent communication
• ‘ I used to say no and be rebellious… But now… I will always say yes.’
• ‘Whenever they order us something we used to disobey them but now that we took
the lessons we don’t do that anymore.’
Care is needed to make sure girls’ communication is improving in the ‘right way’
• Women are more proactively targeted
• Fathers are too busy with farm work
• The girl-focused framing limits fathers’ interest
• Stepped up programming for boys might help
Fathers have only limited engagement with AWH
‘Parents asked us to train their sons
every Sunday and Saturday, because
they fear that their sons may go to
nightclubs and engage in evil acts like
drinking alcohol, spending in bad
places.’ (male mentor)

22. Mixed effects on girls’ education and mobility
‘When the exam period gets closer, we
woke up early morning and perform our
major household tasks.’ (12-year-old girl)
Likely because of the ceiling
effect
there were no quantitative
effects on girls’ educational
aspirations or enrolment.
Girls emphasized that
they had learned how to
juggle short-term demands on
their time so they could study
more.
In Arm 1,
girls were 13 % more likely to
have recently gone to the
market—possible because of
field trips.
‘We visited a local health post together with our
facilitators. We discussed with the health extension
worker of the health post about the service provision,
constraints and on how she can help girls and women to
get the services [sexual and reproductive health
services]’. (13-year-old girl)

23. Non-effects on boys
 Participant boys were no more likely to know:
 How often girls have periods
 That early pregnancy is bad for health
 That boys are not smarter than girls
 That FGM/C has risks
‘They told us to help our mothers… I just sit by the side
of the fire… I haven’t helped… There are girls.’
(13-year-old boy)
 Many boys openly admitted that they were
no more likely to help their sisters and
mothers do housework.

24. Some negative effects on boys
Participant boys had LESS equitable beliefs on some gender attitudes.
Boys playing table football, Amhara © Nathalie
Bertrams GAGE 2020

25. Mixed effects of the asset transfer
‘Why they made a gap between females and the males? We were
feeling very angry. Everybody feels angry when they give the solar
lamps to the girls only.’ (12-year-old boy)
• Strong positive impacts on girls’ voice,
agency and knowledge.
• Economic empowerment impacts are
especially large.
• Female caregiver more likely to
supervise girls’ homework.
BUT
• No still impacts on gender equitable
attitudes.
• Mothers are actually less likely to
hold equitable attitudes in this
arm.
• Engendered hostility in boys—who in
South Gondar are less likely to be in
school than girls.

26. Conclusions and recommendations
For
girls:
1
More—and more in-depth—sessions to improve learning.
2
Include field trips in all arms.
3
Re-think asset transfers and provide to all—or more clearly explain reasoning.
4
More focussed attention on sexual violence—teach girls how to protect themselves
and their peers and how to report.
1
Provide boys with the same number of sessions as girls to improve learning.
2
Take account of boys’ gendered needs (e.g. peer pressure to drink or gamble)
3
Encourage boys to speak out against SGBV.
For
boys:

27. Conclusions and recommendations
For
parents:
For
communities:
1
Target mothers with lessons on parent-child communication that do not emphasise
simple obedience.
2
Proactively engage fathers.
3
Provide joint sessions for mothers and fathers to help them learn how to support their
children through adolescence.
1
Engage clan and religious leaders to tackle cultural practices and gender norms.
2
Work with kebele leaders and service providers to tackle SGBV and child marriage and
FGM/C.
3
Programme implementers should support improved access to more remote
communities (e.g. though investing in transportation).

28. For mentors:
Conclusions and recommendations
1
Programme goals should include empowering mentors.
2
Mentors need mentorship.
3
Encourage mentors to be champions of change even after the programme ends.

29. Questions and discussion
Download the report:
Transforming gender norms through life-skills
programming in rural Ethiopia: short-term impacts and
emerging lessons for adaptive programming (Amhara case
study) | GAGE (odi.org)

30. Contact Us
WEBSITE
www.gage.odi.org
TWITTER
@GAGE_programme
FACEBOOK
GenderandAdolescence
About GAGE:
 Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence
(GAGE) is a nine-year (2015-2024) mixed-
methods longitudinal research programme
focused on what works to support
adolescent girls’ and boys’ capabilities in
the second decade of life and beyond.
 We are following the lives of 20,000
adolescents in six focal countries in Africa,
Asia and the Middle East.