1. “Building the Health, Social and
Economic Assets of the Poorest Girls
in the Developing World”
Workshop”
Judith Bruce, Senior Associate and
Policy Analyst at the Population Council
April 15th, 2010
I would like to acknowledge Celia Gorman, Nicole Ippoliti, Virginia Kallianes and Marisela Morales who helped me prepare this presentation and my
colleagues at the Population Council with whom I am privileged to work.
We have had over 20 active donors dedicated to this work over a span of 12 years from leadership engagement from DFID as a bilateral, to the
sustaining moral and financial support from the Nike and NoVo Foundations to individuals giving in time, in kind and in cash.
2. Outline
I. Why Girls: Six Reasons on Which the World Agrees
II. Which Girls: Finding the Highest Concentrations of the
Poorest Girls Whose Destinies are Most Closely Linked to
Health, Social and Economic Outcomes
III. When: Moving Upstream to Anchor Girls’ Rights and
Assets at Critical Moments
IV. Current “youth” initiatives largely fail to reach the most
disadvantaged and when they do it is not early enough.
V. Strategic Program Principles
VI. Illustrative programs from the four developing regions
3. I. Why Girls: Six Reasons on Which the World Agrees
• Building a strong economic base, reversing inter-generational
poverty (Increased female control of income has far stronger returns to human capital and
other investments than comparable income under male control)
• Achieving universal primary education (the most deprived sector is rural girls)
• Promoting gender equality (at the crucial moment of early adolescence as, gender-
based abuses appear to be moving down the age spectrum)
• Reducing maternal mortality and related infant mortality (selective of
youngest and first time mothers)
• Reversing the rising tide of HIV in young people (which is increasingly
young, poor and female the ratio of female to male infection among those ages 10-24 reaches
8:1 in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa)
• Reducing rapid population growth (eliminating child marriage could foster
synergistic reduction in future population growth)
4. Intercept Poverty: Give Girls Assets and Preparation
for Decent Livelihoods and Give It To Them Young
• $1 in female hands is worth $10 (and in some cases $20) in male
hands
• A rising and often majority proportion of children will rely exclusively or
substantially on the economic and human resources of their mothers
(and female relatives)
• The vital roles females play in poor houses and the proportion of
households supported exclusively by females is highest in the bottom
two quintiles where cycles of poverty are entrenched
The architecture of poverty for girls, the children they
will eventually support, their communities, and, by
extension, their nations, is set in late childhood/early
adolescence, roughly between the ages of 10-14
5. Dramatic and Negative Transitions of Indigenous
10-14 Year-old Girls in Guatemala
80
70 In school
60
Paid work
50
Unpaid work
%
40
30
Married
20
10 Has child
0
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Age
Source: Hallman et al, 2005, ENCOVI 2000.
6. Girls and planners need to know that girls carry disproportionate and often sole
responsibility for the support of themselves and their children.
If present trends continue*:
•About one-third of the girls in Kenya
•40% in Zimbabwe
•50% in Malawi
Will be on their own at some point before reaching their 50th birthday.
More than 90% will also be economically responsible for one or more children under the
age of 15.
The risk of being a single mother from either widowhood or divorce, is greatest for girls who
come from poor families and who are married under 20.
The numbers are not small and the consequences are not
insignificant. Failing to invest in these girls is, in effect, planned
poverty.
*Analysis by Shelley Clark, commissioned by the Population Council and Nike, who projected using suitable life event data
from Malawi, Kenya, and Zimbabwe the proportion of women whose marriages will be disrupted by divorce or widowhood.
This analysis excluded those who were never married, whether or not they had children, did not capture those in polygamous
union or women who were economically abandoned by their husbands-this data is probably the lower boundary of a
proportion of women who carry this responsibility.
7. Investment in adolescent girls reduces population
growth in four ways:
•Delays marriage and child-bearing
• Decreases the need for large families as security
• Increases their ability to adopt health-seeking behaviors, including protection from HIV,
contraception use, and safer maternity practices
• Empowers vital intergenerational investment in children’s, especially girls’, education
Source: Tabulations by John Bongaarts, Population Council, estimates based on United Nations Projections
8. The Violence Epidemic: Increasingly Selective of Younger
Girls Who are Neither Safe at Home, in School or Any Place in
Between
Zambia Case Study: Almost half of the girls had heard of a girl in the community
who had been forced into sex with a relative in their own home, and over 1/3 with
a teacher and 86% report girls are pressured to do things they don’t want for
money.
Girls’ perceptions of sexual violence at school, community, and home Yes n (percent)
Have you ever heard of a girl in this community who has been forced to have sex with a relative from within
(48%)
her household?
Have you ever heard of a schoolgirl in this community who has been forced to have sex with a classmate her
(23%)
own
Have you ever heard of a schoolgirl in this community who has been forced to have sex with a teacher (36%)
In any of these incidents, did the girl stop attending school? (61%)
In any of these incidents, did the teacher stop teaching? (57%)
Were any of these incidents (teacher, classmate, or relative) reported to the girls’ parents? (78%)
Were any of these incidents (teacher, classmate, or relative) reported to the police or victim’s support unit? (59%)
In any of these incidents (teacher, classmate, or relative), did the girl seek treatment from the local clinic or
(62%)
hospital?
Are girls your age ever pressured to do things they don’t want to do for money? (86%)
Source: Martha Brady, Joseph Simbaya, Alison Stone, Maya Vaughn-Smith. 2009. “Understanding Adolescents Girls’ Protection Strategies against HIV: An Exploratory
Study in Zambia.” New York: Population Council.
9. The Violence Epidemic: Increasingly Selective of Younger
Girls Who are Neither Safe at Home, in School or Any Place in
Between
Zambia Case Study: Almost half of the girls had heard of a girl in the community
who had been forced into sex with a relative in their own home, and over 1/3 with
a teacher and 86% report girls are pressured to do things they don’t want for
money.
Girls’ perceptions of sexual violence at school, community, and home Yes n (percent)
Have you ever heard of a girl in this community who has been forced to have sex with a relative from within
(48%)
her household?
Have you ever heard of a schoolgirl in this community who has been forced to have sex with a classmate her
(23%)
own
Have you ever heard of a schoolgirl in this community who has been forced to have sex with a teacher (36%)
In any of these incidents, did the girl stop attending school? (61%)
In any of these incidents, did the teacher stop teaching? (57%)
Were any of these incidents (teacher, classmate, or relative) reported to the girls’ parents? (78%)
Were any of these incidents (teacher, classmate, or relative) reported to the police or victim’s support unit? (59%)
In any of these incidents (teacher, classmate, or relative), did the girl seek treatment from the local clinic or
(62%)
hospital?
Are girls your age ever pressured to do things they don’t want to do for money? (86%)
Source: Martha Brady, Joseph Simbaya, Alison Stone, Maya Vaughn-Smith. 2009. “Understanding Adolescents Girls’ Protection Strategies against HIV: An Exploratory
Study in Zambia.” New York: Population Council.
10. II. Which Girls: Finding the Highest Concentrations of the
Poorest Girls Whose Destinies are Most Closely Linked to
Health, Social and Economic Outcomes
Classified by income:
• Lower middle income economy (per capita GNP $761-$3,030)
• Low income economy (per capita GNP $760 or less)
Or classified by social factors such as:
• Stage in the fertility transition
• Maternal mortality and poor reproductive health
• Prevalence of HIV and female : male infection ratios
• Post-conflict and the persistence of sizable unsettled
communities
• Large populations of ethnic or culturally marginalized
communities
11. Identify at the sub-national (or below) level high concentrations of
vulnerable girls affected by conditions we want to “zero out.”
Girls married under age 15: Ethiopia*
*of those currently ages 20-24
Prepared by Adam Weiner
14. Percent of Girls 10-14 not in school
and not living with either parent in
India (1,231,000)
15. Percent of Girls 10-14 not in school and not
living with either parent in Rwanda
(39,825 )
16. Percent of Girls 10-14 not in school and
not living with either parent in
Mozambique (137,768 )
17. Nigeria: Percent of females (10-14) not in school and
not living with either parent with conflict zones
superimposed (501,998)
Source: U.S. State Department, Humanitarian Information Unit, 2009 Source: DHS 2003
18. Percent of 15-24 year-old Females who Experience Justify
Domestic Violence Under Certain Conditions in Kenya (by
region)
19. Women in Zambia Experience High Rates of Physical
Violence – mostly at the hands of partners
• Over 40% of ever-married 15-24 year-old females have experienced physical violence
• In general, gender-based violence is justified by cultural norms and often embedded in
war-time behavior.
Almost 60% of
15-24 year-olds
in the
Copperbelt
region have
experienced
physical
violence since
the age of 15
Source: 2007 Zambia DHS, Tabulation by Marisela Morales
20. III. When: Moving Upstream to Anchor
Girls’ Rights and Assets at Critical
Moments
21. Adolescent policy is largely an
empty cell-leaving adolescents, especially young female adolescents, without a
supportive bridge from childhood into adulthood
Immunization MCH/first birth
(90% Any) (82% 4 + anti-natal visits)
Entrance to primary school Legal age for National IDs
Legal age for a savings account holder
End of mandatory schooling
Legal age of marriage
ADOLESCENCE
(65% of 10-14 year
olds in school)
Liberia Case Study
22. Emergent Issues by Age 12
• Sexual maturation
• Consolidation of gender norms, including regarding gender-based violence
• Changes in the family (e.g., parents’ marital dissolution)
• Disproportionate care and domestic work burden for girls
• Withdraw and/or lack of safety from public space for girls
• School leaving
• School safety for girls
• Loss of peers for girls
• Migration for work (often informal and/or unsafe)
• Subject to sexualizing and consumerist media
• Rising need for independent and disposable income & assets
• Pressure for marriage or liaisons as livelihoods strategies for girls
Source: Bruce, Judith. Joyce, Amy. 2006 The Girls Left Behind:The Failed Reach of Current Schooling, Child Health,
Youth-serving, and Livelihoods Programs for Girls Living in the Path of HIV, Chapter 3
23. Dramatic and Negative Transitions of Indigenous 10-14 Year
Old Girls in Guatemala
Source: Hallman et al. 2005, ENCOVI 2000
24. In Egypt, even when schooling levels of rural girls increased, girls’ school
attendance dropped sharply near puberty.
30. Social isolation of married girls
Married adolescent girls are typified by:
- Highly limited or even absent peer networks
- Restricted social mobility/freedom of movement
- Low educational attainment and virtually no schooling options
- Very limited access to modern media (TV, radio, newspapers) and
health messages
- Very low participation in clubs or organizations
- Almost entirely absent from current youth serving initiatives
Source, N., Chong, E., and Bracken, H. “Married Adolescents: An Overview.” Paper prepared for the Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents,
Source: Bruce, J. and Clark, S. “Including Married Adolescents in Adolescent Reproductive Health and HIV Policy,” Prepared for for the Technical
WHO,
Consultation on Married Adolescents, WHO, Geneva, December 9-12, 2003. Clark, S. “Early Marriage and HIV Risks in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Studies
9-12, 2003
in Family Planning, 35(3), 2004; Clark, S., Bruce, J., and Dude, A. “Protecting Young Women from HIV/AIDS: The Case Against Child and Adolescent
Marriage.” International Family Planning Perspectives,32(2), June 2006.
31. Child marriage and HIV Risk-
without guidance
• Older partners
• Higher sexual frequency
• Intense pressure for pregnancy
• Greater social isolation
• Difficulty benefiting from any of the conventional HIV protection
messages:
– Abstinence
– Reduce sexual frequency
– Reduce number of partners
– Use condoms
– Know one’s own and one’s partners HIV status,
– Observe mutually monogamous relations with an uninfected partner
Sources: Glynn, J.R., Caraël, M., Auvert, B., Kahindo, M., Chege, J., Musonda, R., Kaona, F., and Buvé, A., for the Study Group on Heterogeneity of HIV Epidemics in African
Cities. “Why do young women have a much higher prevalence of HIV than young men?” A study in Kisumu, Kenya and Ndola, Zambia. AIDS 15(suppl 4), S51-60, 2001; Bruce,
J. and Clark, S. “Including Married Adolescents in Adolescent Reproductive Health and HIV Policy,” Prepared for for the Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents, WHO,
Geneva, December 9-12, 2003. Clark, S. “Early Marriage and HIV Risks in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Studies in Family Planning, 35(3), 2004; Clark, S., Bruce, J., and Dude, A.
“Protecting Young Women from HIV/AIDS: The Case Against Child and Adolescent Marriage.” International Family Planning Perspectives,32(2), June 2006.
32. Emerging evidence of high rates of HIV
infection in married girls
Married Unmarried,
sexually active
Kisumu, Kenya 32.9% 22.3%
Ndola, Zambia 27.3% 16.5%
Sources: Glynn, J.R., Caraël, M., Auvert, B., Kahindo, M., Chege, J., Musonda, R., Kaona, F., and Buvé, A., for the Study Group on Heterogeneity of HIV Epidemics in African
Cities. “Why do young women have a much higher prevalence of HIV than young men?” A study in Kisumu, Kenya and Ndola, Zambia. AIDS 15(suppl 4), S51-60, 2001;
33. IV. Current “youth” (and most alarmingly)
HIV initiatives largely fail to reach the most
disadvantaged and when they do it is not
early enough.
Photo Credit: Judith Bruce. South Sudan , 2009
34. Age and Gender Distribution of Participants in “Youth” Programs
Demographic Characteristics
Number of
beneficiaries
10-14 15-19
Country served Males Females 20+ years
years years
(No. of
contacts)
6216
Burkina Faso 56% 44% 7% 30% 63%
(6860)
10866
Ethiopia 58% 42% 22% 45% 33%
(10873)
Guinea 7625
57% 43% 7% 37% 56%
Bissau (8167)
5452
Mauritania 83% 17% 28% 42% 25%
(8115)
12866
Guatemala 47% 53% 37% 54% 9%
(N/A)
For a list of authors and review see Transitions to Adulthood Brief No. 28: Accessing Equity of Access in Youth Programs prepared by Adam Weiner
http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/TABriefs/PGY_Brief28_CoverageExercises.pdf
35. An Inversion of Care
Those at lesser risk, with greater Those at greatest risk, with least social assets
social assets (stable homes, (migrant, less stable families, lesser or no
schooling) are receiving majority schooling, experiencing the most frequent
share of youth serving resources unprotected sexual relations) are receiving a
negligible share of youth serving resources
–In school (older) boys
–Out of school (younger) girls
–Unmarried males
–Married girls
–Urban born, living in two
parents house hold –Migrant, rural origin, living apart from
parents
–Older adolescents, youth
20+, even 24+ –Youngest adolescents, 10-14
Source: Bruce, Judith. “Using Data to Count, Advocate for, and Invest in Adolescent Girls: An Ethiopian Case Study. Nov. 2008
36. While the HIV Epidemic is
Increasingly Young, Poor, and
Female
Prevalence of HIV/AIDS
Average Female to Male ratio of the 15-24 year-old population
with HIV/AIDS in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger,
Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia:
3 to 1
Source: www.data.un.org, UNICEF_SOWC_2009. Percentage in year 2007
9
37. HIV Prevalence by Gender
Rate among 15 - 24 year old population by country and gender
Country Female 15 - 24 Male 15 - 24 with Female to Male
with HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Ratio (15 -24 with
HIV/AIDS)
Benin 0.9% 0.3% 3 to 1
Burkina Faso 0.9% 0.5% Almost 2 to 1
Ethiopia 1.5% 0.5% 3 to 1
Malawi 8.4% 2.4% 3.5 to 1
Niger 0.5% 0.9% Almost 1 to 2
Nigeria 2.3% 0.8% Almost 3 to 1
Rwanda 1.4% 0.5% Almost 3 to 1
Sierra Leone 1.3% 0.4% Over 3 to 1
Uganda 3.9% 1.3% 3 to 1
Zambia 12.7% 3.8% Over 3 to 1
Source: www.data.un.org , UNICEF_SOWC_2009. Percentage in year 2007
8
38. Prevention Efforts, HIV Programs are not
Going to Young, Poor Girls
• In a program scan in KwaZulu-Natal, South
Africa, 23 community-based organizations were
interviewed
• Criteria for inclusion (at least one of the
following as major program orientation):
- Adolescent/youth issues
- HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, or care
- Gender issues
- Economic empowerment, income generating, or livelihood
activities
- Safety or violence prevention
39. Despite the Fact that Almost 17% of Girls 20-24
Living in This Area Were Living with HIV
• Of the 14 programs with HIV/AIDS as a main
theme, only 5 had gender as a major focus
• Among all 23 organizations, only 3 (only 13%)
had a significant engagement with or provision
of significant social support to vulnerable
adolescent girls
Sources: Sishana, Olive, et al. (2002). Nelson Mandela, HSRC Study of HIV AIDS: South African National HIV prevalence, behavioural risks
and mass media household survey 2002: executive summary. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council and Nelson Mandela Foundation
Swan, Nick and Kelly Hallman. 2002. “Adolescent/Livelihoods Program Situation: Durban, South Africa,” Mimeo. Population Council.
40. HIV Funding and the Gender Equity
Discussion has Prioritized Treatment
over Prevention by Wide Margins
Zambia
Namibia Treatment
Prevention
Botswana
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Source: UNAIDS Resource Tracking by Country www.unaids.org/en/CountryResponses/Country
41. V. Strategic Program Principles
•Combining data for targeting with structural analysis and grassroots
mobilization of girls
•Segmenting-recognizing internal diversity of poor girls
•Concentrating resources to reach a threshold proportion of vulnerable girls in
each segment
•Developing “asset” building plans for each segment
•Community “Contracts”
•Girl-Only Platforms
•Explicit Plans to Build and Sustain Girls Health, Social and Economic Assets (by
segment)
•Recognizing the Close Relationship between Health, Social and Economic
Assets—Social Capital Being the Core
42. April 14, 2008 Judith Bruce, Population Council
MAKING THE HANDS MEET
Enabling Environment
National Millennium Development Goals and Poverty-Reduction Strategies
National commitment to CEDAW and the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Female- and youth-friendly legal structure to allow access to entitlements, formal employment, savings, property
Girl-friendly education – to get them to school on time and keep them there through adolescence
Visibility & Advocacy
Dedicated, strategically chosen platform: National Girls’ Agenda/Vital Voices/Gigren
Public/private (and occasionally celebrity) advocacy and leadership networks
Media support, informing about and validating rights, access to legal protections and entitlements, and identifying social
and economic opportunities
Dedicated Structures/Programs Currently or Potentially Increasing Access & Engagement
of Girls &Young Women
New progressive schemes/Child savings accounts/Conditional cash transfers
Special entitlements to reach vulnerable, younger, excluded populations
Women- and girl-led community foundations
Self-help, participation, community-centered housing trusts
Aereally development plans for conflict and post-conflict situations
Aereal focused ‘business’ plans for girls & women in poverty zones (like the Bronx Redevelopment Corporation, for
girls & women)
Girls’ economic empowerment trusts (joining grassroots, private, public, & financial institutions) (a new idea)
Community-based (tangible, viewable, huggable) Programs
Demonstrating need, accessibility, feasibility, capacity building, among core beneficiaries, first-generation pilot, second-
generation scaling out efforts with groups at the base
Abriendo Oportunidades Program
43. Segmenting
Develop categorical programs focused on key
segments of adolescent girl populations
No Currently Attending Attending Out of school
schooling out of primary secondary
Unmarried Married
school school school or
and/or
higher
with
children
Girls A B C D E F
10-14
Girls G H I J K L
15-19
Girls M N O P Q R
20-24
Source: Bruce, Judith and Erica Chong. 2006. "The diverse universe of adolescents, and the girls and boys left behind: A note
on research, program and policy priorities." Background paper to the UN Millennium Project report Public Choices, Private
Decisions: Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals.
44. Segments Case Study:
West African Adolescent Girls Livelihoods Initiative
Segment: Challenge/Promise
1. Girls 15-17 in secondary school at A potential leadership cadre, sometimes not rising even as high
grade for age as 10% of girls. Without intervention, even these girls are at risk
of no or unsafe work, sexual coercion, and early parenthood.
“unfocused,” “shopping their bodies,” typically large populations
2. 16-18, some schooling, literate?, of girls who have little effective demand, visibility, are seeking or
less likely to have children (less get lost in “relationships”
than 20%)
“Ambitious survivors” seek livelihood opportunities and can be,
with appropriate social support, childcare and the means to
3. 19-24, of which often well over control earnings, prepared for financial capabilities skills, for
50% will already have children wage work in entrepreneurship
Lost their childhood and adolescence in the conflict, desperate
4. 25-30, have often two or more and deserving, not, however, providing any clear guidance on
children, may have been victims of how to work with adolescent girls.
extensive violence
45. Middle East, Upper Egypt
Prioritizing within the segment: The goal is to reach at least 15% percent of
girls 12-15 with no schooling or illiterate in villages of under 7,000 so that
the concentration-the percentage of the eligible reached-is highest in the
priority category.
Age No School Some Schooling,
Not Literate
12-13
“1” “2”
(85%)
14-15
“3” “4”
46. What is an Asset Building Approach?
• NOT a specific program activity
• It is a conceptual approach that underpins many
adolescent programs
• It is a framework to guide strategies for working with
adolescent girls
• What does a girl need to have to make a healthy
transition into adulthood?
Source: Jennefer Sebstad, Karen Austrian, Judith Bruce
47. Definition of Livelihoods
“… The capabilities, assets (including both material and
social resources) and activities required for a means
of living.” (Carney 1998)
Capabilities: the ability to do, to act, to be
Assets: human, social, financial, physical assets
47
48. Examples of Assets
Social assets Human assets
• Social networks • Skills and knowledge
• Group membership • Good health
• Relationships of trust • Ability to work
• Access to wider institutions • Self esteem
of society • Bargaining power
• Autonomy
• Control over decisions
49. Examples of Assets (cont)
Physical assets Financial assets
• Personal assets (clothing, • Cash
jewelry, household items) • Savings
• Land • Entitlements
• Housing
• Transport
• Tools, equipment and other
productive assets
50. Role of assets for adolescent girls
ASSETS REDUCE VULNERABILITY
ASSETS EXPAND OPPORTUNITIES
51. Program Strategies that Build Girls’ Assets
SOCIAL ASSETS HUMAN ASSETS
Group formation Life skills training
Social support Health education
Development of social Literacy programs
networks Financial education
Mentoring Rights education
Employability training
Vocational/skills training
Business development training
Business
internships/attachments
52. Program Strategies that Build Girls’ Assets
(cont)
PHYSICAL ASSETS FINANCIAL ASSETS
Access to tools or equipment Savings
for businesses Credit
Safe physical space to meet Remittance services
Safe place to work Other financial services
54. Name Which Asset(s) Each Program Activity
Builds:
• Girls meeting weekly in groups of 10-15 girls
– social networks
– group membership
– relationships of trust
– Friends
• Rights awareness Training
– self-esteem, autonomy, control over decision making
55. Name Which Asset(s) Each Program Activity
Builds – Cont’d:
• Providing Vouchers for Health Services
– Good health group membership
– Ability to work
– Access to wider institutions of society
• Savings opportunities
– Access to wider institutions of society
– Control over decisions
– Personal assets, ID card
– Savings
• Tailoring Course that provides girls with their own sewing
machine at completion:
– Social networks
– Skills, Ability to work, productive asset
56. Bringing it back to assets
Asset Examples of Adolescent Program Activities
Social Group formation, safe spaces and social support,
networks, mentoring
Human Life skills training, health education, literacy
programs, financial education, rights education,
vocational training, business skills training,
employability training
Financial Savings, credit, other financial services
Physical Safe physical space to meet;safe working space,
access to transport, tools and equipment for
businesses
57. What is a staged approach to adolescent
programming?
• Adolescents have an evolving sense of social
and economic independence and
responsibility
• Adolescents have an evolving connection to
the wider social and economic world
• How can we accommodate the evolving
capacities of adolescent girls in program
strategies?
58. At An Early Age…
• Group formation
• Creation of venues to provide safe spaces for
girls to meet
• Social support
• Mentoring
• Life skills training
• Introduction to
different skills and
topics
59. At An Older Age…
• Vocational and/or business training
• Internships or attachments
• Business development
• Credit/borrowing
• Introduction to concepts of insurance
60. What do we hope to achieve?
By the end of adolescence, we would like girls to
be prepared for:
• Meeting day to day needs
• Dealing with life cycle events (births,
marriage, educating children)
• Coping with emergencies, crises, and
unexpected events (risk management)
• Taking advantage of opportunities when they
present themselves
61. Planning Graphic by Segment: Mayan Highlands
Lifecycle Stage
Investment Girls, ages Adolescent Young Young Content Program
Plan for each 8-12 girls, ages
13-17
womanhood,
often young
womanhood,
often with
Available Deliverers
stage in the married,
ages 12-21
children,
ages 22-24
lifecycle
stay in own a make hold past
Goal school, proud self, informed assets to
have have a goal choices, prepare for
friends, be beyond initiate a safe supporting
girls marriage, livelihood children as
prepare for well as one’s
decent self
work
HEALTH ASSETS
•Knowledge
•Skills
•Access to Services
SOCIAL ASSETS
•Friendship Networks-places
to meet friends weekly
•Mentors
•Safety Nets
ECONOMIC ASSETS
•Identification of self as an
economic actor
•Core financial capabilities
(Abriendo Oportunidades, Guatemala)
63. Recognize in program content and sequencing that health, social
and economic assets are very closely linked.
Females with more friends are:
•Less likely to experience sexual coercion-across economic quintiles
•More likely to have had an HIV test
Ever been tested for HIV: 16-24-year-olds
Source: Hallman, Kelly. Population Council, Poverty, Gender and Youth Program. “Siyakha Nentsha”: Enhancing Economic, Health, and
Social Capabilities of Highly vulnerable Adolescents in South Africa”. December 2008.
64. Recognize the close relationship between
economic assets and health assets.
An extremely high proportion of the girls in South Africa are well informed about
HIV, yet the ratio of female to male infection among those 15-24 has risen in
some communities to 8:1
Source: Hallman, Kelly. Population Council, Poverty, Gender and Youth Program. “Siyakha Nentsha”: Enhancing Economic, Health, and Social Capabilities of
Highly vulnerable Adolescents in South Africa”. December 2008.
65. Assess new interventions through the lens of segmentation and the
interplay of health, social and economic assets: The case of cell-phones
for banking. Which girls are likely to benefit?
Grid through which to view the benefits, costs, operational considerations of using cell phone technology with respect to savings and assets
for girls in different categories
Six core elements of empowerment Types of assets conferred
Type of Girl Five Place to Mentor Personal Finan- Personal Access to Access to support Airtime Fungible assets, Full service ability to
friends meet, at to turn to documentation cially savings social network to minutes e.g. able to deposit and
least literate account messaging support positive trade minutes withdraw money
secure & tangible
weekly and choices & for items linked (with transaction
unique
information behavior change to survival costs that are
(food, clothing) reasonable &
affordable)
A) Girl 16-24,
working for wages
B) School-aged girl,
in school
C) School-aged girl,
working part-time
informally (not in
waged work,
typically), and in
school
D) School-aged girl,
not working, not in
school
Northern Nigeria
66. Remember the Shark Repellent
There is always someone who wants to take girls’ assets away.
Identify the persons and the process and plan a response.
•Counter intimates’ (parents’ and partner’s) attempts to
prevent the acquisition of and/or appropriate girls’
assets.
Males do not face this problem.
•Preventative strategies to help girls/young women hold
assets: capacity to make contracts, own and control
property
• Identify administrative procedures degree of
‘discretion’ that allow harassment and denial of benefits.
•Develop explicit safety plans to address violence and
threats of violence—at core, disinvestment in
girls/women.
68. Keep girls at the center while managing the threats and
gatekeepers in her environment
Significant Segments of Girls Her Special Key Personalities,
Challenges Gatekeepers that
need to be contacted
The in-school girl at or near
grade for age
The deeply disadvantaged girl,
abused, living apart from
parents, not in school
The married girl
The girl with a child
The girl who isn’t working and
isn’t in school, “doing nothing”
(ages 17-20, for example)
The girl in domestic service
The wage-working girl
69. Engage communities in making explicit commitments. For
example, the community could:
• Support safe house-to-house surveys
• Facilitate the recruitment process
• Provide space and existing facilities for meetings, recruitment, training, follow up
• Establish places where girls can meet
• Create safety zones, put in street lights, developed specific security and
protection procedures
• Enforce protective laws more systematically
• Organize service provisions/entitlements at times of days, seasons, and weeks
which make them more accessible to girls
70. Delaying child marriage requires intervening
in the current community contact and the
community “marriage market.”
Family level, and later
community level, incentives
may be necessary.
Amhara girl with a
goat her family
received after she
remained in school
during the critical 13-
15 year old period
Photo Credit: Fikreyesus Garredew
Source: http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/Ethiopia_EvalBerhaneHewan.pdf
72. Core Strategy Girl-Only Spaces: An asset in themselves and a
platform to build health, social, and economic assets
Finding friends and Finding adult mentors
Building community based female leadership
Receiving health, especially reproductive health, information
Developing skills that support community health
Being knowledgeable and accessing health services
Learning their rights
Addressing negative gender norms
Basic health, social support, safety assessment
Provision of basic health information and services as appropriate, directly or
on referral (vaccines, iron tablets, HPV vaccine, ARV treatment)
For more information, see Bruce, Judith Reaching The Girls Left Behind: Targeting Adolescent Programming for Equity, Social Inclusion, Health, and Poverty Alleviation Prepared for:
“Financing Gender Equality; a Commonwealth Perspective,” Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers' Meeting, Uganda, June 2007., Bruce, Judith. 2008. "The girls left behind: Using
policy research and evidence-based programs to’SEE’ the girls left behind," presentation at launch of UN Interagency Task Force on Adolescent Girls in Paris, France, 20 October., Bruce,
Judith. 2008. “Investing in the poorest girls in the poorest communities: A critical development, reproductive health, and human rights strategy,” presentation at European Parliamentary
Forum on Population and Development in Brussels, Belgium, 19 October. Chong, Erica, Kelly Hallman, and Martha Brady. 2006. "Investing when it counts: Generating the evidence base for
policies and programs for very young adolescents--Guide and tool kit," New York: UNFPA and Population Council.
73. Girl-only spaces: An asset in themselves and a platform to build
health, social, and economic assets
Learning basic financial literacy skills (principles of money management,
building, retaining, and safeguarding assets)
Obtaining vital documentation (ID cards, health certificates)
Accessing health entitlements, including HIV-related
Planning for seasonal stresses
Dealing with prolonged illness, death, inheritance, succession planning,
migration for work, rape
Establishing safe and independent control over savings
Building capacity to access (when ready) more demanding opportunities:
entrepreneurship training, participation in group lending, establishment of
business
74. The platform is a bowl into which you can add many
elements. Without this bowl—or platform—very little of
sustained value to girls is possible.
Planning
basic health entrepreneurship training
information
control over
savings
Building capacities
76. Abriendo Oportunidades:
Keeping girls in school, delaying marriage and childbearing, and building
a national rural girls’ movement in the Mayan Highlands of Guatemala.
• Community clubs of girls ages 8-12 and 13-18 *
• 80 young female mentors gain leadership and professional skills and
experience
• Girls clubs which meet weekly offer girls a 1-year age, gender and
lifecycle-sensitive skill-building program, now adding community
health skills and financial literacy
• Mentors and participant girls are linked in a national network that
provides an advocacy platform from the family to the international
level
Reaching 3,000 girls currently.
Adding an additional 20 communities in 2010-2011.
For more information, see Sandra Contreras Aprile Jennifer Catino, Kelly Hallman, Eva Roca, Marta Julia Ruiz, and Adam Weiner. "For Mayan girls, safe spaces lead to
social gains," Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood Brief no. 5. New York: Population Council. (updated September 2009)
77.
78. Ishraq (“ Enlightenment” in Arabic)
Offering second chance schooling, delaying marriage, creating female
platforms in rural Upper Egypt.
Girls participate 3-4 times a week for 2 years in a literacy, life skills, and sports
program to empower 12 to 15-year-old out-of-school girls and facilitate their
entry into formal schooling.
It offers:
• Safe, publicly acknowledged spaces for girls to gather, make friends, learn and play
• To improve girls’ functional literacy and foster their continuing schooling, channeling
girls to government schools
• Information about girls’ rights regarding marriage, bodily integrity, nutrition, hygiene,
and reproductive health
•Physical education and sports for girls
Reaching 2,000 girls in 30 villages of 7,000 or less
in four Upper Egyptian governorates,
and soon adding financial capabilities and savings.
For more information, see Brady, Martha, Abeer Salem, and Nadia Zibani. "Bringing new opportunities to adolescent girls in socially conservative settings: The Ishraq program in rural Upper
Egypt," Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood Brief no. 12. New York: Population Council. (updated August 2007)
http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/TABriefs/PGY_Brief12_Ishraq.pdf, Brady, Martha, Ragui Assaad, Barbara Ibrahim, Abeer Salem, Rania Salem, and Nadia Zibani. "Providing new opportunities to
adolescent girls in socially conservative settings: The Ishraq program in rural Upper Egypt." New York: Population Council. http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/IshraqReport.pdf
79.
80. Biruh Tesfa (Amharic for “Bright Future”)
A program for migrant, destitute girls living in the heart of the urban
Ethiopian HIV epidemic
• Biruh Tesfa promotes single-sex and age-specific safe spaces for out-of-school girls aged
10–19 – many in-migrant girls working as domestic workers.
• The program offers functional literacy, life skills, livelihood skills, and health and HIV
education through girls’ clubs led by adult mentors
• Meeting times accommodate the schedules of working girls, with groups meeting for
two hours, three times a week.
• The Biruh Tesfa project has its own identity card which includes the stamp of the kebele
and the signature of its chairman, providing girls with a sense of inclusion and a degree
of social protection.
• Biruh Tesfa negotiated wellness checkups with local clinics for all girls in the program,
collecting background information on the girls’ situation and including basic medical
exams, laboratory tests, and treatment for simple ailments.
Reaching 3,000 girls in Addis and Bahir Dar as both asset
building and primary HIV prevention.
For more information, see Erulkar, Annabel S., Tekle-Ab Mekbib, and Mesfin Tegegne. "Biruh Tesfa: Creating a 'Bright Future' for migrant girls in urban areas of Ethiopia,"
Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood Brief no. 21. New York: Population Council. (updated January 2008)
81.
82. Berhane Hewan
Delaying marriage and supporting married girls in Amhara,
Ethiopia
Girls’ groups & support to remain in school
Three options for participation:
•Support to remain in/return to school
•Participation in unmarried girls groups led by mentors
•Participation in married girls groups led by mentors
Reaching 12,000 girls
Erulkar, Annabel S. and Eunice Muthengi. "Evaluation of Berhane Hewan: A program to delay child marriage in rural Ethiopia," International Perspectives on
Sexual and Reproductive Health 35(1): 6–14.urce: Erulkar et al. 2009
83. Significant delays in marriage from early to later
adolescence
Percent of adolescent girls married at endline, by age & area of residence
Control Experimental
100
80
Percent married
60
40
20
0
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Age
Reaching contraceptive use of 74% among married girls
Erulkar, Annabel S. and Eunice Muthengi. "Evaluation of Berhane Hewan: A program to delay child marriage in rural Ethiopia," International Perspectives
on Sexual and Reproductive Health 35(1): 6–14.urce: Erulkar et al. 2009
84. Reaching the Youngest First-time
Mothers in India
Safe space for married girls to meet, make friends,
learn and take action, measurablly increased:
– Married girls’ peer support
– SRH knowlege and use of contraceptives (delay first birth)
– Preparation for delivery
– Post-partum service utilization
– Immediate breast feeding (colostrum)
– Spousal communication
• Expressing own opinion to husbands when they disagree
*Results more robust in Diamond Harbour where
there was group social support intervention
85.
86. Binti Pamoja
Creating girl leadership and network of girls’ spaces for
skill building in a poor, conflicted community
•Girls mapped their constituencies to identify existing and potential safe
spaces which revealed that less than 2% of girls in Kibera had access to
girly only programming once a week
• The Center provides intensive training in reproductive health/HIV,
communication/leadership skills, and budgeting, savings and setting
financial goals.
• Utilizing a cascading leadership model, Binti girls start their own girls’
groups, which currently reach 500 girls.
For more information, see Austrian, Karen. "Expanding safe spaces and developing skills for adolescent girls," Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive
Transitions to Adulthood Brief no. 29. New York: Population Council
86
88. Now a savings product is offered by two banks in Uganda and Kenya, currently
reaching 10,000 girls this year and scaling out (resources permitting) to
another 30,000.
Source: K-Rep Bank 2009. Marketing Materials for Go Girl Savings Account. This is supported by the
Nike Foundation and the NoVo Foundation
90. Sources
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