GAGE Act With Her-Ethiopia Evaluation

Gender Transformative Programming to Improve Capabilities of Young Adolescents in Ethiopia: A Cluster Randomized Control Trial

This study evaluates the impact of Act With Her Ethiopia (AWH-E), a gender transformative multi-level program that aims to improve the lives of young adolescent boys and girls.

Unequal gender norms and power dynamics are often driven and reinforced by adolescent girls' male peers, families, communities, and the broader institutional structures that surround them. Without change in gender attitudes and norms at each of these levels, improved outcomes for key transitions are much less likely to be sustained. Efforts to nurture change must also acknowledge that adolescents' opportunities and capabilities are shaped by complex, intersectional forces including ethnicity, caste, religion, and disability, among others. This multi-arm randomized control trial aims to improve the evidence base on effective approaches to improve multi-sectoral outcomes for girls across the following domains from the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) framework: education and learning; health, nutrition and sexual and reproductive health; bodily integrity; psychosocial well-being; voice and agency; and economic empowerment.

Specifically, the trial has four goals:

1. To evaluate the impact of Act With Her in Ethiopia (AWH-E) - a gender-transformative multi-level program - on young adolescent girls' and boys' capabilities (11-13) in the short- and long-run across the six GAGE capability domains using a multi-arm cluster randomized control trial across two regions (Amhara and Oromia).
2. To compare the impact of AWH-E to a more basic gender-synchronized program (AWH-E without community engagement and systems strengthening), a standalone girls' group program (Her Spaces), and the gender-transformative program with economic support (AWH-E + Asset Transfers) on young adolescent capability achievements and transitions in the short- and longer- terms across two regions (Amhara and Oromia).
3. To evaluate the impact of AWH-E on young adolescent capability achievements and transitions in the short- and long- term in pastoralist contexts (Afar).
4. To use mixed-methods research to understand the mechanisms driving the impact, and in particular what works, for whom, and why.

Inclusion Criteria:

• girls and boys 10-13 at time of enrollment in Act With Her Arms
• girls 11-13 female at time of enrollment in Her Spaces Arm

Exclusion Criteria:

• None