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General

Study Overview

Title:

Girl Empower: Studying the impact of mentorship, asset building, caregiver discussion groups, and cash transfers on reducing girl’s vulnerability to sexual exploitation and abuse

Study is 3ie funded:

No

Study ID:

RIDIE-STUDY-ID-595f13b631866

Initial Registration Date:

01/02/2017

Last Update Date:

09/01/2017

Study Status:

Ongoing

Location(s):

Liberia

Abstract:

Girl Empower (GE hereafter) is an innovative program designed by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to equip girls with the skills and experiences necessary to make healthy, strategic life choices and to stay safe from sexual exploitation and abuse. The GE program is unique in its approach because it addresses girls’ needs holistically and contains both social and economic components. The impact evaluation study is a cluster-randomized controlled trial among 100 communities with three study arms: control (no intervention), GE, and GE+. GE refers to the Girl Empower program described above, while GE+ adds small cash transfers to the families of eligible girls as an incentive to increase take-up of GE attendance in weekly sessions. The main outcome of interest is sexual exploitation or abuse of the target population of 13-14 year-old girls in the study communities. The study will gather detailed information on any sexual activity among this early adolescent female group, but is particularly concerned with non-consensual sexual contact, sexual contact with adult men, and transactional sex.

Registration Citation:

Hallman, K. and Ozler, B., 2017. Girl Empower: Studying the impact of mentorship, asset building, caregiver discussion groups, and cash transfers on reducing girl’s vulnerability to sexual exploitation and abuse. Registry for International Development for Impact Evaluations (RIDIE). Available at: 10.23846/ridie103

Categories:

Education
Health, Nutrition, and Population

Additional Keywords:

Adolescent Girls, Sexual Violence

Secondary ID Number(s):

Principal Investigator(s)

Name of First PI:

Kelly Hallman

Affiliation:

Population Council

Name of Second PI:

Berk Ozler

Affiliation:

World Bank

Study Sponsor

Name:

NoVo Foundation

Study Sponsor Location:

United States

Research Partner

Name of Partner Institution:

International Rescue Committee

Type of Organization:

NGO-international

Location:

United States

Intervention

Intervention Overview

Intervention:

Girl Empower (GE) is a program designed to equip girls with the skills and experiences necessary to make healthy, strategic life choices and to stay safe from sexual exploitation and abuse. The GE program is unique in its approach because it addresses girls’ needs holistically. The girls’ activities will take place in girl-only safe spaces located in their communities and contains the following components: • Mentorship: girls have access to older female mentors. Mentors both provide weekly group-based and one-to-one interaction with girls as well as teach them critical skills • Asset building: Girls will have access to life skills and financial literacy training. This includes setting up savings accounts so girls practice their financial literacy skills • Monthly caregiver discussion groups among guardians of program girls • Capacity building and training of local health and psychosocial service providers to provide quality services to survivors of gender-based violence Intervention communities will either receive the GE program alone or the GE program with the plus small cash transfers to the girls’ families as an incentive to attendance in weekly sessions (GE+).

Theory of Change:

Multiple Treatment Arms Evaluated?

Yes

Implementing Agency

Name of Organization:

International Rescue Committee

Type of Organization:

NGO (International)

Program Funder

Name of Organization:

NoVo Foundation

Type of Organization:

NGO (International)

Intervention Timing

Intervention or Program Started at time of Registration?

Yes

Start Date:

11/01/2015

End Date:

10/31/2016

Evaluation Method

Evaluation Method Overview

Primary (or First) Evaluation Method:

Randomized control trial

Other (not Listed) Method:

Additional Evaluation Method (If Any):

Regression with controls

Other (not Listed) Method:

Method Details

Details of Evaluation Approach:

The impact evaluation is a cluster-randomized controlled trial with three study arms: control (no program), GE, and GE+. GE refers to the Girl Empower program alone, while GE+ adds small cash transfers to the families of eligible girls as an incentive to increase take-up of GE attendance in weekly sessions. We will conduct a baseline survey of all girls age 13-14 and their caregiver in 100 communities in Nimba County, Liberia. Communities will then be randomized, blocking on number of girl in the community and % of girls enrolled in school, to one of the 3 study arms. Two years following the baseline survey (1 year following program completion), we will conduct an endline survey in all 100 communities with the same girls and caregivers and compare outcomes in the three study arms.

Outcomes (Endpoints):

The main research questions to be answered through this evaluation include: • What impacts do the GE programs have on reducing adolescent girls’ experiences of sexual exploitation and abuse? • Does the effectiveness of the GE program improve when a cash transfer component is added to it? More specifically, does the program: • Decrease experiences of sexual exploitation sexual abuse in the target population? • Reduce teen pregnancies and early marriages? • Decrease their social isolation and deepen their social networks (e.g. number and diversity of friends)? • Increase girls' school participation? • Increase girls; self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy? • Increase girls’ capacity for crucial life skills (decision-making, communication, negotiation, self-protection, understanding and awareness of violence, financial literacy) • Increase the protective factor of family/home life through increased attention to girls' wellbeing by their caregivers?

Unit of Analysis:

Individual girl (clustered within community)

Hypotheses:

The null hypothesis is that there is no difference in girls' reports of sexual exploitation and abuse by study arm (GE, GE+, and control) in the endline survey (2 years following the baseline survey, 1 year following the intervention).

Unit of Intervention or Assignment:

Communities

Number of Clusters in Sample:

100

Number of Individuals in Sample:

2,000 girls and 2,000 caregivers

Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:

30 communities receiving GE, 30 receiving GE+ and 40 control communities (no program)

Supplementary Files

Analysis Plan:

Other Documents:

Data

Outcomes Data

Description:

Household survey of girls and their caregivers at endline (2 year following the baseline survey & 1 year following the intervention)

Data Already Collected?

No

Data Previously Used?

Data Access:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Approval Process:

Approval Status:

Treatment Assignment Data

Participation or Assignment Information:

Yes

Description:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Previously Used?

Data Access:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Approval Process:

Approval Status:

Data Analysis

Data Analysis Status:

Study Materials

Upload Study Materials:

Registration Category

Registration Category:

Prospective, Category 1: Data for measuring impacts have not been collected

Completion

Completion Overview

Intervention Completion Date:

Data Collection Completion Date:

Unit of Analysis:

Clusters in Final Sample:

Total Observations in Final Sample:

Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:

Findings

Preliminary Report:

Preliminary Report URL:

Summary of Findings:

Paper:

Paper Summary:

Paper Citation:

Data Availability

Data Availability (Primary Data):

Date of Data Availability:

Data URL or Contact:

Access procedure:

Other Materials

Survey:

Survey Instrument Links or Contact:

Program Files:

Program Files Links or Contact:

External Link:

External Link Description:

Description of Changes:

Study Stopped

Date:

Reason: