NCT03890237

GAGE Act With Her-Ethiopia Evaluation

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

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 4,500 (actual)
• Sponsor: George Washington University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 10 Years – 13 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

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.

Detailed description

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.

Conditions

• Adolescent Behavior
• Gender

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Her Spaces	Her Spaces will comprise a set of activities leveraging the Her Spaces curriculum and program model which includes curriculum-based sessions for 11-13 year old girls, with 40 sessions delivered weekly over the course of 10 months
BEHAVIORAL	Act With Her	Act With Her was designed to facilitate adolescent transitions to adulthood via improvements across the six GAGE domains (education, bodily integrity, health, psychosocial well-being, voice and agency, and economic empowerment). Project activities fall into three main categories: curriculum-based programming with adolescent girls and boys, community transformation, and systems strengthening. Act With Her will work with 10-13 year old girls and boys for 10 months and implement community-level and high-level system strengthening work up to 24 months (in rural and pastoralist areas).
BEHAVIORAL	Act With Her + Asset Transfer	This arm will implement the Act With Her program described above, using program curricula with 10-13-year-old girls and boys over 10 months and conducting community-level systems strengthening up to 24 months. Additionally, the girls participating in this arm will receive one of three asset transfer options. The packages will be of equal value (115 USD) - one will include school supplies, one will include hygiene supplies, and will be a combination of both. Each adolescent girl will choose which package she would like to receive and will receive components of the package at 3 timepoints over the course of the first 10 months of the project.
BEHAVIORAL	Act With Her (simple)	This arm will implement the Act With Her curricula described above with 10-13 year old girls and boys over 10 months. The adolescent groups will follow the same model (near-peer, same-sex mentors, 40 weekly meetings for girls, 18 meetings for boys, 4 of which are joint sessions for boys and girls, 6 sessions for parents), but will not include community-level systems strengthening activities

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-03-01
• Primary completion: 2025-12-31
• Completion: 2026-11-30
• First posted: 2019-03-26
• Last updated: 2025-04-10

Locations

3 sites across 1 country: Ethiopia