The Adolescent Girls’ Initiative: Economic Empowerment and Reproductive Health Mattias Lundberg 1 December 2009

What is the AGI? A program of pilot projects in five low-income and fragile countries: Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan, Nepal, and Afghanistan, to promote the transition of adolescent girls from school to productive employment. The initiative is being implemented over the next three years, and each project has an integral impact evaluation.

What is the AGI? Primarily training in skills for wage employment, business development skills, and life skills. Also placement assistance and links to microfinance Afghanistan: to provide job skills training to adolescent girls and young women in Balkh Province, leading to greater access to wage employment. Liberia: to promote entry into wage- and self-employment for approximately 2500 girls in Monrovia and adjacent Margibi county, through the provision of business development skills, job skills and life skills.

What is the AGI? Nepal: to promote access to employment and increased incomes for about 3500 young women by modifying the Employment Fund, an existing skills training and placement program. Rwanda: to improve employment and increase incomes for disadvantaged adolescent girls and young women in two urban and two rural districts in Rwanda South Sudan: to improve employment and increase incomes of adolescent girls and young women through demand-driven training and linkages to market opportunities.

Why do we care about young women’s transition to work? We’ve largely achieved parity in primary and secondary education. The same progress has not been seen in the school-to- work transition. Returns to education and training higher among young women than young men.  more targeted post-school training. Returns to capital are lower among women.  less credit targeted to women? More empowered women invest more and earn higher profits.

Women’s economic empowerment enhances the household’s ability to smooth consumption over time. It leads to significantly better child development outcomes: –lower infant and child mortality; –greater attained height and health in adulthood; –greater educational attainment. Economically active women have higher opportunity costs of time, including marriage and child bearing. They marry later, give birth later in life and have fewer children on average compared to non-active women. What’s the link to health?

Poverty may lead young women to engage in transactional sex. But it’s not usually the main factor leading young women to exchange sex for money or gifts. There is no robust consistent correlation between being in school and transactional sex. The relationship between income and transactional sex is not consistent across countries. –One recent study found a negative relationship in Burkina Faso and Togo, and a positive relationship in Mali and Nigeria. What’s the link to health?

The AGI is testing the following hypotheses: –Business development and skills training, jobs placement assistance, and life skills training will enhance economic outcomes. –They will also enhance non-economic outcomes, directly and indirectly through economic empowerment. How do we measure this? –Baseline and follow-up quantitative surveys of beneficiaries and control group. Conventional economic outcomes (income and employment) Conventional health outcomes (illness, pregnancy) What are we doing in the AGI?

Other outcomes: –Hopes and aspirations –Financial capability –Attitudes towards risk and time –Self-control and self-regulation –Self-efficacy and self-confidence –Relationships and networks –Experience of violence –Psychological games among participants to examine group dynamics, leadership, and trust. What are we doing in the AGI?

Timeline: –Afghanistan – in discussions –Liberia – baseline January –Nepal – contracting survey firm –Rwanda – project design –Sudan – baseline Jan / Feb –Follow-up surveys, analysis, report by end What are we doing in the AGI?