Adolescent Girls Initiative - Kenya

INTERVENTION: The evaluation will test three packages of interventions. All packages will include community‐level conversations addressing inequitable gender norms and barriers to girls’ education, and weekly group meetings for girls ages 11‐14 that cover a range of health, life skills and financial literacy topics. One package will have only these three components. The second package will add in‐kind individual and community‐level incentives conditioned on meeting school enrollment targets. The third package will add a household‐level cash transfer conditioned on girls’ school enrollment. Throughout, the focus of the intervention design will be on a model that is feasible for implementation by the county government both vis‐à‐vis delivery channels and cost. The intervention will start at the end of April 2022 with the start of the 2022 school year and end in April 2023 during the first term of the 2023 school year. Community Conversation Groups: These are community‐based groups composed of community members and leaders and they are run through existing government‐led community health unit structures. The groups will be taken through a facilitated process to identify key issues in the community that lead to the undervaluing of girls, inequitable gender norms, early marriage and the perpetuating of violence against girls and women. The meetings will be facilitated once a month by Community Health Assistants (CHAs) with support from Community Health Volunteers (CHVs). Girls’ Safe Spaces Groups: The girls´ groups will be facilitated by CHVs. This intervention component will follow the Council’s safe spaces model in which girls will meet in groups once a week under the guidance of a female mentor from that community. The groups will foll CONDITION: Education status ; Not Applicable PRIMARY OUTCOME: School enrollment measured using a self‐reported school enrollment constructed from responses to “Did you attend school at any time during the [xxxx] school year?” at baseline for the school year 2021 and at endline for the school years 2022 and 2023 INCLUSION CRITERIA: 1. Girls aged between 11 and 14 years old 2. Residing within selected study sites 3. Not in boarding school at the time of the listing and/or at the time of the baseline survey SECONDARY OUTCOME: ; The following gender attitudes are assessed at baseline (school year 2022) and endline (school year 2023):; 1. Gender attitudes regarding education measured using the following four agree/disagree items: (1) “It is as important for girls to complete secondary school as it is for boys”; (2) “When a family cannot afford to send all children to school, it is better to send boys than girls”; (3) “A 16‐year old girl should get married when she finds an appropriate partner, even if she is still in school”; and (4) “Girls are as intelligent as boys”.; 2. Gender attitudes regarding girl's and boy's behaviours measured using a subset of items : (1) Girls should avoid playing sports with boys because they get hurt easily 2) Boys should be raised tough so they can overcome any difficulty in life 3) Girls should avoid raising their voice to be ladylike. 4) Boys should always defend themselves even if it means fighting. 5) Girls are expected to be humble. 6) Girls should always fight back if boys try to take advantage of them. 7) Girls need their parent's protection more than boys. 8) Boys should be able to show their feelings without fear of being teased. 9) Boys who behave like girls are considered weak. 10) It's important for boys to show they are tough.; 3. Gender attitudes regarding marriage measured using a subset of items: 1) When a husband and wife disagree about the number of children to have, the husband's opinion matters more. 2) A wife should be able to refuse her husband's sex. 3) It is OK for a man to cook for his family. 4) Polygamous marriages are part of your culture, so they should continue. 5) It is better if a family arranges a girl’s marriage than her choosing herself. 6) If a man doesn’t hit his wife, it means he doesn’t love her. 7) It is a man’s right to have se Xwith his wife whenever he wants. 8) If a young woman in this community were age 25 and unmarried, people would respect her. 9) A wife should have primary responsibility for taking care of the home and children. 10) For a couple that does not want more children, it is solely the woman's responsibility to avoid getting pregnant. 11) A woman should not tolerate violence to keep her family together.;