Helping Girls Attain Self-Worth and Self-Sufficiency

Surely, economic empowerment is an ultimate goal of many programs. It is useful to look at the overall process that leads up to economic empowerment. Are there strategies to keep girls in school? Can girls who have the interest and skill go on to secondary school (and beyond)? Are [there] ways -- in school or out of school -- to ensure that girls get access to financial capabilities education? and, are there strategies that help girls identify goals and develop concrete plans for reaching them? Do girls have role models that help them see productive economic roles? Are savings programs available that can help teach and support savings behaviors? and when girls are ready to launch into economic activities are there programs or tools (microfinance, for example) that can facilitate it? In other words, in order to get to the economic empowerment it is useful to think about the building blocks. Different NGOS or government programs or community programs may support the steps in this process. The future lies in having a broad view of what girls need to make that transition to adulthood and then identify ways to advance along that path.

I do not think of this in terms of any one person being in control of the household. Rather, the goal that I see is a need to ensure that both partners are able to contribute to the household and have fairly balanced decision-making roles. There are factors that make these relationships uneven in much of the developing world, and to the detriment of women. For example, educational levels may be lower for women, women may not have effective access to family planning or support in its use, women may not have access to good jobs, or even to the ability to move freely outside their home. I would focus on the steps in the process that help women develop skills and assets; assets that make them more valuable in their homes and in their communities.

The Population Council in Ethiopia has programs that address the challenges of child marriage -- in the Amhara region -- and out of school girls -- in Addis. In Amhara the program focuses on enrolling girls in a program during early adolescence and helping them develop their skills and vision for their future. This also involves working with the families and the communities to encourage families not to marry their daughters off at very early ages.
here is a link to that program: http://www.popcouncil.org/projects/100_BerhaneHewanEthiopia.asp
The evaluation demonstrated delayed marriage and increased school attendance among participants in a rural area where child marriage is common.
Now, girls may run away from child marriage and we have another program in Addis for out of school girls. In both cases it is clear that many girls are desperate to go to school and that, with care, such programs can thrive. The work never goes as quickly as we would like! there is always room to do more. But one important step is to publicize where strategies have worked so that people do not think these situations are hopeless.

We have a number of programs that we generally call "safe spaces" programs. These programs reach out to adolescent girls and provide them a safe physical space in which to meet and a mentor to work with them. In many cases these programs include literacy and numeracy education, financial capabilities education, health and other topics. But, one part of these programs that i find very compelling is what i think of as "leadership". In many settings girls need an opportunity to develop a vision for their lives that is fulfilling and productive and that they can speak up for themselves. We see a difference in how girls view themselves and how they see their roles in the family and the community.

There is no simple answer to how services can best be made available to young people. The needs (and the services) may be different in rural and urban areas. However, it does appear that teens want to be treated with respect and have their privacy protected. But, how to fund that and how to actually provide the services at a time when young people can access them really depends on the local circumstances. This may be a time to talk with young people about how they would like to see services made available to them.

use of health services by adolescents can be a challenge. Clearly, adolescents need services that are available when they can plausibly come since many will be in school or working. to identify those times requires local knowledge and information from adolescents (as opposed to just what adults may think about best times for adolescents). Also, adolescents will want to be treated with respect as they come with their questions and needs for services. Working through the challenges of young people making effective use of public health services is valuable for the impact it can have on their health as adolescents but also on the process of their learning positive health behaviors early in their adult lives.

what an excellent question! I agree that there have been advances in linking girls with economic tools, but think we should all feel challenged to make that linkage even stronger. It may be good to start with small steps to get adolescents linked to forms of income production that they find familiar; but we need to be looking ahead to bigger changes for them. We could start by looking at the measure we use for assessing programs; is the best measure of microfinance the rate at which loans are repaid? or should it be the rate at which larger loans are taken to grow a business? I believe that we need to begin early with adolescent girls to build their sense of the need to budget, learn financial skills, develop savings plans, assess livelihood options and support them in thinking about how they can advance their goals and contribute to their community. In general, i would say that the general level of education girls receive as well as the specific education they can obtain about thinking through the steps they would need to take would be of great benefit.

While you did not specifically pose a question, let me comment on your observation. I agree that very early childbearing (which is typically within marriage) can have negative economic effects. In some settings the view is that such early childbearing is inevitable and the efforts to reach young women with family planning messages and services focuses on their after the first birth. However, there are indications that young couples may be receptive to delaying a first birth and that may permit some additional education for the young woman and an opportunity for the couple to settle into married life before settling into parenthood. And so i would encourage us to think about how to reach adolescents before they reach the age of marriage (and that depends on the setting) and during the early stages of married life.

I would encourage you to look at the Population Council work in Egypt. In the Ishraq program girls were provided with girl-only spaces and a mentor, literacy and numeracy education, health information and skills as well as an opportunity for sports. These comprehensive programs are an ideal way to include teaching about nutrition and sanitation.
http://www.popcouncil.org/projects/40_IshraqSafeSpacesGirls.asp
this innovative program is expanding in Upper Egypt and is part of a broader program of work called "safe spaces"which seeks to build assets of adolescent girls.

Greetings Elaine!
Early marriage is frequently before the legal age at marriage and may be not just arranged,but forced. In recent work in six states in India we found that 19% of the girls were married by age 15 and 49% by age 18, which is the legal age for girls to marry. Most marriages were arranged and in 2/3 of the cases the girls met their husbands on their wedding day. These certainly do not sound like the circumstances to foster self-sufficiency! And, as you know, early marriage is the death knell to continued education. But you are correct that we need to think about these together. And so, i would suggest that we look at programs, such as Annabel Erulker's work in Ethiopia http://www.popcouncil.org/projects/100_BerhaneHewanEthiopia.as. Here we see a program that has been successful in offsetting early marriage. This is difficult work and requires a community approach. Since so many girls in this setting do marriage at very young ages, there is also a part of the program to assist young married girls. When we seek to help families and communities delay the marriages of their young adolescent girls we do need to do it in the context of other alternatives for them, such as schooling.

You raise an interesting question. There surely is not one path to feelings of self worth and self-sufficiency. However, highly gendered roles can limit the options that individuals see for themselves. Also, people tend to prepare for the future that they see for themselves. However, it is surprising that with relatively modest interventions to help girls build some personal assets (literacy, health behaviors, financial capabilities) you do start to see girls with more far reaching plans for their futures. There seems to be considerable power in providing a mentor and an opportunity to discuss and strategize about the future that can be quite beneficial, even in settings where girls begin in highly gendered settings. It is too early to say what the long term benefits of such programming will be, but i certainly would not give up hope on such an approach. It is useful to remember that in such settings the issue is not just the girl's view of her future, but the views held by her parents and the males and the community at large that affects how girls develop a sense of self worth.

I think we all can agree that the challenges faced by adolescent girls rest on complex social and cultural bases. It sometimes seems daunting to think that improving the lives of girls might involve challenging such broad issues. However, i believe that programs to advance girls' wellbeing can but built with an understanding of such factors and also an appreciation of the skills and assets that girls need now. You raise a question about what existing services are actually doing. One strategy that the Council researchers have found useful is to assess who is currently receiving services. Many programs that are focusing on "youth" may really be reaching older adolescents, males rather than females or those who are actually less disadvantaged. So, i would suggest that a first step is try to harness interest in youth to determine whether it is reaching those most in need.

At the Population Council, Shireen Jejeebhoy, has led a team of researchers to document adolescent experiences in six states in India. These surveys do present a rather daunting picture for adolescent girls. Many are married at very young ages and 25% have never been to school. While education is an important step for improving girls' life chances, it is not the only investment that is needed. We need to continue to understand the dynamics of family life that so often curtail options for girls. And, while it is important to develop and test interventions, it is also important to shine a light of data onto problems. By presenting unbiased data we can help policymakers and those responsible for programs to begin to rethink where and how investments are being made.
http://www.popcouncil.org/projects/101_YouthInIndiaNeedsStudy.asp
I think you will find this study very interesting. We are pleased by the extent of interest in the data that can help inform policies and programs.

I strong endorse your view of the importance of investing in adolescents, especially in adolescent girls since they are often highly disadvantaged. One of the challenges is to make the case that investing in early adolescence has health and economic and social benefits. Many investment strategies look for fairly immediate payoff...will family planning be adopted? will microloans be repaid? but, the bigger challenge is to invest in adolescents years before those are relevant questions to be asking. We need to ask whether adolescent girls are in school and, if not, how can the schools be improved and how can alternatives be provided to support girls education. It may be years before that investment "pays off", but we need to invest early and then the girls, their families and society can reap benefits for decades to come. I would hope to see greater attention in development plans to the needs of adolescents, and attention that recognized the importance of intermediate outcomes, such as schooling and delayed marriage.

You raise an important issue since the use of family planning does involve both the man and the woman. I strongly endorse the concept of greater male involvement, but that involvement can take many forms. Men can take responsibility for their own actions through condom use and men can support their partners' use of contraceptives. There can be direct and indirect involvement and each helps to reduce the barriers women may face in seeking to delay, space or limit their pregnancies and protect their health.

The validity of self-reported sexual behavior is also an interesting question. many, many studies find that men report more partners than do women. At the Population Council we are testing different ways to ask about sexual behavior (through audio-computer assisted interviewing). We probably need to consider that men and women may have different ideas of what constitutes a "partner". If a woman has been coerced into having sex she may be less likely to report that experience. We are not sure; but it is probably too simplistic to say that men over-report and women under-report.

you have focused on the often deep social and cultural roots to the challenges we see facing women today. Culture is a setting for behaviors and clearly we need to understand and respect it, even when we would work to see changes in the options and opportunities for women. Your suggestion is -- as i understand it -- to involve women at the local level in the activities to broaden the assets and opportunities available for women. I do agree, and that is exactly what we try to do in reaching adolescents. For example, when we establish programs for adolescent girls we seek mentors from the community -- women who can serve as role models as well as teachers. Within the programs we look for the girls who might able to become the next generation of mentors. This helps to ground the program in the community.

In your question you point to the fact that for some adolescents they see that their friends who are better off economically have greater opportunities. That observation leads to the economic underpinnings of many of the challenges we see for adolescent girls. Even when school is "free" there may be costs of uniforms, books, etc. and by going to school the family may lose unpaid labor from the adolescent. there are innovative cash transfer programs that are seeking to offset that economic cost of schooling. Being able to go to school is critically important for adolescents. This is a time for them to build up skills they will need in adulthood. Schools need to be of decent quality, accessible, and safe. When adolescents have the opportunity and support to complete school they and their families and society will benefit.

I am very pleased that you asked about higher education. There is a great deal of attention paid to getting girls into and through primary school that sometimes we forget the importance of higher education. Now, of course, in countries where primary education is not universal, that needs to be addressed. However, when we ask questions about how a country will participate in the global economy or how women can help to take on leadership positions, we need to also address higher education. At lower grades we have found that "catch up" programs are valuable. There will be girls who are bright and who want to continue with education, but who have dropped out -- sometimes for family reasons and sometimes because school was not accessible or safe or of high quality. I would suggest that we pay more attention to a whole array of "catch up" programs at different levels to help avoid losing out on the talent and skills of citizens who need additional education or training.

In the programs that we have conducted in different parts of the world we find that life skills, negotiation skills and communication skills are very important for adolescent girls. Thank you for asking about this. In these programs there may be a literacy component, numeracy, financial capabilities, health and also life skills or leadership components. Also, these programs help to support girls in forming and keeping active social networks. Many poor adolescent girls in cities and rural areas lack strong social networks. Interestingly, in our Guatemala program i have heard one of the mothers say that it is easier to talk with her daughter now that she has been in the program because the daughter has learned how to speak up for herself. These are fundamental skills and they can be taught.

Your question about male involvement is an interesting one as well. While the girls are typically more disadvantaged in terms of education and mobility and life options, the boys in those communities will eventually be their husbands and partners. We are exploring how best to involve them in learning some of the fundamental skills that couples need to manage their adult lives together. our experience in Ethiopia tells us that programs can help to support men in thinking about their behaviors and how that affects their wives.

One aspect of this issue is the ability of young people to develop critical thinking skills and to be able to apply them to messages or ideas about gender. Building these critical thinking skills specifically about gender could help young people analyze the messages that they are being give.

Sometimes it may seem that education is the ultimate goal, but of course it is that girls will have the opportunity to make use of the education they receive. That is a reminder of how complex these issues are and that there are no "magic bullet" solutions. As we seek to improve adolescents assets we need to also look to the social context and how girls can make use of those assets. What are some small steps to take? In some of our programs we specifically look for the girls in the programs to become leaders of a next wave of programming. In other cases programs seek to include livelihood components. I believe we must be innovative in thinking about what kinds of livelihoods activities will help girls really advance economically and also help advance their communities.

Programs I am familiar with to support girls also involve working with the community to gain their support. This is the case in the work we have done in Egypt and other locations. In some cases the process of building that support can be a forum for the community to see how it is not only the girls who benefit. If the girls gain skills they can be better mothers, they may be better able to contribute to their household and to the community. Just because communities have not spontaneously provided support to their girls does not mean that they would never do so...they may need a partner who can help them envision specific, constructive and safe programming for their daughters.

In the Population Council we have developed an array of programs that we generally refer to as "safe spaces" programs. These programs differ somewhat because they are in different kinds of settings. Some are in rural areas, others in urban slums. Some reach out to domestic workers, others to girls in school. In each case we seek to identify vulnerable groups and work with communities and local organizations. the key features to these programs are a safe physical space where girls can develop their own social networks and work with a mentor. The content tends to focus on literacy, math skills and financial capabilities education, health behaviors and interpersonal skills. The latter may include negotiation skills or ways to think about future plans and implementing personal plans. In some cases we work to help the girls get identity cards, which may be an important concrete indicator of their place in their community. These are the general features of programs that we have developed to support adolescent girls. More can be found on our website www.popcouncil.org

You have presented some of the most difficult circumstances faced by young girls! As we seek to build an evidence base to help advance the lives of young people there are several strategies. One is to generate clear data that demonstrates the extent of a problem, and the ways people are affected. In some ways a unifying characteristic of problems faced by young girls is that they seem invisible...invisible to their communities and sometimes even in their families. For example, in India the legal age at marriage is 18. However, we have just finished surveys in six states and find that 19% of the young women married by age 15 and 49% by age 18. These data can be valuable in encouraging greater attention to the problems of child marriage. The case of dowry highlights the economic aspects of issues that affect adolescent girls.

It is different reaching out to young people in urban or rural settings, that is certainly true! In rural areas the community structure may be quite straightforward and that is a help. On the other hand, there may be greater challenges in finding locations to meet. girls might have to travel some distance to get to a program location. A program for girls might have little trouble attracting girls if there are few other competing activities whereas in an urban area there may be more distractions or competition for the girls' time. Urban areas have the advantages of a denser population so that it may be easier to find a critical mass for a program. However, many urban areas are populated by people coming from different regions. There may be language difficulties and no clear sense of who speaks for the community (to condone the initiation of a program). The important thing is to assess the level of need and be careful in the development of programs to understand the challenges that exist in either setting.

I am glad to hear about your experiences regarding the value of social networks. most of us have dense social networks and people we can call upon for help, advice, information, etc. One of the risks faced by adolescent girls is their often limited social networks. If one doesn't have someone to turn to when in need it makes girls even more vulnerable and so supporting girls and social networks is important.
In remote areas there are real challenges. I hope we can experiment with some innovative ways to reach those girls. if there is network coverage (which there may not be in remote areas)is it possible to bring girls together once a week and then help them use cell phones to sustain social networks and reduce their isolation? Cell phones are being used for health education, they could be a source of information about other opportunities as well.

I would support your observation about the value of good quality education. While much of the world is focused on enrollment and graduation rates it is also important to be assessing quality of education as well.

There are disparities in educational systems and a great deal more to know about the quality of education in many settings. While there are new metrics (the millennium development goals) for enrollment we need to take a more nuanced look at the educational experience. some surveys not only ask about the level of schooling completed, but also include a brief literacy test. This can help identify areas of countries where students are not getting the skills that we might expect they are receiving. In some areas the nature of teaching emphasizes rote learning even though we find that a more interactive style may communicate better with students and engage them better in the process. I would encourage that we look at disparities in education but also look at the level of resources and the quality of education. Many countries are trying very hard to increase school enrollments and that is a very good thing. The next questions to ask are whether the resources are keeping up with the increased demand and whether there is support for the growing need for teachers. I have been impressed with the intense desire to learn among youth in developing countries.

thank you for adding to the discussion! While i believe we must be careful to understand and acknowledge current cultural patterns -- for example a first birth as soon as possible after marriage -- it does not mean that those patterns are immutable. It may be possible to work with a multi-pronged approach to understand what is driving that pattern and to offer options. Delaying a first birth, especially among those where the bride is very young, can make a lifelong contribution to her health and the health of her children. These are not simple issues and there are usually many dimensions. Sometimes pointing out more dimensions can be very beneficial. thank you for adding to this discussion.

Working with many partners, the Population Council has developed a toolkit called "It's All One Curriculum" that is a great guide for developing a curriculum for gender, health, sexuality education. This is intended to be used by teachers who would be developing materials to use with young people, but it has so many instructional guides and materials that it should be easy to adapt to different settings. if you go to our website: www.popcouncil.org you will be able to find links to it.

I would be more inclined to think that this is an opportunity to advance womens' empowerment. In an economy that has taken such a terrible hit, it may be good to articulate the need to take advantage of the skills of ALL of the citizens, and that it will take everyone working to rebuild the economy. sometimes a crisis can help shake up thinking and open new opportunities. One of my concerns about livelihood projects for women is a tendency to focus on traditional "womens' work". It would be great to see this create more opportunities for women to be involved in jobs that support getting the power grid up a fully functioning, rebuilding the infrastructure of the community, as well as traditional occupations.

you are very welcome! i appreciate your interest in this important topic. the website will provide a lot of follow up information, thank you for joining the conversation...