Evidence to Policy Note 1 SUSTAINABLE IMPACT ON GIRLS’ LIVES SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS FOR ADOLESCENT GIRLS GENDER A relatively small investment in research and evidence can yield lasting impacts on INNOVATION LAB young women’s employment and can inform large-scale policies and programs to improve the lives of girls and their communities. The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) conducts impact CHALLENGE evaluations of development We often hear about a looming youth employment crisis in low-income countries. Although interventions in Sub-Saharan governments are spending more than ever before on youth employment programs, these Africa, seeking to generate programs rarely target young women explicitly, even though they have lower employment rates evidence on how to close than young men and face additional socio-cultural barriers. the gender gap in earnings, productivity, assets and Globally adolescent girls are marginalized in large numbers, and their vulnerabilities and agency. The GIL team is constraints are particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa. Young women tend to have less currently working on over education, so they’re less qualified for jobs. They do not have as much time available for paid 50 impact evaluations in 21 work because of their domestic duties and they often do not pursue jobs in high-paying fields countries with the aim of because they are not considered suitable for women. There’s also a strong family formation building an evidence base dimension to young women’s employment decisions that doesn’t affect young men in the with lessons for the region. same way. The impact objective of GIL is WHAT WORKS? increasing take-up of effective policies by governments, ENABLING GIRLS TO DEVELOP STRONG LIFE SKILLS IS KEY TO BUILDING development organizations THEIR CAPACITY TO DEAL EFFECTIVELY WITH EVERYDAY LIFE. and the private sector in order The Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents (ELA) program has been implemented to address the underlying in several countries by development organization, BRAC. It centers on adolescent girls’ causes of gender inequality clubs, which offer life skills training and livelihood training to groups of girls led by a mentor. in Africa, particularly in terms The Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) evaluated this program in a randomized controlled of women’s economic and trial in Uganda where the program reached 3,000 girls ages 14 to 20 (Bandiera et al. 2015). social empowerment. The lab The evaluation found that, relative to adolescents in control communities, after two years aims to do this by producing this program raised the likelihood that girls were engaging in income-generating activities and delivering a new body of 72 percent and raised their monthly consumption expenditures 38 percent. Teen pregnancy evidence and developing a fell 26 percent, and early marriage and cohabitation fell 58 percent. The share of girls compelling narrative, geared experiencing sex against their will in the previous year dropped from 14 percent to almost towards policymakers, on what half that level, and preferred ages of marriage and childbearing both rose. At a cost of under works and what does not work US$100 per girl per year, the program not only worked but also was cost effective. in promoting gender equality. For more information visit us at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab In contrast to community-based life skills programs, center-based technical vocational education and training (TVET) programs focus explicitly on developing employment-related skills. The Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (EPAG) program in Liberia run by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection reached 4,000 young women with a 12-month program including 6 months of classroom life and business skills training and 6 months of follow-up support. A randomized impact evaluation led by GIL found that employment increased 47 percent and earnings increased 80 percent (32 USD/week) among participants relative to nonparticipants. The impacts were particularly strong for young women enrolled in the business skills track, rather than the vocational skills track. However, the evaluation found mixed impacts on fertility, with a decrease in the probability of having a child but a corresponding increase in pregnancies, leading evaluators to conclude that participants in the treatment group had delayed pregnancies during the program period, with no net impact on fertility (Adoho et al. 2014). The results showed that this 12-month intervention put girls on a Nakand Maimunah, 19, who mentors higher trajectory and girls stayed on that higher trajectory even after the program ended. other girls at the club, said she believes young women have more power than The strongest evidence on skills development programs for adolescent girls supports “ they realize. holistic community-based programs that combine life and livelihoods skills training and other financial and social assets in girl-only or girl-friendly settings. Here, in Buganda [a subnational kingdom within Uganda], they usually minimize girls. They think SUSTAINABLE IMPACT ON GIRLS LIVES girls cannot do some jobs. They think & LARGE SCALE POLICY CHANGE the office is only for men. … Why should jobs be for the men only? We These pilots and evaluations delivered lasting improvements in the lives of young women and all have equal rights and what a provided evidence on what works for skills development programs for adolescent girls that have man can do, I can also do it. influenced much larger-scale investments. • The Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) project (US$67 million, 6 countries, 300,000 girls and women) will establish safe space clubs to deliver services to adolescent girls, including life skills and sexual and reproductive health training and mentorship. Building on the evidence base from Uganda and Liberia, the safe space clubs will be offered in combination with other types of innovative support, such as vocational training and entrepreneurship grants. Impact evaluations of the safe space model will be conducted in all six countries. • The Republic of Congo Youth Employment project (US$10 million, 8,000 youth) offers a choice of a job track or entrepreneurship track, with more spaces in the entrepreneurship track, based on the superior performance of EPAG’s “business skills” track. The project also offers additional financial support to young mothers to facilitate their access to the program, based on EPAG’s experience of offering child care during training. • The Zambia Girls’ Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL) project’s (US$36 million, 75,000 women) design was influenced by existing evidence on women’s and girls’ empowerment and skills training programs, including GIL’s work in Liberia, Uganda, and other counties. The intervention includes a training that combines life and business skills, a productive cash grant, group mentorship, and savings clubs. • The India Tejaswini Socioeconomic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls & Young Women project ($US68 million, 400,000 youth) offers a comprehensive package of activities for girls aged 14 to 24, including community-based social support, life skills FOR MORE INFORMATION, education, business skills and vocational training. The design builds on lessons from the PLEASE CONTACT GIL-led impact evaluations of adolescent girls’ projects in Liberia and Uganda. Markus Goldstein These are all large scale government programs that will reach tens of thousands of young mgoldstein@worldbank.org people in the next five years. A relatively small initiative that integrates research and innovative programming can pay off not only in terms of direct impacts on beneficiaries but also in terms Rachel Coleman of better policies aimed at increasing employment for youth that can be replicated across rcoleman1@worldbank.org projects and countries. 1818 H. St NW This work has also been funded in part by The Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), a World Bank Group multi- Washington, DC 20433 USA donor trust fund expanding evidence, knowledge and data needed to identify and address key gaps between men and women to deliver better development solutions that boost prosperity and increase opportunity for all. The UFGE has received generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. Version one released May 2017.