TESFA+

TESFA+ (which means 'hope' in Amharic) aims to capitalize on seven years of research and program experience from TESFA to unlock the power and futures of adolescent girls at scale. Over the years we have made tremendous strides to unlock the power and potential of married adolescent girls in Ethiopia. Our new challenge is to innovate on our TESFA experience in Ethiopia to catalyze and scale the impact of this successful model in order to improve the lives of married adolescent girls and their communities in Ethiopia and beyond. To achieve this goal, we are applying a systematic process to investigate, develop and test a more impactful and scalable version of the TESFA model – a TESFA+ model. Business as usual – more TESFA groups in more places – will not get us to scale fast enough. Rather, to improve girls’ lives across Ethiopia and beyond, we need to identify and test catalytic levers for scaling and amplifying the impact of the TESFA model. Borrowing from design thinking and scaling frameworks, we are employing a systematic and phased approach to exploring, creating and testing a new TESFA+ model. During the TESFA+ design phase in 2019, we identified components from the original model to amplify as well as new prototypes (‘innovations’ or ‘enhancements’) that will powerfully contribute to scaling the model. In holding to design-thinking principles, we carried out the design process in partnership with original TESFA participants, their communities and government stakeholders to ensure the new TESFA model works for them and takes their unique insights, needs and priorities into account, laying the foundation for the new model’s success.