Adolescent Girls Initiative - Kenya

  • R Research Project/Report/Study

I Inactive

Key Information

The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya (AGI-K) is testing layered packages of interventions that reflect the complex challenges and underlying cultural barriers that adolescent girls in Kenya face. AGI-K is a randomized controlled trial implemented in two sites – in urban Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi, and in rural Wajir, a remote, underdeveloped area in Kenya along the Northeast border with Somalia. AGI-K has reached more than 6,000 girls ages 11-15 over two years. AGI-K is testing the following four layered packages: 1) Violence Prevention, which includes community dialogues on the prevalence and persistence of violence against girls, coupled with funded community projects to address these challenges. 2) Violence Prevention + Education, which also includes a cash transfer conditional on school enrollment at the start of each term and regular attendance throughout the term. 3) Violence Prevention + Education + Health, in which girls meet in safe space groups once a week with a female mentor who delivers a health, life skills, and nutrition curriculum. 4) Violence Prevention + Education + Health + Wealth Creation, in which girls also participate in additional financial education sessions integrated into the “safe space” curricula and open savings accounts or home banks. The intervention ran for two years, from mid-2105 to mid-2017. A two-year follow up round of data was collected in mid-2019 and the final results will be out in the first quarter of 2020.


Lead Implementing Organization(s)

Location(s)

Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya

Government Affiliation

Non-governmental program

Years

2013 - 2021

Ministry Affiliation

Unknown

COVID-19 Response

Unknown

Geographic Scope

National

Areas of Work Back to Top

Education areas

Attainment

  • Primary completion
  • Primary enrollment
  • Primary to secondary transition

Other skills

  • Financial literacy
  • Life skills/sexuality education
  • Rights/empowerment education

Skills

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy

Cross-cutting areas

  • Adolescent pregnancy/childbearing
  • Community sensitization
  • Early/child marriage
  • Economic/livelihoods (including savings/financial inclusion, etc.)
  • Empowerment
  • Female genital mutilation/cutting
  • Gender equality
  • HIV and STIs
  • Menstrual hygiene management
  • Mentorship
  • Nutrition
  • Other aspects of sexual and reproductive health
  • Sexual harassment & coercion
  • Social and gender norms and beliefs
  • Violence (at home, in relationships)
  • WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene)

Program participants

Target Audience(s)

Girls (both in school and out of school), Other, Youth

Age

11 - 15

School Enrolment Status

Some in school

School Level

  • Lower primary
  • Upper primary
  • Lower secondary
  • Upper secondary

Other populations reached

Not applicable or unknown

Participants include

  • Adolescent mothers (pregnant or parenting)
  • Nomadic groups
  • Other

Program Approaches Back to Top

Life skills education

  • Gender, rights and power
  • Sexual and reproductive health (including puberty education)

Reducing economic barriers

  • Conditional cash transfers (including non-cash goods) to individuals/households
  • Financial literacy training
  • Reducing/eliminating school fees

Women's empowerment programs

  • Empowerment training
  • Leadership training

Program Goals Back to Top

Education goals

  • Improved academic skills (literacy and numeracy)
  • Increased enrolment in primary school
  • Increased grade attainment
  • Increased primary school completion
  • Increased progression to secondary school
  • Increased years of schooling
  • Reduced absenteeism

Cross-cutting goals

  • Reduced adolescent pregnancy/childbearing
  • Reduced child marriage

Additional Information Back to Top

Primary Contact

Karen Austrian
Population Council
Senior Associate
kaustrian@popcouncil.org