Abdiboru

Abdiboru aims to address structural determinants (agency, government institutions, and social norms) that act as barriers to empowerment in order to improve health, education, and economic outcomes for adolescent girls. While key program elements have been implemented previously in Ethiopia to great effect, this program is highly innovative because it follows a cohort of 10-14-year-old girls over 3 years, combines cross cutting proven approaches, and it tests the relative and combined effects of a focus on girls’ agency and control, government responsiveness, and changes in social norms for girls’ empowerment. Abdiboru is being implemented in four districts of the West Hararghe zone of the Oromia region, covering a population of 730,000. The intervention arms are as follows: 1) control/delayed intervention (in year 5); 2) government-level responsiveness and increased life skills of in-school adolescent girls; and 3) combined arm which includes improved government level responsiveness, girls’ agency, and addressing community social norms.