*INTER-PERSONAL ROUTES – Page 2

Effectiveness of a community based intervention to delay early marriage, early pregnancy and improve school retention among adolescents in India (BMC Public Health 2018 18:732)

February 12, 2019

Child marriage is being increasingly recognized globally as a fundamental violation of human rights. Child marriages occur globally in varying degrees across countries and regions. South Asia alone accounted for almost half of the total number of child marriages that have occurred globally. Early marriage can lead to serious ramifications such as school drop-out, early pregnancy, maternal morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a multi-pronged community-based intervention and the role of access to mass media on early marriage, early pregnancy and school retention among young people in two states of India.

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My Safety, My Wellbeing: Equipping adolescent girls with key knowledge and skills to help them to mitigate, prevent and respond to gender based violence (IRC, 2016)

February 11, 2019

This curriculum was developed by the IRC and the Women’s Protection and Empowerment programme to equip adolescent girls with key knowledge and skills to help them to reduce, prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV). It is designed to be used in the classroom.

The curriculum is structured to have two separate age groups (11-13 and 14-18) enrolled in 24 two-hour sessions over the course of 12 weeks. Skills-building sessions address topics such as communication, decision making, confidence and problem solving, each with a specific focus on GBV, early marriage, reproductive health, hygiene, managing stress, relationships with parents, and having healthy relationships.

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Thematic Review: Community Based Awareness, Attitudes and Behaviour (Girls’ Education Challenge, 2018)

February 11, 2019

This paper is one of a series of thematic reviews produced by the Fund Manager of the Girls’ Education Challenge, an alliance led by PwC, working with organisations including FHI 360, Nathan Associates and Social Development Direct.

The Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) was set up to support improved attendance and learning for up to one million marginalised girls and has provided the opportunity to develop evidence on what works in girls’ education. Overall across a number of GEC projects, evidence was found of communities’ motivation, investment and commitment to educate their children, for example donating land, raising funds for bursaries and increasing their workload to pay for school fees. In general, GEC projects have not found communities are opposed to the principle of girls’ education, but that their support interacts with other norms that can make it harder for girls to attend school and learn. In particular, there is a perceived (or actual) low return for the family as the investment is sometimes considered to be lost when girls get married.

There are several key considerations for practitioners and policy makers in light of the literature and GEC findings; projects implementing community interventions should target the most prevalent and relevant attitudes and behaviours rather than generic ones, and projects should be prepared to adapt activities where required, recognising that norms are affected by changes in context and power dynamics.

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Large-Scale Social and Behavior Change Communication Interventions Have Sustained Impacts on Infant and Young Child Feeding Knowledge and Practices – Results of a 2-Year Follow-Up Study in Bangladesh (The Journal of Nutrition, 148:10, 2018)

February 4, 2019

Sustained improvements in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) require continued implementation of effective interventions. From 2010–2014, Alive & Thrive (A&T) provided intensive interpersonal counseling (IPC), community mobilization (CM), and mass media (MM) in Bangladesh, demonstrating impact on IYCF practices. Since 2014, implementation has been continued and scaled up by national partners with support from other donors and with modifications such as added focus on maternal nutrition and reduced program intensity.

The authors assessed changes in intervention exposure and IYCF knowledge and practices in the intensive (IPC + CM + MM) compared with nonintensive areas (standard nutrition counseling + less intensive CM and MM) 2 y after termination of initial external donor support.

Conclusions: Continued IPC exposure and sustained impacts on IYCF knowledge and practices in intensive areas indicated lasting benefits from A&T’s interventions as they underwent major scale-up with reduced intensity.

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Using the Community Conversation Approach to Tackle Gender Inequalities (Save the Children learning brief, 2017)

October 11, 2018

Adolescent girls in Kenya face a number of risks and vulnerabilities that can affect their health, education status, and general well-being. The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya (AGI-K) is currently delivering multi-sectoral interventions, targeting violence prevention, education, health, and wealth creation to adolescent girls aged 11 to 15 in two marginalized areas of Kenya.

This learning brief is one of three, prepared during the implementation phase of the project, focusing on key areas of best practices and lessons learn. These briefs aim to share learning with specialists and civil society networks, and help inform future design and management of adolescent girls’ programmes in hard-to-reach, marginalized communities.

Community conversations are a socially transformative approach that galvanizes communities to address the underlying causes of underdevelopment and vulnerability. The approach provides a platform where a cross section of the community members including local administrators, religious leaders, parents, teachers, community health workers, young men and women, converge and reflect on the challenges faced by the girls. They further identify steps to take to resolve these challenges and draw action plans that will eventually lead to a change in attitude, values, beliefs and practices that impede adolescent girls from realizing their full potential or well-being.

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