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Curriculum-based Programming, Group Meetings, and Facilitated Community Conversations on Gender Norms - 15.8 Percentage Point Knowledge Improvement

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Strategy researched

Curriculum-based programming for adolescent girls and boys, group meetings for parents, and facilitated community conversations on gender norms with the objective to address gender norms around menstruation and improve menstrual health literacy

Impact achieved [all hypperlinked]

Adolescent girls in Act With Her-Ethiopia (AWH-E) communities were significantly more likely to report talking to their mothers about menstruation (22 percentage points over a base of 14.5%, p < 0.001). This impact is large - corresponding to a 151% increase. Adolescent girls in AWH-E communities are 15.8 percentage points (or 27%, the mean in the control group is 58.4%) more likely to be able to answer a question about menstruation frequency correctly compared to those in control communities. Boys in the treatment group were 11.6 percentage points (20.6%) more likely to know that menarche means a girl can get pregnant.

 

Country of study

Ethiopia

Research methodology

Cluster RCT

Journal

Frontiers in Global Women's Health; 2022

Journal paper title and link

Improving Menstrual Health Literacy Through Life-Skills Programming in Rural Ethiopia

Excerpt from Abstract

"...quantitative findings highlight large and statistically significant improvements on norms around menstruation, knowledge about menstruation and biological function, and knowledge and behavior related to menstrual hygiene management, but with important differences by location and gender."

Summary at this link

 

Why the focus on direct impact data?

A common challenge from policy makers, funders, community members, people directly experiencing development issues, and governments is: Demonstrate your Impact. Prove that what you are doing works. The high quality, highly credible data presented on the cards below is designed to help you answer that question for your social change, behaviour change, community engagement, communication and media for development, strategy formulation, policy engagement and funding initiatives. At this link filter the research data to your specific interests and priorities

Why a playing cards design?

There is a physical pack of cards with this data (to get a copy please request through the comment form for any card). The card approach allows for easy identification and selection of relevant direct impact data in any context. For example if talking with a donor and you need to identify proof of impact say "take a look at the 7 of Hearts". Quick access can be provided to high-quality data for many areas of your work – funding, planning, policy, advocacy, community dialogue, training, partner engagement, and more. A card deck is also engaging, easy to use and share, a conversation starter, and a resource - and they are fun and different. So we kept that design for the online images as it can serve similar purposes. 

What are the criteria for inclusion?

The impact data presented meets the following high standard for inclusion criteria:

  • Positive change or trend in a priority development issue;
  • Social change or behaviour change strategy or process;
  • Randomized Control Trial or Systematic Review methodology;
  • High quality peer review journal published;
  • Numeric impact data point
  • Published since 2010.