A presentation during the Oromia Regional Workshop by Sarah Baird and Nicola Jones, May 2021

1. May 2021
Regional findings from Oromia
Primary school students in Oromia, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019
Act With Her Ethiopia:

2. Presentation outline
1
• Introduction: GAGE, Act with Her, Oromia
2
• Findings
3
• Questions and next steps

3. Group of children in Afar, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019
Introduction
Young boys with his mother, Oromia, Ethiopia© Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019

4. GAGE overview

5. Adolescent girl in Oromia © Nathalie Bertrams GAGE 2019
Act with Her – Intervention arms

6. Desired outcomes of AWH for girls
We hope to see improvements in:
 Education
 Bodily integrity
 Physical health, nutrition and SRH
 Psychosocial wellbeing
 Voice and agency
 Economic empowerment
 Cross-cutting: attitudes,
knowledge, support systems

7. Other desired AWH outcomes
Desired outcomes for adolescent boys:
 Reduced peer violence (perpetration and
victimization)
 Improved psychosocial wellbeing
 Cross-cutting: attitudes, knowledge, support systems
Desired outcomes for female caregivers:
 Improved aspirations for adolescents
 Improved support for adolescent
education, nutrition, psychosocial
wellbeing
 Improved attitudes

8. Oromia: research sample
Quantitative sample:
 79 kebeles
 1,190 girls
 878 boys
Qualitative sample:
 112 adolescents
 87 parents
 13 mentors/supervisors
 33 government officials
Young girl with her mother, Oromia, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams
GAGE 2019

9. Oromia: context snapshot
Education statistics:
• Net enrolment in grades 5-8 is 56% for girls
and 64% for boys (MoE, 2020)
• Net enrolment in grades 9-10 is 19.6% for girls
and 21.7% for boys (ibid.)
• Gender Parity at secondary level is .76—
compared to .87 nationally
• Increased access to markets at midline had
resulted in an explosion of cash (khat)
farming—with resultant negative impacts
on schooling.
• Under-investment in zone is clear in quality
of services and infrastructure.
Gender statistics:
• Median age of marriage for women in Oromia is 17.4, with little change over 15 years (2016 DHS)
• Many child marriages are initiated by adolescent girls (and their young adult partners)
• Prevalence of FGM for women over 15 is 76%--compared to 65% nationally
• Girls are cut any time from birth until marriage, usually flesh removed
• Teenage motherhood: 17% of girls 15-19 have begun childbearing, compared to 12.5% nationally
• Current use of contraception among women 15+ is 28.6%--compared to 36% nationally

10. Oromia: GAGE baseline snapshot
Overall
HH size 6.986
HH head literate 0.263
HH currently receives PSNP benefits 0.362
Girls Boys
Age 10.835 10.995
Enrolled in school during most recent
session
0.710 0.885
Reported having control over money in
past 12 months
0.155 0.220
Has savings 0.004 0.011
Has not experienced or witnessed HH
violence in last 12 months
0.282 0.238

11. Midline findings
Adolescent girl in Oromia, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019

12. Positive effects on girls’ knowledge about some aspects of
puberty and reproductive health
‘We visited a police station as part of
the education’. (11-year-old girl)
‘Thanks to the education, we don’t feel
shame about it now’. (12-year-old girl)
Girls in Her Space communities are 44% more
likely to know where to get help for violence.

13. Positive effects on boys’ knowledge about puberty
Boys are learning about puberty—including
behavioural changes.
‘Individuals at puberty stage may become
impulse-driven and may drop out from school
even because of the new behaviour they
develop. Adolescents at this stage turn wild,
disobedient and they begin to stay out at night.
Thus, they need to remain calm and in school
[rather] than driven by impulse. We learnt that
we should protect ourselves from misbehaviour
at this stage of development.’ (13-year-
old boy)
Adolescent boy in Oromia © Nathalie
Bertrams GAGE 2019

14. No effect on knowledge about child marriage
 No quantitative difference in the age at
which girls and boys believe girls should
marry.
‘The learners listen to the
education when they attend it.
They forget it when they go out
of the education session. They
put it aside when they meet
male adolescents.’
(13-year-old boy)
‘We allow it [marriage] only after she
starts to grow breasts.’ (religious leader)
 Qualitative suggests:
 Due to adolescent-initiated (often resulting from participation in shegoye) not
parentally arranged child marriages messaging falls flat
 Due to little community buy-in on need to delay
 Also no effect on negotiation skills!

15. Mixed effects on adolescents’ knowledge about reproduction
Adolescent girls and boys have many facts wrong.
‘We have become aware that we should take
care of our reproductive organs, and not swim
in the same places where males swim when
we have our periods.’ (12-year-old girl)
‘[We have learnt] not to hang out with males
on the days one is seeing her period... They
told us that the bleeding increases if we
don’t stop doing that. We haven’t asked
them for more explanation on this.’ (14-
year-old girl)
‘If a girl wears pants of a male person
and if there is sperm on [those] pants
[then] that girl can become pregnant’.
(11-year-old girl)
‘The educators teach that adolescents
shouldn’t begin to have sexual
intercourse before getting married... He
taught us that our life span will decrease
otherwise.’
(13-year-old boy)

16. No or little effect on girls’ education
 No quantitative impacts on girls’ enrolment.
 No quantitative impacts on girls’ time use.
‘I used to go to the river, collect
firewood and go to the mill house…
the workload has decreased now. I
have some time to study.’
( 13-year-old girl)
‘They educated us that we will be able to become a doctor, health extension worker,
veterinarian, teacher and others... There has been a belief that females cannot be
successful in education. They [the AWH-E facilitators] educated us that this belief is
erroneous and educated us to study hard to attain achievements.’ (12-year-old girl)
Some qualitative evidence of :
 Improved interest in girls’ education—
for parents, girls and boys
 More time allocated for girls for study.

17. Positive effects on adolescent-parent communication
‘I tell my father in the farm fields for he stays
there most of the time. I also share it with my
mother. They feel very happy when I give them
the explanation. I share with them what I learn
in the Act With Her programme and they feel
excited.’ (12-year-old girl)
Our survey found girls in AWH communities are
37% more likely to be comfortable talking to their
parents and other elders.
‘We are happy and children are also
happy with that. When they attend, they
tell us a lot and we feel a lot.’ (mother)
Adolescent girl with her mother and sister ©
Nathalie Bertrams GAGE 2019

18. But limited effects on parenting styles
 Qualitative work found an emphasis on adolescent obedience—
rather than two-way communication.
‘Our mind is preoccupied with our household roles and responsibilities. We give it just slight
attention as a result. We may not have somebody to look after livestock, for example. To
speak frankly, my attention is always with my household’s conditions, not on the education
provided in the sessions. My mind hasn’t been open enough for the education for this
reason despite the efforts of the educators.’ (mother)
 Our survey found NO impacts on female caregivers—and interviews
found limited engagement with content.
‘The educator has also advised us to live with our family with love….To refrain
from behaving and acting in the manner that our parents proscribe and to get
the permission of our parents before doing something.’ (13-year-old girl)

19. Positive effects on peer relationships
‘[In the past] I would share the secret of a friend
of mine with others. Now, however, I don’t do so. I
manage to keep the secret of each of my friends
only with me.’ (13-year-old girl)
‘I used to hang out with my peers arbitrarily.
Now, I have friends who are in school along
me. We study together in the evening. We
depart after studying together. We meet
again in the morning and go to
school…Having good friends help to have
such productive life.’ (12-year-old boy)
Young girl in East Hararghe, Ethiopia © Nathalie
Bertrams / GAGE 2019

20. No and negative effects on girls’ gender attitudes
No change on broader indices of:
 Gender equitable attitudes
 Gender consciousness
 Knowledge related to gender
Negative impacts on some measures:

21. No and negative effects on boys’ gender attitudes
Negative impacts on some measures: No impacts on some measures:
 No change in knowing that
gender roles can be changed

22. No impact on adolescent economic empowerment
For adolescents:
 No quantitative impact on access
to cash or savings
 Strong cash (khat) economy
already providing girls and boys
with cash income
‘We did not know about saving previously. But
we get education about saving. So we are
happy with the education that we get about
saving.’ (mother)
A few mothers suggested impacts for
parents:
Adolescent girl selling coffee, Ethiopia © Nathalie
Bertrams GAGE 2019

23. Mixed effects of the asset transfer
 Some positive effects on girls’ knowledge--similar to other communities.
 Some positive effects on boys’ gender consciousness—due to efforts to explain to
boys why girls were getting assets.
 But girl targeted transfer sowed
significant community discord across
and within communities—esp for boys.
‘We heard that learners of the
programme in other kebeles have been
provided with solar lamps. Our friends
are complaining that such material
support hasn’t been provided to us.’
(13-year-old girl)
 Mentors over-promised trying to
reduce hostility--which backfired.
‘They told us that a bag and solars will be provided to you. Then all students started to
come. Then they promised that they will give us next time. But they didn’t. So students
dropped out. They lost interest. They stated that they are lying to us.’ (14-year-old boy)

24. Mixed effects on mentors
Some positive changes in mentors’
personal relationships
‘I was lonely working at home.
But now he helps me. He
washes his clothes. Though he
does not wash my clothes, he
washes his shirts. He helps
with some activities.’
(female mentor)
‘Our morale broke down. When we went
and talked to children, they refused to
accept us. When we talked to their families,
our words did not get acceptance… I
decided to quit from such work… This is
because I was exerting my efforts, but
people did not recognise these efforts. Such
work is not making us happy. This is
because students are not properly attending
the education we deliver, and there is high
dropout.’ (male mentor)
Many negatives—mentors felt rejected by
the community due to limited buy-in to
programme objectives

25. Questions and
next steps
Young boy in Oromia, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019

26. Why the limited impact?
‘Just some of them attend it. Like 10 or 8 or 9 or 12 or 13 learners attend it on a day. It may be as
high as 17 sometimes. Not more than this attend though.’ (14-year-old girl)
Poor adolescent attendance—and anger over targeting of asset transfers
‘She teaches us about relationship between boys and girls… When adolescent girls see us, they said,
“are you crazy that you attend education by prostitutes?” And they insult us saying prostitute.”
(11-year-old girl)
Too little tailoring to community norms
‘A job should have inspection.’ (male mentor)
High dissatisfaction among and poor supervision of mentors
‘The supervisor was replaced… unfortunately she only came to this area one time. She hasn’t visited
and talked to the learners… She said she would send us additional learning materials and left. But
she hasn’t come back.’ (13-year-old girl)
Relatively high mentor turn over

27. Young boy in Oromia, Ethiopia © Nathalie Bertrams / GAGE 2019
Conclusions and
recommendations

28. Conclusions and recommendations
For
girls:
1
More—and more in-depth—sessions to improve learning across domains.
2
Include field trips in all arms to underscore relevance of curriculum sessions.
3
Re-think asset transfers and provide to all—or more clearly explain reasoning.
4
Frame messages around local practices—esp as child marriage is often
adolescent initiated and sexual violence is frequently perpetrated by peers.
1 Provide boys with the same number of sessions as girls to improve learning.
2
Take account of boys’ gendered needs (e.g. peer pressure and khat use)
3 Encourage boys to identify and speak out against SGBV.
For
boys:

29. Conclusions and recommendations
For
parents:
For
communities:
1
Target mothers with lessons on parent-child communication that do not
emphasise simple obedience.
2
Proactively engage fathers.
1
Engage clan and religious leaders to tackle cultural practices and gender
norms.
2
Work with kebele leaders and service providers to tackle SGBV and child
marriage and FGM/C.
3
Programme implementers should support improved access to more remote
communities (e.g. though investing in transportation).

30. Conclusions and recommendations
1
Programme goals and M&E should include empowering mentors.
2
Mentors need regular, pro-active supervision, especially to handle backlash
in the context of gender norm change efforts.

31. Questions and discussion
Download the report:
Transforming gender norms through life-skills
programming in rural Ethiopia: short-term impacts and
emerging lessons for adaptive programming (Oromia case
study) | GAGE (odi.org)

32. Contact Us
WEBSITE
www.gage.odi.org
TWITTER
@GAGE_programme
FACEBOOK
GenderandAdolescence
About GAGE:
 Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence
(GAGE) is a nine-year (2015-2024) mixed-
methods longitudinal research programme
focused on what works to support
adolescent girls’ and boys’ capabilities in
the second decade of life and beyond.
 We are following the lives of 20,000
adolescents in six focal countries in Africa,
Asia and the Middle East.