The document provides guidance on designing effective programmes that target adolescent girls. It discusses gathering data to understand which girls to target and why, selecting appropriate venues and delivery methods, and developing relevant programme content. Regarding content, the document stresses listening to girls, focusing on their needs rather than problems, and including best practices while also building girls' assets in areas like social networks, skills, health, and financial literacy. Effective programmes are girl-centred and evidence-based.

1. Designing
programmes
for girls

2. 3. INTRODUCTION
4. WHICH GIRLS TO TARGET AND WHY
9. VENUE AND DELIVERY
15. CONTENT
21. RECRUITING GIRLS
28. Leadership and Mentoring
34. MONITORING AND EVALUATION
contents
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3. introduction3
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To unlock their potential and unleash the girl effect, programmes targeting adolescent girls need to place
them at the centre of each and every programme decision.
This guide will help you to find the right content and tools to enhance your programme and deliver more
for girls.
The Population Council has published a range of toolkits with guidance on how to kick-start programmes
and use data to keep girls at the centre of decisions about programme recruitment strategies, venues
and delivery. This guide helps you identify the right toolkits for your work and gives you case studies of
real-life examples that have put girl-centred programming into practice.
Today there are 250 million adolescent girls living in poverty in the developing world. They are the most
powerful force for positive change in their own lives, as well as in their families, communities and the world
at large.
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4. 4
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All girls are not the same. Understanding the differences between girls and their situations will change the way you
design your programme and deliver content. When you start with data, the picture emerges of how different girls
are from one another. Understanding what data tells you about them will inform what they need and the appropriate
strategies you can implement to meet those needs.
Some key indicators or information about girls – such as school, marital status, employment and parental
status, who they live with and their social support – are foundational pieces of information. When put together,
they will inform the choices you make about your programme design and delivery.
Here are some specific indicators to consider. Cross-referencing the information from the table below can
highlight groups of girls or their situations that deserve programme attention. For example, a population in
which a significant percentage of girls have never been to school, or one in which only low levels of school
attainment are reached, gives you clues about what girls might need, and what strategies you need to
effectively engage with them.
When designing an evidence-based programme, start by gathering data, conducting analysis of different kinds
of data to understand the situation, and then apply your findings to build an effective programme.
1.Which girls to
target and why
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5. KEY ASPECTS KEY INDICATORS
Citizenship and
registration
⊲ Percentage with registered birth
⊲ Percentage with an identity card
(of any type)
Families and living
arrangements
⊲ Percentage living with both parents, one parent or no parents
⊲ Percentage who are orphaned
⊲ Percentage living in other arrangements (eg with husbands, in-laws,
employers etc)
Schooling ⊲ Percentage who are in school
⊲ Percentage who started school on time (age 7)
⊲ Mean years of educational attainment
⊲ Percentage who completed a schooling cycle (primary or secondary)
Social networks,
participation and
time use
⊲ Percentage with friends/no friends
⊲ Percentage who socialised in the past week/month
⊲ Percentage who belong to a club or group
⊲ Percentage who visited a peer educator, youth centre, health facility or
religious institution in the past month
⊲ Mean hours spent in school, paid work, unpaid work, socialising/
recreation, rest
Table:
Key aspects
of girls’ lives
and related
indicators used
in programme
development
TABLE sourced from:
“From Research, To Programme Design, To
Implementation: Programming For Rural Girls in Ethiopia,
A Toolkit For Practitioners” popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_
EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
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KEY ASPECTS KEY INDICATORS
Work, paid and unpaid ⊲ Percentage who have ever worked for pay
⊲ Type of paid work, hours and wages
⊲ Mean hours spent in unpaid domestic or farm work
Sexual activity*
*Note: this can be a very
sensitive topic area and expert
support should be sought when
considering collecting new
information on these indicators.
⊲ Percentage who are sexually experienced
⊲ Percentage who have had non-consensual sex
⊲ Percentage who use condoms and/or other family planning
Partnership, marriage ⊲ Percentage who have ever been married
⊲ Mean age at marriage and percentage who married by age
15 and 18
⊲ Percentage who had arranged marriages
⊲ Age difference with husband
Table:
Key aspects
of girls’ lives
and related
indicators used
in programme
development
(continued)
TABLE sourced from:
“From Research, To Programme Design, To
Implementation: Programming For Rural Girls in Ethiopia,
A Toolkit For Practitioners” popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_
EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
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7. Case study:
Identifying married adolescent girls as
a focus for programmes
Managers from the Population Council and the Ministry of Youth and
Sports used these surveys to explore who may have been among the
most vulnerable groups of youths in these areas. They surmised that
if a younger adolescent in the 10-14 age group was out of school, this
would probably reflect a young person in a very vulnerable situation.
In both rural and urban areas, girls were more likely to be out of
school than boys (reference A in footnotes)
When examining who was most likely to be out of school, they
identified two groups. In rural areas, married adolescents were the
most likely, while, in urban areas, it was rural-urban migrants, many
of whom were domestic workers. Further analysis revealed that
both of these groups were extremely socially isolated, with a large
proportion reporting having no friends. As a result, the Population
Council and the Ministry of Youth and Sports started to develop
programmes for married adolescent girls and rural-urban migrants/
child domestic workers.
In 2002, the Population Council started to develop programmes for adolescents in Ethiopia. Managers knew at the outset that they
were interested in developing programmes for the most disadvantaged young people. As a result, they selected disadvantaged
communities in urban and rural areas to conduct formative research on adolescents. In 2003, surveys were undertaken among
adolescent girls and boys in the slum area of Merkato, in Addis Ababa, and poor rural areas of Amhara Region, the second-largest
region in Ethiopia.
Case study sourced from:
“From Research, To Programme Design, To Implementation: Programming For Rural Girls In Ethiopia, A Toolkit For Practitioners” popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
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8. ESSENTIAL TOOLKITS
For more tools and information to help you define ‘which girls
and why’ for your programme and use data to allocate funds
effectively, download the following Population Council toolkits:
From Research, To Programme Design, To Implementation: Programming
For Rural Girls In Ethiopia, A Toolkit For Practitioners
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
Using Data To See And Select The Most Vulnerable Girls
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2012PGY_GirlsFirst_Data.pdf
Ethical Approaches To Gathering Information From Children And
Adolescents in International Settings
popcouncil.org/pdfs/horizons/childrenethics.pdf
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Gathering and using data and information
about the girls you want to reach will aid
you in selecting a venue and designing
delivery strategies that have the best
chance of working for them.
2. Venue and
delivery (and why
data matters)
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10. VENUE
Girls need a place to meet. To help you select a place, gather existing
information and data about where the girls whom you want to attend your
programme currently spend their time, and which routes they travel on.
You can use existing data, or engage girls directly, to help you understand
where they are and are not spending their time, as well as which places
and routes are safe and unsafe.
Programmes often meet at places that girls already visit, such as school. But for girls
who are more isolated – eg girls who are not in school, are married or are domestic
workers – adapting a local venue for your programme is a more effective strategy.
If your programme is a media programme, think about how and where girls might come
together around that media (on their own or with your support) and what you can do to
make that experience positive, safe and productive for them.
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11. Has no friends
Never married Ever married
Best friend
is a relative
Best friend
is a non-relative
Lives with no
parents
DELIVERY
Giving girls what they need can be done through
different modalities, such as media, institutions
or community structures, and then by different
individuals, such as a peer, mentor, teacher or
another kind of service-delivery professional.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Look at what data tells you about the girls – particularly
their friendships, social-group membership and who
they live with – to inform how you might deliver activities
and content.
For example, social network data is available. The chart to
the right shows data from rural girls on friendship networks
and co-residence with parents.
Chart: Using social network data to suggest programmatic
strategies for rural Ethiopian girls, age 12-19
7
58
35
10
17
54
29
29
source:
Ethiopia Young Adult Survey (2009); weighed data
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12. RESEARCH FINDING
CHARACTERISTIC REFLECTED
OR SUGGESTED
pROGAMMATIC IMPLiCATION
EXAMPLE OF
PROGRAMme STRATEGY
Friends
1 About 1 in 10 rural girls
has no friends; 1 in 5 married
girls
Social networks for
rural girls are focused on
family members
Peer education may be
ineffective among rural girls
who have few friends/peers
outside the home
Build girls’ peer networks
outside the home: create
girls’ clubs where girls can
meet other girls outside of
their family2 Among girls with friends,
most are within the family
PARENTS
3 Most married girls live away
from parents
Married girls may lack a
caring adult in their lives
Parent-child approaches will
not reach married girls and,
regardless of marital status,
girls need a caring adult
Build relationship with
a caring adult who can
advocate on their behalf: use
mentors rather than peers
By applying this data to how you make decisions, you can follow a deductive process, like the one below,
to select how you might deliver content in the programme.
SOURCE: “From Research, To Programme Design, To Implementation: Programming For Rural Girls In Ethiopia, A Toolkit For
Practitioners” popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
DELIVERY (continued)
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13. Case study:
Using the stature of mentors to break
down resistance
Meserete Hiwot (Amharic for ‘Basis for Life’) is a mentor-led programme for married or
divorced teen girls in the rural Amhara Region of Ethiopia, implemented by the Amhara
Regional Bureau of Women, Children and Youth (formerly the Amhara Regional Bureau
of Youth and Sports). The mentors are women recruited from the local community and
are frequently local leaders, well known in the location. Married teen girls are often
strictly controlled by their husbands or in-laws, with some family members limiting her
relationships with friends or affiliations to other social groups. Meserete Hiwot managers
anticipated that using high-status mentors, rather than peer educators, would be an
effective strategy in convincing resistant families to allow girls to attend meetings.
Monitoring studies from Meserete Hiwot reflect the added value of mentors in breaking
down barriers to participation:
“[At first] my husband didn’t allow me to attend the meeting. Our mentor dealt with
my husband and convinced him in private...” (Married girl, North Gondar zone, 21, no
education, one child)
Case study sourced from:
“From Research, To Programme Design, To Implementation: Programming For Rural Girls in Ethiopia, A Toolkit For Practitioners” popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
My mother was not happy.
She wanted me to sell liquor
rather than attend the
meetings. I brought the mentor
to convince my mother and
also used to tell her about
the information we covered
during the meetings.”
(Divorced girl, West Gojjam zone, 18, three years’ education,
no children)
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14. ESSENTIAL TOOLKITS
For more tools and information to help you to use data about
adolescent girls to inform decisions about the programme
structure, download the following Population Council toolkits:
Girl-centred Programme Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen
Expand Adolescent Girls Programmes
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGY_AdolGirlToolkitComplete.pdf
From Research, To Programme Design, To Implementation: Programming
For Rural Girls In Ethiopia, A Toolkit For Practitioners
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
Priorities For Adolescent Girls’ Education – educational policies,
approaches and programmes to support adolescent girls in school
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2012PGY_GirlsFirst_Education.pdf
Ethical Approaches To Gathering Information From Children And
Adolescents In International Settings
popcouncil.org/pdfs/horizons/childrenethics.pdf
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15. 15
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The content girls receive should respond to what they
need, rather than the problems they face. Focusing
on what girls need will lead you to thinking about a
transformative programme design, rather than a reactive,
problem-oriented programme. Girls are the experts on
their own lives and situations, and listening to them can
offer you useful insights. That, combined with effective
practices, will increase the chances of your programme
delivering impact.
3. Content
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16. LISTEN TO WHAT GIRLS
HAVE TO SAY
Adolescent girls have unique insights into their own lives. They are best
positioned to speak about their aspirations and the barriers they face,
and can offer inspiring solutions.
Girl-centred design includes listening to what girls ask for directly and gaining
insights from their stories to inform programme decisions. This requires giving girls
the space to make direct requests and also to share stories so you can identify
areas of support that they may need, but won’t ask for directly. For example, a girl
may not ask directly for services to respond to violence in her life, but her stories
may be filled with instances of violence that highlight a need. Using participatory
methods and building girls’ leadership skills through your learning process can be a
win-win approach.
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17. Best and promising
practices
Professional opinion and specialist knowledge are critical in guiding
programme content selection. Young people may not always know
what is best for them, emotionally or developmentally.
For example, girls who have not been socialised to address adult men may not
know they require skills to do so; girls who lack birth certificates may not be aware
of them in the first place.
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18. social assets human assets
⊲ Social networks
⊲ Group membership
⊲ Relationship of trust
⊲ Access to wider institutions
of society
⊲ Skills and knowledge
⊲ Good health
⊲ Ability to work
⊲ Financial education
⊲ Self-esteem
⊲ Bargaining power
⊲ Autonomy
⊲ Control over decisions
physical assets financial assets
⊲ Personal assets (clothing, jewellery,
household items)
⊲ Land
⊲ Housing
⊲ Transport
⊲ Tools equipment and other
productive assets
⊲ Cash
⊲ Savings
⊲ Entitlements
Delivering
assets
Assets reduce vulnerability and expand
opportunities. Research has shown that the
more assets young people have, the more
likely they are to thrive. Assets can include:
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19. Programme activities that
build: social assets
Programme activities that
build: human assets
⊲ Group formation
⊲ Social support
⊲ Development of social networks
⊲ Mentoring
⊲ Life-skills training
⊲ Health education
⊲ Literacy programmes
⊲ Financial education
⊲ Rights education
⊲ Employability training
⊲ Vocational/skills training
⊲ Business development training
⊲ Business internships/attachments
Programme activities that
build: physical assets
Programme activities that
build: financial assets
⊲ Access to tools or equipment for
businesses
⊲ Safe physical space to meet
⊲ Safe place to work
⊲ Savings
⊲ Credit
⊲ Remittance services
⊲ Other financial services
Here is an example of programme activities
that can be used to build girls’ assets:
Delivering
assets
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20. ESSENTIAL TOOLKITS
For more tools and information to help spread the word about
your programme and get girls on board, download the following
Population Council toolkits:
Girl-centred Programme Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen
Expand Adolescent Girls Programmes
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGY_AdolGirlToolkitComplete.pdf
Priorities For Adolescent Girls’ Education – educational policies,
approaches and programmes to support adolescent girls in school
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2012PGY_GirlsFirst_Education.pdf
The Health Of Vulnerable Adolescent Girls: A Strategic Investment
For Double Return – ideas and innovations to help guide the field to
better respond to, and maximise, the potential of the poorest girls in
the poorest communities
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2012PGY_GirlsFirst_Health.pdf
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21. 21
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When girls begin puberty, their world starts to shrink
and they are increasingly isolated. Many don’t have
access to school, media or social networks that
allow them to connect with others and learn about
themselves and the world. Recruitment strategies
need to be tailored to the girls you want to reach,
because different strategies will attract different girls.
No single method will attract all girls.
4. Recruiting girls
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22. Recruitment methods
1. THROUGH THE COMMUNITY
HOW
Mobilise community leaders – such as chiefs or elders,
local government leaders, staff from community
organisations, religious leaders and teachers –
to recruit girls to participate in the programme.
For example, you can work with community leaders
to organise a meeting at which you can explain the
programme, ask them to identify appropriate girls in
the community to participate and encourage parents
to enrol their daughters.
PROS
Gains buy-in and support from community leaders at the start of the
programme
Can be cost-effective
CONS
Community leaders may not agree with you about who is the ‘right girl’
for the programme
May fail to reach marginalised girls who are not already connected to
existing infrastructure in their communities – eg out-of-school girls or
girls who are not known by community leaders
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23. Recruitment methods
2. MEDIA
HOW
Advertise and introduce key information about
the programme through effective media in the
community, such as flyers or radio. Flyers can be
posted in strategic places such as schools, markets,
churches/mosques etc. Radio stations can feature
advertisements about the programme or interview
staff and participants from your programme.
PROS
Can reach vulnerable and isolated girls who may not be reached by
other recruitment strategies
Radio can reach a large number of people
CONS
Flyers and radio don’t target specific profiles of girls
Flyers don’t reach girls who can’t read
Radio can be costly
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24. Recruitment methods
3. DOOR TO DOOR
HOW
Have programme staff and/or volunteers go to every
household in the target area of the programme to
identify adolescent girls who fit the profile of your
target beneficiaries. If there are adolescent girls in the
household, staff and volunteers should talk to parents
and girls to explain the programme, its benefits and
why the girl should attend.
PROS
Reaches vulnerable, isolated girls who are not likely to be reached by
other recruitment strategies
Directly engages girls – and their parents – who may not automatically
think a programme is for them
CONS
Time consuming
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25. Recruitment methods
4. WORD OF MOUTH
HOW
This strategy relies on girls who already participate
in your programme and staff members spreading the
word within their communities.
The girls are encouraged to bring other girls with them
to participate.
PROS
Achieves a linked group of girls
Is low- or no-cost
Doesn’t draw on programme personnel
Uses local resources and connections
CONS
May be hard to expand membership beyond existing networks
Relies on others to do the recruiting
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26. Case study:
Safe and smart savings products for
vulnerable adolescent girls in Kenya
and Uganda
Faulu-Kenya, a partner microfinance institution that offers the
Princess Account for girls aged 10-19, aimed to mobilise 500 girls
to open accounts and join savings groups during the pilot period.
Faulu used a mix of recruitment strategies: holding meetings with
community leaders to announce the product and asking them to
send girls who were interested; gaining approval of religious leaders
and then advertising the programme after the religious service;
meeting with current clients who were parents of adolescent girls;
going to youth-serving organisations, churches/mosques and
schools in the area; and going door to door to talk to girls and their
guardians about joining savings groups. Even when the formal
recruitment stopped, existing Princess Account holders would bring
their friends to the group meetings to open accounts themselves.
The Population Council, in partnership with MicroSave Consulting Ltd, manages a programme
that is developing and rolling out savings accounts for girls.
Case study sourced from:
“Girl-centred Programme Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen Expand Adolescent Girls Programmes” popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGY_AdolGirlToolkitComplete.pdf
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27. ESSENTIAL TOOLKITS
For more tools and information to help spread the word about
your programme and get girls on board, download the following
Population Council toolkits:
Girl-centred Programme Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen
Expand Adolescent Girls Programmes
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGY_AdolGirlToolkitComplete.pdf
Priorities For Adolescent Girls’ Education – educational policies,
approaches and programmes to support adolescent girls in school
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2012PGY_GirlsFirst_Education.pdf
The Health Of Vulnerable Adolescent Girls: A Strategic Investment
For Double Return – ideas and innovations to help guide the field to
better respond to, and maximise, the potential of the poorest girls in
the poorest communities
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2012PGY_GirlsFirst_Health.pdf
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28. 28
A girl needs leadership skills – the kind that enable her to make healthy decisions, work toward life goals, take action for
what is important to her and positively influence her world.
Girl-centred programmes use simple, purposeful strategies to regularly exercise girls’ leadership skills: for example, asking
girls to set and monitor their own ground rules for behaviours during programme sessions. Activities need to be delivered
in ways that give girls the chance to practise analysis, planning, influencing and working together; sometimes within a safe
space and, if appropriate, sometimes outside of a safe space. It’s about creating opportunities for girls to find their voice,
gain confidence and practise making choices, as individuals and with others.
Gaining access to a female mentor or a group leader (who is a little older, but not so old she can’t identify with them) who is
from and lives in the same community is a game-changer for girls. They need a caring adult who is their champion and can
help raise their status, particularly if they live in a more traditional community where their status is typically very low. Girl-
centred programmes articulate the desired profile of a mentor – including the characteristics and skills they would bring –
and offer structured training, supervision, support and, ideally, compensation for the hours mentors are involved.
A powerful way to combine building girls’ leadership skills and providing access to a mentor is the cascading leadership
model. This is a promising model that has been used in diverse settings across the world.
5. Leadership
and Mentoring
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29. IT LOOKS LIKE THIS
NATIONAL / REGIONAL SUPPORT
NATIONAL / REGIONAL SUPPORT
COMMUNITY-LEVEL INTERVENTION
MENTORS
(PROGRAMme GRADUATES)
GIRL LEADERS AND INTERNS
GIRLS
(AGES 13-17)
GIRLS
(AGES 8-12)
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30. Older adolescent girls and young women from the community can be recruited
and trained as mentors
Adolescent girls participating in the programme can take on increasingly senior
leadership roles over the lifecycle of the programme, and can eventually transition
from participants to mentors
Cascading leadership
In the cascading leadership model, older adolescent girls and young
women (aged 18-30) are trained to mentor younger girls in the
programme. This can be done in two ways:
In most cases you can assume it will be necessary to recruit older adolescent girls
and young women from the community to be mentors at the start of a programme.
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31. Case study:
The Binti Pamoja Centre
In 2006, the first group of graduates went through a training
programme that strengthened their skills in facilitation, group
development, communication and conflict resolution. The
responsibility of the mentor-alumnus was to recruit girls into the
group; locate a place in the community to meet, plan and facilitate the
weekly meetings; provide support and guidance to the girls in their
group; and spend the monthly group budget appropriately. Alumni
are provided with a small salary and meet on a monthly basis for
supervision meetings with the Binti Pamoja staff.
Within a year, the Safe Spaces programme at Binti Pamoja had grown
to 20 alumni and 10 groups. Two alumni were hired as part-time field
officers to monitor and support the alumni and Safe Spaces groups.
With each year, the Safe Spaces programme has continued to grow.
Girls finish Binti’s core programme, become alumni and start their
own girls’ groups in the community. Village co-ordinators have been
recruited, each responsible for a specific geographical area in Kibera
in which they oversee four to six groups. They help the alumni in their
area with recruitment, identifying spaces to meet, monitoring group
content and planning events and training.
Through a cascading leadership model, Binti Pamoja has been able
to grow from a programme of 40 girls meeting in one location in
Kibera to a programme of more than 1,000 girls, 30 groups (15-25
girls per group), 75 alumni in some leadership capacity and a reach
into every village within Kibera.
Binti Pamoja (Swahili for ‘Daughters United’) is a programme for adolescent girls aged 10-19 in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya.
The programme started with a core group of 15 girls and then grew to two groups. As these girls grew up within the programme,
they were ready to ‘graduate’ and take on leadership roles, and the programme could be expanded into the community.
Case study sourced from:
“Girl-centred Programme Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen Expand Adolescent Girls Programmes” popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGY_AdolGirlToolkitComplete.pdf
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32. THE STRUCTURE
BINTI PAMOJA STAFF
Programme officer and
assistant programme officer
field officer
(2)
SOCIAL WORKER
(2)
Core programme
(60 girls)
Village
coordinator
Village
coordinator
Village
coordinator
Village
coordinator
Village
coordinator
alumini
(60)
30 SAFE SPACES GROUPS
(600 GIRLS)
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33. ESSENTIAL TOOLKITS
For more tools and information on how to engage mentors and
develop the leadership skills of girls, download the following
toolkits:
Girl-centred Programme Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen
Expand Adolescent Girls Programmes
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGY_AdolGirlToolkitComplete.pdf
The Power To Lead: A Leadership Model For Adolescent Girls – focusing
on girls aged 10 to 14 years and developing their leadership skills
care.org/campaigns/2009/downloads/sigprog_pw_leadership.pdf
Girls’ Leadership And Mentoring – how to provide role models for young
girls, empower and strengthen older girls and challenge outmoded
community norms
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2012PGY_GirlsFirst_Leadership.pdf
It’s Her Business: A Handbook For Preparing Young At-Risk Women To
Become Entrepreneurs
itsherbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ItsHerBusiness.pdf
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34. To maximise learning and achieve effective
evolution of your programme, it should be
monitored from a range of perspectives, using a
variety of data to reflect those insights.
6. Monitoring
and evaluation
34
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35. Listen – learn – act
Plan to learn – and evolve your programme as you learn more
about girls, their situations and how they interact with the
programme. Frequent monitoring of programmes at the field or
community level gives valuable insight into which girls you are
reaching, through which activities. You will never truly understand
how it is functioning from second-hand reports.
Field-level visits, through which you connect with girls and staff, are critical.
Capturing qualitative and quantitative information will be important to gain
a more complete picture of what is happening as a result of the programme.
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36. QUALITATIVE
When connecting with girls, you’ll need to find creative ways of
discovering what works for them and what doesn’t, and to gain
insight into the kinds of changes they are experiencing because of
the programme.
Because girls will often hesitate to criticise or say something negative about
the programme, or to openly identify something that is of concern to them,
you’ll want to develop some participatory tools and creative ways of asking
questions to understand what’s happening.
To ensure the important details that provide insight aren’t lost during
monitoring visits, try to capture responses to questions in their entirety.
The detail will be important for reflection and for retaining the crucial facts
that can offer insight into what is really happening.
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37. QUANTITATIVE
Monitoring information will help you to discover if you are
reaching the girls you intended to reach, and to understand
patterns of participation. It’s important to track the number of
participants, their demographic profile and the patterns of their
participation or what programmatic inputs they received.
A participant register is a simple and effective way of doing this. You
should include only the information you might need to know about the
girls you want to reach. You can record individual participants and their
details, rather than just estimating the total number of participants, for
each activity. Individual records are extremely important because they
allow managers to analyse characteristics of participants and patterns
of participation among different groups of members – and to evolve
the programme accordingly.
Your programme can help girls be counted officially – or obtain
identification – either through:
Assisting with obtaining formal documents such as birth
certificates or national IDs
Providing programme IDs that are recognised locally, which can
help girls access formal institutions of society and perhaps, at a
later stage, be used to obtain official ID
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38. Case study:
Using qualitative monitoring to suggest
improvements to the programme
QUESTION: What is your experience with disabled girls in the
programme?
Mentors’ responses to this question were all very similar and showed
the challenges faced by disabled girls. Below is the actual response
from one of the Biruh Tesfa mentors:
ANSWER: Once I registered a girl with polio. Her parents were very
poor and she didn’t have a wheelchair or crutches... After coming to
the programme for a few days, she stopped coming and her parents
said she couldn’t come on her own. (Addis Ababa mentor)
As a result, Biruh Tesfa managers understood they needed to
devote more attention to improving the access for, and increasing
the participation of, girls with disabilities. Ramps were constructed
at the meeting places, making them more accessible for girls with
disabilities. Funding was set aside to provide taxis or companions
for girls with disabilities. A new partnership was formed with a local
disabilities organisation to include disabled mentors and to intensify
recruitment and support of girls with disabilities.
Biruh Tesfa (meaning ‘Bright Future’ in Amharic) is a girls’ programme in Ethiopia that mobilises extremely poor, out-of-school girls
into groups, led by an adult female mentor. Every six months, programme managers use a tool similar to Tool 3.1 (see appendix) to
monitor girls’ perceptions and mentors’ experiences of the programme. Between 10 and 20 girls are interviewed, as well as five to
10 mentors. Biruh Tesfa managers use the occasion to explore new areas for expansion or programme modification, and adapt the
questions each time to elicit different types of information. In one round of monitoring interviews, managers added the following
question to the questionnaire for mentors:
Case study sourced from:
“Girl-centred Programme Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen Expand Adolescent Girls Programmes” popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGYAdolGirlToolkitComplete.pdf
38 | girleffect.org

39. ESSENTIAL TOOLKITS
For more tools and information to help monitor the success
of your programme and to identify areas for improvement,
download the following toolkits:
Girl-centred Programme Design: A Toolkit To Develop, Strengthen
Expand Adolescent Girls Programmes
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2010PGY_AdolGirlToolkitComplete.pdf
From Research, To Programme Design, To Implementation: Programming
for Rural Girls in Ethiopia, A Toolkit For Practitioners
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
Ethical Approaches To Gathering Information From Children And
Adolescents In International Settings
popcouncil.org/pdfs/horizons/childrenethics.pdf
39 | girleffect.org

40. QUANTITIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FORMATIVE RESEARCH ON GIRLS
Question
Number
Question
1. ⊲ Are you younger than 18? ☐ Yes (go to Q2) ☐ No (go to Q5)
2. ⊲ Do you live with a parent or legal guardian? ☐ Yes (go to Q3) ☐ No (go to Q5)
3. ⊲ May we request that your parent or guardian give you permission to
participate in this study?
☐ Yes (go to Q4) ☐ No (go to Q6)
4. ⊲ If yes, your parents or guardian will not be informed of your study results,
and they will remain confidential, and your parent or legal guardian has to
read (or be read) and sign the following declaration.
I, the signed, am the parent or legal guardian of the person being
invited to participate in the study. I have read the informed consent
or have had the informed consent read to me, was given an
opportunity to clarify and ask any questions I have regarding the
study, and I give permission for my child or legal ward to participate
in the study
Signature ............................................................
Date ...................................
The following tools can be used to collect feedback on the programme from the girls, as well as registration and activity forms that you can print out and use.
40 | girleffect.org

41. QUANTITIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FORMATIVE RESEARCH ON GIRLS (CONTINUED)
Question
Number
Question
5. ⊲ If no, do you feel it is necessary to not inform your parents or legal guardian
for your own protection?
☐ Yes (go to Q6) ☐ No (END)
6. ⊲ Do you have any questions? (Note the questions) ☐ Yes ☐ No
7. ⊲ Are you willing to participate in this study? ☐ Yes ☐ No
⊲ If you have any doubts or questions in the future, you may contact the
study investigator at (TELEPHONE NUMBER)
I, the signed interviewer, have explained to the respondent in a
language she understands, and she understands the procedures to
be followed in the study and the risks and benefits involved.
Signature ............................................................
Date ...................................
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42. Question Number Question Response or response codes
SECTION ONE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION
101 ⊲ How old are you? Age of respondent:
102 ⊲ With whom do you live: mother and father, mother
only, father only, or neither parent?
1 Live with mother and father
2 Live with mother only
3 Live with father only
4 Live with neither mother nor father
(SPECIFY WITH WHOM)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
103 ⊲ I want to talk about your (biological) parents. Are
both of your parents alive, is only your mother alive,
is only your father alive, or are both parents no
longer living?
1 Both mother and father are alive
2 Mother only alive
3 Father only alive
4 Neither mother nor father alive
QUALITATIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FEEDBACK ON PROGRAMMES FROM GIRLS
NOTE TO DATA COLLECTOR: PLEASE INSERT INFORMED CONSENT.
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43. Question Number Question Response or response codes
SECTION ONE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION
104 ⊲Have you ever been to school? 0 No (Go to Q106)
1 Yes
105 ⊲ How many years of education have you completed? Years of education completed:
106 ⊲ In what month and year did you join
the programme?
Month:
Year:
107 ⊲ Which part of the programme are you participating in?
(read the list and circle all that apply)
(Tailor this section to your organisation’s programme)
1 Mentoring sessions
2 Community conversations
3 Self-help groups
4 Tutorial support
5 Other (specify)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
QUALITATIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FEEDBACK ON PROGRAMMES FROM GIRLS (CONTINUED)
43 | girleffect.org

44. Question Number Question Response or response codes
SECTION TWO: programme experience
201 ⊲ How did you first learn about the [NAME OF
PROGRAMME]. (Possible probes: What did you think
about it? How did people talk about it?)
202 ⊲ Tell me about your participation in the programme. What
activities do you take part in? (Possible probes: How
often do you participate? What have you learned in the
programme? How do you feel about the programme?)
203 ⊲ Tell me about the [MENTOR/PEER EDUCATOR/GROUP
LEADER/OTHER PROJECT PERSONNEL]. (Possible
probes: What do they do in the programme? How do
you feel about them? How have they helped you?)
QUALITATIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FEEDBACK ON PROGRAMMES FROM GIRLS (CONTINUED)
44 | girleffect.org

45. Question Number Question Response or response codes
SECTION TWO: BACKGROUND INFORMATION
204 ⊲ I want to talk about the timing and location of the
programme. Are these aspects convenient for you or is
there anything you would change? What do you think
of the meeting space? Tell me about what you would
change if you could. (Possible probes: Is there anything
you would like to change? How would you change it?)
205 ⊲ How do your parents/guardians feel about the
programme? What do they say about it? What do people
in your community say about the programme? (Possible
probes: Has there been a time they did not want you to
go to the programme? What happened at that time?)
QUALITATIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FEEDBACK ON PROGRAMMES FROM GIRLS (CONTINUED)
45 | girleffect.org

46. Question Number Question Response or response codes
SECTION THREE: PERCEPTIONS SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
301 ⊲ I would like you to think about all the different aspects of the
[NAME OF PROGRAMME], including what you learn, what
activities you do, the [MENTOR/PEER EDUCATOR/GROUP
LEADER/OTHER PROJECT PERSONNEL] and your interaction
with other girls. What do you like most about the programme?
(Possible probes: Why do you like this aspect the most? Can
you give me an example? Tell me about the time you enjoyed
yourself the most at a session. What happened at that time?)
302 ⊲ Again, thinking about all the different aspects of the
programme, what do you like least about it? What areas would
you like to improve? (Possible probes: Why do you like this
aspect the least? Can you give me an example? Tell me about
a time you were not as happy or would have liked to change
something in the programme. What happened at that time?)
QUALITATIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FEEDBACK ON PROGRAMMES FROM GIRLS (CONTINUED)
46 | girleffect.org

47. Question Number Question Response or response codes
SECTION THREE: PERCEPTIONS SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
303 ⊲ On which topics or areas would you like more information?
What kind of information would you like? (Possible probes: Why
do you feel you need more information? Can you give me an
example? What about skills? Are there any additional skills you
feel you need? Tell me why the skills are important to you.)
304 ⊲ Please give me ideas for how we could improve the
programme. What changes or improvements would you like to
see? (Possible probes: What additional information would you
like? What activities would you like? How would you change the
way your [MENTOR/PEER EDUCATOR/GROUP LEADER/OTHER
PROJECT PERSONNEL] acts?)
QUALITATIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FEEDBACK ON PROGRAMMES FROM GIRLS (CONTINUED)
47 | girleffect.org

48. Question Number Question Response or response codes
SECTION THREE: PERCEPTIONS SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
305 ⊲ I want you to think about the other girls in your community.
Are there girls in your community who want to come to the
programme but do not? What are the reasons they don’t
join the programme? (Possible probes: Can you give me an
example of a girl who wants to come but cannot. Tell me about
her situation and why she doesn’t come.)
306 ⊲ Tell me about anything else you think I should know about the
programme in order to improve it for you and other girls in the
area. Feel free to tell me anything you would like me to know.
QUALITATIVE TOOLTHIS TOOL CAN BE USED TO COLLECT FEEDBACK ON PROGRAMMES FROM GIRLS (CONTINUED)
Thank you very much for participating in this survey
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49. REGISTRATION FORM FOR GIRLS’ PROGRAMME
REGION : ZONE :
WOREDA : KEBELE :
MENTOR NAME : MONTH : YEAR :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
TO BE FILLED OUT BY MENTORS WHEN GIRLS JOIN THE PROGRAMme. COMPLETE IN DUPLICATE AND GIVE COPIES TO THE
SUPERVISOR AT MONTHLY MEETINGS.
SERIALNO.
KEBELE
VILLAGE/GOTT
AGE
NAME SCHOOL
STATUS
MARITAL
STATUS
MIGRATE
TO AREA
DISABLED OCCUPATION WHO DO YOU
LIVE WITH
YEARS OF
EDUCATION
COMPLETED
(OPTIONAL)
04 14 Rox Genet Demele 16 2 4 2 1 0 Housewife / farmer 3 (husband)
1 = IN SCHOOL 1 = NEVER
MARRIED
1 = BOTH PARENTS0 = NO
0 = NO (DESCRIBE)
2 = not in
school 2 = MARRIED
2 = ONE PARENT1 = YES
1 = YES
3 = FORMERLY
MARRIED
3 = NO PARENT (SPECIFY)
49 | girleffect.org

50. REGISTRATION FORM FOR GIRLS’ PROGRAMME
(CONTINUED)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
SERIALNO.
KEBELE
VILLAGE/GOTT
AGE
NAME SCHOOL
STATUS
MARITAL
STATUS
MIGRATE
TO AREA
DISABLED OCCUPATION WHO DO YOU
LIVE WITH
YEARS OF
EDUCATION
COMPLETED
(OPTIONAL)
1 = IN SCHOOL 1 = NEVER
MARRIED
1 = BOTH PARENTS0 = NO
0 = NO (DESCRIBE)
2 = not in
school 2 = MARRIED
2 = ONE PARENT1 = YES
1 = YES
3 = FORMERLY
MARRIED
3 = NO PARENT (SPECIFY)
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51. REGISTRATION FORM FOR GIRLS’ PROGRAMME
(CONTINUED)
REGION : ZONE :
WOREDA : KEBELE :
MENTOR NAME : MONTH : YEAR :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
TO BE FILLED OUT BY MENTORS WHEN GIRLS JOIN THE PROGRAMme. COMPLETE IN DUPLICATE AND GIVE COPIES TO THE
SUPERVISOR AT MONTHLY MEETINGS.
MONTH YEARSERIAL NO
OF GIRL
NAME AGE TOPICS COVERED ACTIVITIES DONE REFERRED FOR
OTHER SERVICE
04 March 16
(OPTIONAL) (USE UP TO 3 CODES) (USE UP TO 3 CODES)
0 = NO
1 = YES (SPECIFY)
Genet Demele
FGM
16 2 4 8 1 3 1 (VCT)
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52. CODES FOR TOPICS : CODES FOR ACTIVITIES :
1 = HIV / AIDS
2 = FAMILY PLANNING
3 = HEALTH HYGIENE
4 = PREGNANCY MOTHERHOOD
5 = GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
6 = DISABILITIES
7 = COMMUNICATION
8 = OTHER (SPECIFY)
1 = GROUP LECTURE
2 = GROUP DISCUSSION
3 = DRAMA / ROLE PLAY
4 = SPORTS
5 = DANCE
6 = ARTS CRAFTS
7 = GUEST LECTURE
8 = OTHER (SPECIFY)
REGISTRATION FORM FOR GIRLS’ PROGRAMME
(CONTINUED)
These tools are all sourced from “From Research, to Programme Design, to Implementation: Programming for
Rural Girls in Ethiopia, a Toolkit for Practitioners”
popcouncil.org/pdfs/2011PGY_EthiopiaGirlsProgramToolkit.pdf
52 | girleffect.org

53. ADOLESCENT GIRLS HAVE THE
POWER TO END WORLD POVERTY.
WE CALL IT THE GIRL EFFECT.
GET INSPIRATION AND TOOLS
TO UNLEASH THE GIRL EFFECT AT
GIRLEFFECT.ORG