While a growing number of investments focus on adolescent girls, such attention is insufficient to meet the priorities and provide the resources girls deserve. An increasing number of girls programs are going to scale or operating at scale, but these still reflect first- or second-generation initiatives—comparable to where the family planning movement was in the late 1950s. A journal on adolescent girls does not yet exist, and if it did, it would likely take several years for materials to be widely circulated.
We do, however, have experience based on over a decade of work that has generated tools. There are benchmark and key articles that provide evidence of the effectiveness of programs, papers on cost data, toolkits, and emerging programmatic material to share.
This video toolkit creates a flexible and accessible mechanism to share many of the key insights and lessons learned in girls programs. The goal is to give you the tools to build a program—even a small pilot program—that incorporates the key elements and approaches that will make reaching significant scale possible. We undertake this effort with the understanding that in most cases significant scale is not reached until the second or third generation of a program.
How to Use This Toolkit
The toolkit is designed to be flexible. It is based on workshops that we conducted with numerous organizations, multi-laterals, and donors. Start by watching “Making the Case” which gives an overview of the positive returns of investments in girls. Then view the other videos back-to-back or choose individual topics.
The toolkit contains video lectures of PowerPoint presentations and sources of additional reading and information to enhance your understanding of the topics. We recommend first watching each lecture before diving into the additional reading, which will provide more depth and background.
Video Lectures
This lecture lays out six key reasons for making specific, measurable investments in girls: ending intergenerational poverty; providing universal primary education; promoting gender equality; reducing maternal mortality; reducing the increasingly young and persistently female HIV epidemic; and rebalancing the resource/population equation.
This lecture builds upon the first lecture of the Designing for Scale Toolkit, “Making the Case for Adolescent Girls.” We discuss what the unmet promises to girls are, how they can be mapped at the community level, and how they fit into our theory of change and our programming approach.
This lecture discusses the dimensions of social capital and their importance to girls. By social capital we mean more than just having friends. The dimensions include non-family peer networks, the existence of safety nets, internalized gender roles, and community power dynamics. The key theme is that effective girl programming begins and ends with social capital.
This lecture provides an overview on how to identify where the poorest girls are located and how to effectively reach them in order to ensure the best value for money and the most effective girls program.
This case study details the five steps necessary to build a program based on identified assets using the program FillesEveilles (Girls Awakened) in urban Burkina Faso as an example. Filles Eveilles targets out-of-school migrant girls working in urban domestic service.
This workshop explains how we define success for girls participating in Population Council programs, how this success is measured, and the tools needed to track success.
The Cost of Reaching the Most Disadvantaged girls, Jessica Sewall-Menon and Judith Bruce, 2012 – A technical report that pulls from programmatic evidence from several countries to assist programmatic officers, donors, and policy analysts in making program and policy decisions on investments in adolescent girls.
Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls & Migration in the Developing World, Miriam Temin, Mark Montgomery, Sarah Engebretsen, and Kathryn M. Barker, 2013 – A report that examines the social and economic determinants of internal migration for adolescent girls in developing countries and identifies the links between migration, risk, and opportunity.
Marital Aspirations, Sexual Behaviors and HIV/AIDS in Rural Malawi, Shelly Clark, Michelle Poulin, and Hans-Peter Kohler, 2010 – The authors explore how marital aspirations are connected to adolescents’ sexual behaviors in Malawi, and the specific impact of HIV/AIDS on marriage.
The New Population Challenge, from A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice, and the Environmental Challenge, Judith Bruce and John Bongaarts, 2010 – A book chapter that examines new demographic realities and approaches to population policy.
Designing for Scale Video Toolkit
While a growing number of investments focus on adolescent girls, such attention is insufficient to meet the priorities and provide the resources girls deserve. An increasing number of girls programs are going to scale or operating at scale, but these still reflect first- or second-generation initiatives—comparable to where the family planning movement was in the late 1950s. A journal on adolescent girls does not yet exist, and if it did, it would likely take several years for materials to be widely circulated.
We do, however, have experience based on over a decade of work that has generated tools. There are benchmark and key articles that provide evidence of the effectiveness of programs, papers on cost data, toolkits, and emerging programmatic material to share.
This video toolkit creates a flexible and accessible mechanism to share many of the key insights and lessons learned in girls programs. The goal is to give you the tools to build a program—even a small pilot program—that incorporates the key elements and approaches that will make reaching significant scale possible. We undertake this effort with the understanding that in most cases significant scale is not reached until the second or third generation of a program.
How to Use This Toolkit
The toolkit is designed to be flexible. It is based on workshops that we conducted with numerous organizations, multi-laterals, and donors. Start by watching “Making the Case” which gives an overview of the positive returns of investments in girls. Then view the other videos back-to-back or choose individual topics.
The toolkit contains video lectures of PowerPoint presentations and sources of additional reading and information to enhance your understanding of the topics. We recommend first watching each lecture before diving into the additional reading, which will provide more depth and background.
Video Lectures
This lecture lays out six key reasons for making specific, measurable investments in girls: ending intergenerational poverty; providing universal primary education; promoting gender equality; reducing maternal mortality; reducing the increasingly young and persistently female HIV epidemic; and rebalancing the resource/population equation.
This lecture builds upon the first lecture of the Designing for Scale Toolkit, “Making the Case for Adolescent Girls.” We discuss what the unmet promises to girls are, how they can be mapped at the community level, and how they fit into our theory of change and our programming approach.
This lecture discusses the dimensions of social capital and their importance to girls. By social capital we mean more than just having friends. The dimensions include non-family peer networks, the existence of safety nets, internalized gender roles, and community power dynamics. The key theme is that effective girl programming begins and ends with social capital.
This lecture provides an overview on how to identify where the poorest girls are located and how to effectively reach them in order to ensure the best value for money and the most effective girls program.
This case study details the five steps necessary to build a program based on identified assets using the program Filles Eveilles (Girls Awakened) in urban Burkina Faso as an example. Filles Eveilles targets out-of-school migrant girls working in urban domestic service.
This workshop explains how we define success for girls participating in Population Council programs, how this success is measured, and the tools needed to track success.
Additional Resources
The adolescent experience in-depth: Using data to identify and reach the most vulnerable young people, 2015 – A series of guides drawing on data to provide decision-makers with evidence related to the experiences of adolescent girls and boys.
“Anything Can Happen Anytime”: Perceived Lack of Safety among Girls in South Africa, 2014 – A brief on research conducted by Population Council and partners in South Africa to understand the relationship between the violence adolescent girls experience and the public spaces they frequent.
The Cost of Reaching the Most Disadvantaged girls, Jessica Sewall-Menon and Judith Bruce, 2012 – A technical report that pulls from programmatic evidence from several countries to assist programmatic officers, donors, and policy analysts in making program and policy decisions on investments in adolescent girls.
Dating, Sexual Debut, and Secondary School Completion in Urban Kenya, Shelly Clark and Rohini Mathur, 2012 – A paper that explores how the timing of transitions into adulthood, including sexual initiation, impact secondary school completion.
Designing, implementing, and evaluating a targeted, evidence-based intervention for a vulnerable subgroup of girls: A case study of the Filles Éveillées (“Girls Awakened”) pilot program for migrant adolescent girls in domestic service in urban Burkina Faso, Sarah Engebretsen, 2013 – Drawing on Population Council research, this case study demonstrates the steps involved in designing, implementing, and evaluating a targeted, evidence-based intervention for a vulnerable subgroup of adolescent girls.
Early Marriage and HIV Risks in Sub-Saharan Africa, Shelly Clark, 2004 – An examination of the effects of girls’ early marriage on their risk of contracting HIV.
Evaluation of “Biruh Tesfa” (Bright Future) program for vulnerable girls in Ethiopia, Annabel Erulkar, et al., 2012 – An evaluation of “Biruh Tesfa,” a program for the poorest adolescent girls in Ethiopia.
Evidence-Based Approaches to Protecting Adolescent Girls at Risk of HIV, Judith Bruce, Miriam Temin, and Kelly Hallman, 2012 – An examination of the importance of evidence-based approaches to protecting adolescent girls who are at risk of contracting HIV.
From Research, to Program Design, to Implementation Programming for Rural Girls in Ethiopia, Annabel Erulkar, 2011 – A toolkit for practitioners on how to build or improve programs to increase the number available and make them appropriate and relevant.
Girl-Centered Program Design: A Toolkit to Develop, Strengthen and Expand Adolescent Girls Programs, Karen Austrian, 2010 – A set of tools and guidelines for strengthening programs for adolescent girls in urban Kenya.
Girls left behind: Redirecting HIV interventions toward the most vulnerable, Judith Bruce, 2007 – A brief that explores the structural determinants of risk, the failure to reach the most vulnerable, reframing adolescent girls’ opportunities, and more.
Girls on the Move: Adolescent Girls & Migration in the Developing World, Miriam Temin, Mark Montgomery, Sarah Engebretsen, and Kathryn M. Barker, 2013 – A report that examines the social and economic determinants of internal migration for adolescent girls in developing countries and identifies the links between migration, risk, and opportunity.
Marital Aspirations, Sexual Behaviors and HIV/AIDS in Rural Malawi, Shelly Clark, Michelle Poulin, and Hans-Peter Kohler, 2010 – The authors explore how marital aspirations are connected to adolescents’ sexual behaviors in Malawi, and the specific impact of HIV/AIDS on marriage.
Marriage and motherhood: An exploratory study of the social and reproductive health status of married young women in Gujarat and West Bengal, India, Faujdar Ram, 2006 – A book that draws from research from Population Council and partners in Gujarat and West Bengal, India.
Meserete Hiwot (“Base of Life”): Supporting married adolescents with HIV prevention and reproductive health in rural Ethiopia, Annabel Erulkar, 2010 – A program brief that reports on survey data from adolescents on rural Ethiopia.
New Lessons: The Power of Educating Adolescent Girls, Cynthia Lloyd, 2009 – A report that highlights the educational needs of adolescent girls and actions for change, drawing from a plethora of programs.
The New Population Challenge, from A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice, and the Environmental Challenge, Judith Bruce and John Bongaarts, 2010 – A book chapter that examines new demographic realities and approaches to population policy.
Protecting Girls from HIV/AIDS: The Case Against Child and Adolescent Marriage, Shelly Clark, Judith Bruce, and Annie Dude, 2004 – A case study of multiple countries in Africa and Latin America that explores the HIV risk among married adolescent girls.
The Role of Schools in Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health Among Adolescents in Developing Countries, Cynthia Lloyd, 2007 – A working paper that reviews the state of knowledge about relationships between schooling and adolescent reproductive health.
Understanding adolescent girls’ protection strategies against HIV: An exploratory study in urban Lusaka, Martha Brady, 2010 – A report that analyzes notions of risk and safety among adolescent girls and young women in Lusaka, Zambia.
Using Data to See and Select the Most Vulnerable Adolescent Girls, Sarah Engebretsen, 2012 – A review that draws on data to find and select the most vulnerable adolescent girls for programming.
Violence Against Adolescent Girls: A Fundamental Challenge to Meaningful Equality, Judith Bruce, 2011 – A guide that examines the individual and social impact of violence against adolescent girls.