Impact of an Empowerment and Employability Program for Adolescent Girls: Evidence From India

Abstract

Existing research indicates that self-efficacy, aspirations, skills, and an enabling environment are essential for the economic empowerment of adolescent girls. In India, due to deeply rooted patriarchal views and social norms, adolescent girls face a range of social restrictions on their ability to make any decisions about their education or life choices. Plan-It Girls, a multi-level, multi-stakeholder program seeks to build adolescent girls’ agency and promote gender equality to support their aspirations. It equips girls with a gender perspective, life skills, and employability skills to help them transition from school to work through a gender-integrated curriculum while also engaging with significant stakeholders to shift gender norms and create an enabling environment for girls to reach their potential. This evaluation employed a quasi-experimental longitudinal cohort design, with the objective of understanding the program’s impact on the empowerment and employability of adolescent girls. The findings indicate that self-esteem and self-efficacy can be bolstered, and gender attitudes can be shifted in the short run with such a program. Though there were differences by age and program site, overall, the program was found to be effective in equipping girls with employability skills and preparing them for school-to-work transition. The program was impactful in empowering girls during adolescence when they had early exposure to the program. Adolescence is also when gender attitudes are deepening. As such, the program is considering more intentional focus on this age range in future programming efforts.

Delivering PACE++ curriculum in community settings: Impact of TARA intervention on gender attitudes and dietary practices among adolescent girls in Bihar, India

“…The effect size as discerned by Cohen's d is encouraging enough to be considered for wider scale up of such initiatives using existing platforms such as JEEViKA and other self-help group and adolescent forums. The effect size is also comparable to similar to other adolescent girl programmes delivered through school-based initiatives [19]. The boost in life-skills is a central argument of such programs as it is a fundamental determinant of a range of soft skills such as communication and coordination that are highly relevant for successful career as well as entrepreneurial abilities and economic leadership [7,46].…”

“…Lack of gender mainstreaming and gender-neutral social platforms also complicates the environment to impart trainings for development of life skills among women and girls [40]. The TARA intervention, therefore, assumes more relevance as efforts to deliver such life-skills trainings can lead to greater empowerment during adolescence [19].…”

“…The PACE curriculum is usually implemented at factory or work-site settings in Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam) [18]. It is also implemented for school-going adolescents through initiatives such as Planning Ahead for Girls' Empowerment and Employability (PAGE) and Plan-It Girls of the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) [19].…”

Teaching and learning for life skills development: Insights from Rwanda’s 12+ programme for adolescent girls

“…Some also measure the application of skills (e.g., Banati et al, 2021). While most initiatives find evidence of change on at least one indicator, many studies suggest that impacts vary considerably across different dimensions of life skills and among different groups (Baird, Camfield, et al, 2021; Baird, Dutton, et al, 2021; Dupuy et al, 2018; Kumar et al, 2021; Marcus et al, 2017).…”