Clinical trial NCT03890237: GAGE Act With Her-Ethiopia Evaluation
Official title: Gender Transformative Programming to Improve Capabilities of Young Adolescents in Ethiopia: A Cluster Randomized Control Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Adolescent Behavior
Gender
Lead sponsor: George Washington University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Overseas Development Institute
name: Addis Ababa University
name: University of Oklahoma
name: Pathfinder International
name: Care International
name: UK Department for International Development on behalf of UK Aid
name: Gates Foundation
First posted: 2019-03-26
Enrollment: 4500
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 10
Maximum age (years): 13
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: The impact evaluation study is a cluster-randomized controlled trial among 175 communities with five study arms: control (no intervention), AWH-E, Her Spaces, AWH- E + asset transfer, and AWH-E without community engagement and systems strengthening.
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This study evaluates the impact of Act With Her Ethiopia (AWH-E), a gender transformative multi-level program that aims to improve the lives of young adolescent boys and girls.

Detailed description: Unequal gender norms and power dynamics are often driven and reinforced by adolescent girls' male peers, families, communities, and the broader institutional structures that surround them. Without change in gender attitudes and norms at each of these levels, improved outcomes for key transitions are much less likely to be sustained. Efforts to nurture change must also acknowledge that adolescents' opportunities and capabilities are shaped by complex, intersectional forces including ethnicity, caste, religion, and disability, among others. This multi-arm randomized control trial aims to improve the evidence base on effective approaches to improve multi-sectoral outcomes for girls across the following domains from the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) framework: education and learning; health, nutrition and sexual and reproductive health; bodily integrity; psychosocial well-being; voice and agency; and economic empowerment.

Specifically, the trial has four goals:

1. To evaluate the impact of Act With Her in Ethiopia (AWH-E) - a gender-transformative multi-level program - on young adolescent girls' and boys' capabilities (11-13) in the short- and long-run across the six GAGE capability domains using a multi-arm cluster randomized control trial across two regions (Amhara and Oromia).
2. To compare the impact of AWH-E to a more basic gender-synchronized program (AWH-E without community engagement and systems strengthening), a standalone girls' group program (Her Spaces), and the gender-transformative program with economic support (AWH-E + Asset Transfers) on young adolescent capability achievements and transitions in the short- and longer- terms across two regions (Amhara and Oromia).
3. To evaluate the impact of AWH-E on young adolescent capability achievements and transitions in the short- and long- term in pastoralist contexts (Afar).
4. To use mixed-methods research to understand the mechanisms driving the impact, and in particular what works, for whom, and why.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* girls and boys 10-13 at time of enrollment in Act With Her Arms
* girls 11-13 female at time of enrollment in Her Spaces Arm

Exclusion Criteria:

* None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Standardized Index of Education and Learning (girls)
timeFrame: 20 months after intervention starts
measure: Standardized index of Bodily Integrity (girls)
timeFrame: 20 months after the intervention starts
measure: Standardized Index of Health, Nutrition, and Sexual and Reproductive Health (girls)
timeFrame: 20 months after the intervention starts
measure: Standardized Index of Psychosocial Well-Being (girls)
timeFrame: 20 months after the intervention starts
measure: Standardized Index of Voice and Agency (girls)
timeFrame: 20 months after the intervention starts
measure: Standardized Index of Economic Empowerment (girls)
timeFrame: 20 months after the intervention starts
measure: Standardized Index of Cross-Cutting Gender Issues (girls)
timeFrame: 20 months after the intervention ends
measure: Standardized Index of Cross-Cutting Gender Issues (boys)
timeFrame: 20 months after the intervention ends
measure: Standardized Index of Cross-cutting Gender Issues (primary female caregivers of girls)
timeFrame: 20 months after the intervention ends
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Zone 5
country: Ethiopia
state: Afar
city: South Gondar
country: Ethiopia
state: Amhara
city: East Hararghe
country: Ethiopia
state: Oromia
Study officials:
References: