Evaluating the Impact of Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescent (ELA)

This slide presentation, with accompanying PDF document, provides a project description of the Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescent (ELA) programme of BRAC, a non-governmental organisation serving Bangladesh and 10 other countries around the world. It evaluates the impact of the microfinance/livelihoods aspect of the projects in Uganda.

The ELA programme consists of:

1. Clubs
2. Life Skills Training
3. Livelihood Training
4. Community Participation
5. Microfinance

From the inputs of the clubs, training, microfinance, and parental/community elder meetings, the outputs include: interest in club activities, knowledge and awareness, entrepreneurial attitudes coupled with financial knowledge, borrowing, and positive parent support. Outcomes include: participation in clubs; positive health practices and agency in matters of early pregnancy and life aspirations; employment, income, and financial assets; and higher parental expectations of girls. Programme goals include: strong social networks, confident and empowered citizens, self-reliance and access to further financing, and an adolescent-friendly community.

Researchers asked: 1) How effective is social empowerment and livelihood training in elevating the well-being of adolescent girls? 2) How much additional impact does microfinance have?

The evaluation design included 50 villages that received: a baseline survey; the establishment of adolescent development clubs (ADCs); a first follow-up survey; an offering of a microfinance programm; and asecond follow-up survey. The second group of 50 villages received the same activities except for the microfinance component. Another 50 villages were surveyed as control villages, receiving the 3 surveys only.

The presentation shows baseline data of: mean age of girls; percentage of girls never married, with children, with savings, and/or enrolled in school; monthly expenditures; and shares spent on indicator items such as clothes, cosmetics, shoes, and hairdressing. It has maps of clubs and club participation rates and characteristics of participants in terms of socio-economic status and education.

In the intervention villages, the percentage of girls who have savings increased 18.5% compared to 5.6% in the control village. Impact on health knowledge is reported as increases in: 46.9% in HIV knowledge, 16.6% in sexually transmitted infection (STI) knowledge, 19.1% in 'always use condom'; and 8.1% in other contraception. Decreases include: 13.7% had sex unwillingly, 3.4% have children, .9% currently pregnant, 1.3% contracted STI.

The programme shows increases in poultry rearing, food processing, and small trade, among other microenterprise, as well as increases in financial knowledge and literacy, entrepreneurship ability, bank savings, income, microfinance loan, and loan from a parent.

Comparing the three groups: the group with microfinance access showed a 67% rate of 'always use a condom' in the follow-up survey; the participant group without microfinance training showed a 54% increase; and the control group showed a 38% increase. Of the same three groups, after the establishment of clubs for the first two groups and the microfinance programme for group one: in group one, 44% more girls were engaged in income earning; in group two, 15% more; and 14% more from the control group were engaged in income earning.

Researchers concluded that the ELA approach positively changes health knowledge and practices and increases engagement in learning, with the microfinance component adding to girls' empowerment. It recommends strengthening the focus on the most vulnerable girls (e.g. child mothers, orphans, or those from economically poorer households).