Research Initiative to Support the Empowerment of Girls

Summary

Background Adolescent pregnancies carry risks to the young mothers and the babies. Keeping girls in school can potentially protect girls from getting pregnant. In Zambia, 35% of young rural girls have given birth by the age of 18 years, and the pregnancy rates are particularly high among girls who are out-of-school. Approximately 50% of girls never enroll in secondary school. Widespread myths and negative social norms are barriers to adolescent girls using modern contraceptives, thus contributing to high rates of early pregnancy. However, there is little robust research from Africa on how sexual and reproductive health programmes can be delivered in a way that actually affects early marriage and pregnancy rates.

Purpose To measure the effect on early childbearing rates and basic school completion in a rural Zambian context of (1) economic support to girls and their families, and (2) combining economic support with a community intervention to enhance knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and supportive community norms

Design Cluster randomized controlled trial with three arms with clusters being rural basic schools (With grades 1-9) with surrounding communities.

Study population The participant population were girls enrolled in grade 7 in January in 2016 in rural schools in twelve study districts: Kalomo, Choma, Pemba, Monze, Mazabuka, Chikankata, Kapiri Mposhi, Kabwe, Chisamba, Chibombo, Mkushi, and Luano.

Study size A total of 4922 girls and 157 clusters were recruited, that is 999 girls and 31 clusters in the control arm and 2004 and 63 clusters in the economic support arm and 1919 girls and 63 schools in the combined intervention arms. The rationale for having different numbers of clusters was that we expected larger differences between each of the intervention arms and the control arm than between the two intervention arms themselves.

Intervention One intervention arm was offered economic support in the form of monthly cash transfers to the participating girl and her parents and payment of junior secondary school fees in 2017 and 2018. The second intervention arm was offered the same economic support combined with a community component comprising community meetings about the value of education for adolescent girls and the risks related to early childbearing, and a youth club covering comprehensive sexuality education for girls and boys (both in- and out-of-school).

Conditions

• Pregnancy in Adolescence

Interventions

OTHER

Material support

Writing materials

OTHER

Economic

Economic support (monthly cash transfer to girls, annual grant to guardians, and payment of school fees in grade 8 and 9)

BEHAVIORAL

Community dialogue

Community dialogue (youth club meetings, community and parent meetings)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Zambia

  collaborator OTHER

• Chr. Michelsen Institutt

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Norwegian School of Economics

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Bergen

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ingvild F Sandøy, PhD · University of Bergen

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

9 Years

Max Age

25 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-03-04

Primary Completion

2020-12-31

Completion

2020-12-31

Countries

• Zambia

Study Locations