Patience lives in Liberia, in an area that was widely affected by the Ebola epidemic and, before that, by violent armed civil conflict. Photo: Sarah Grile / IRC

The empowered girls of rural Liberia

Life skills and cash reduce child marriage and risky sexual behaviors

Patience, 15, wants to become a police officer. “When I become a police officer, I will not be scared anymore”. Patience lives in Nimba county, Liberia, an area that was widely affected by the Ebola epidemic and, before that, by violent armed civil conflict.

We met Patience when she participated in the International Rescue Committee’s first Girl Empower program for 13–14-year-old girls. Every week for eight months, she was joined by ten or so others in a girls-only safe space. A female mentor from the community facilitated sessions on important life skills like safety, protection, empowerment, financial literacy and leadership.

Patience faces difficult odds: by the time that Liberian adolescent girls are 15 years old, their school attendance starts dropping off precipitously (unlike boys’ school attendance, which remains mostly steady). By 18, nearly 50% will have had their first child.

Adolescent girls in Nimba County also report being exposed to staggering levels of sexual violence. Before the Girl Empower program even started, when most of the girls were aged 13–14 years old, 37% already reported having experienced sexual violence. Over half of the respondents who reported having experienced sexual or physical violence met or exceeded the threshold for post-traumatic stress.

Creating interventions that work to improve the lives of young adolescent girls in Liberia is critical. The IRC partnered with the Population Council, the World Bank’s Development Research Group, and Innovations for Poverty Action to rigorously test the Girl Empower program. We also tested what would happen if we added a participation incentive cash payment paid to parents for the girls’ attendance in the program sessions, assigned to randomly selected Girl Empower groups.

The impact evaluation results tell us that we can be hopeful. Girl Empower equipped adolescent girls with important life skills, improved gender attitudes, and, perhaps most importantly, reduced rates of child marriage and risky sexual behaviors, all of which were sustained one year after the end of the program.

When combined with the Girl Empower curriculum, cash had a multiplier effect. Girl Empower alone reduced the likelihood of marriage, the number of sexual partners in the past 12 months and increased sexual abstinence and condom use in the past 12 months. When the cash incentive was added, this impact increased by more than 50% compared to Girl Empower alone. Girl Empower plus cash is also cost-effective: the cash transfers, when combined with Girl Empower, represented just an additional 9% in program cost per girl. The word “combined” is key: we did not test the impact and cost effectiveness of cash only on those same outcomes. Future research is needed to understand the role of cash alone and whether it would have the same sustainable effects that were seen with Girl Empower and cash combined.

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Despite the positive, durable changes that resulted in the lives of adolescent girls who participated in the Girl Empower program, we still have much to learn about whether or how it can contribute to the reduction of sexual violence. Our impact evaluation did not show any reduction in sexual violence for girls who participated in Girl Empower compared to those who didn’t. Considering the context in which the Girl Empower program was implemented and the high levels of exposure to sexual violence, prevention programs should be paired with response services that are designed for adolescent girls.

The IRC recognizes that multi-sector, multi-system interventions are required to effectively tackle violence against women and girls. Nonetheless, this impact evaluation shows that the Girl Empower program could be an effective long-term prevention program for young girls. By reducing child marriage, a practice that is linked to higher rates of intimate partner violence — both physical and sexual — the program demonstrated it can effectively help girls make progress along pathways which can promote reduction of violence in the longer term.

Girl Shine is IRC’s recently updated signature adolescent girl program model and resource package for gender-based violence in humanitarian settings. It is shaped by research findings from Girl Empower, technical expertise and knowledge gathered through years of IRC’s women’s protection and empowerment efforts to reach adolescent girls in humanitarian settings.