Eunice Muthengi, PhD, MPH, Population Council April 15, 2013

1. Investing Where it Counts:
Building social, health and economic
assets for vulnerable adolescent
girls in Africa.
Eunice Muthengi, PhD, MPH
Karen Austrian, MPH
Bixby Lecture, UCLA
April 15th, 2013

2. The
Population
Council
conducts biomedical,
social science, and
public health
research. We deliver
solutions that lead to
more effective
policies, programs,
and technologies that
improve lives around
the world.

3. Poverty, Gender, and Youth Program
Policy-oriented
research and programs that
improve the lives of
vulnerable
populations, especially
disadvantaged girls

4. THE POPULATION COUNCIL’S
ADOLESCENT GIRLS PROGRAMS

5. Rigorous Research StudiesGirls’ Programming
Kenya
Effect of social and
economic assets
8,000 girls
Zambia
Adolescent Girls
Empowerment Program
10,000 girls
Bangladesh
• Growing Up Safe and
Healthy 10,000 girls
• BALIKA 8,600 girls
Ethiopia
Kenya
Increasing
age at
marriage
5,000 girls
Burkina Faso
Senegal
Increasing age
at marriage
5,000 girls
ONGOING
PLANNED

6. WHY INVEST IN GIRLS?

7. Girls’ Vulnerabilities by Age 12
• As sexual maturation begins, girls are more at risk of
abuse at school and unwanted attention in the
community
• Increasing need for money to cater for personal needs
as well as household contribution – leads to increasing
pressure for transactional sexual relationships
• Girls are expected to take on a larger share of
domestic work
• School dropout
• Social isolation
• Loss of peers for girls

8. Additional Vulnerabilities in
Adolescence
• Early marriage
• Adolescent pregnancy
• HIV/AIDS
• Inability to enroll in/complete secondary
school
• Inactivity (joblessness) and wage
gender wage gap
• Gender-based violence

9. School Enrollment among 15-19 Year-Olds
in Kenya, (2009 DHS)

10. Dropout Rates for Primary and Secondary
Education, Girls

11. Percent of 20-24 Year-Old Kenyans Females
who were Married by Age 15 and 18 (‘09 DHS)

12. A Minimum of 60% of Kenyan Girls—50%
by age 30—Will Become Sole Supports of
Children if Present Trends Continue
0
.1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9
1
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
age
premarital single motherhood postmarital single motherhood
total single motherhood
Kenya

13. Early Childbearing
• Among 20-24 year-
olds, a quarter had
begun childbearing
by age 18 and half
by age 20
• Pregnancy-related
complications are
leading cause of
death for girls aged
15-19 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
15 16 17 18 19
Percent of Girls Age 15-19 Who have
Begun Childbearing by Exact Age

14. Returns to
Investments in Girls

15. Lifetime Cost of Girl Primary and Secondary Dropout, as %
of GDP
World Bank, 2011

16. Lifetime Cost of Girl Adolescent Pregnancy of Current
Cohort of 15-19 Year Old Girls, as a Share of Annual GDP
World Bank, 2011

17. http://www.girleffect.org/

18. Building Girls’
Social, Health and
Economic Assets

19. Asset Building Framework
Social + Health + Economic Assets
-girls need all three
Assets are a store of value
ASSETS  REDUCE VULNERABILITY
ASSETS  EXPAND OPPORTUNITIES

20. Girl platforms are bowls into which you can add
many elements. Without this bowl—or platform—
very little of sustained value to girls is possible.
basic health
information
Planning
control over
savings
entrepreneurship training
Building capacities

21. basic health
information
Planning
control over
savings
entrepreneurship training
Building capacities
Health/Human
* Knowledge
* Skills
* New Health Technologies
* Introduction to Clinical
Services
Social Capital
* Social connections
* Friends
* Self Esteem
* Mentors
* Safety Nets
Economic Resources
* Financial Capabilities
Training
* Access to Entitlements
* Cash Transfers
* Entrepreneurship
* Saving Accounts
The “Bowl” can be filled with different ingredients, depending on which
girls you want to reach

22. Building on Prior Health, Financial
Education, and Credit Programs
• Savings project builds on a
body of work with
adolescent girls – both
health and livelihood
focused
• Programs that offered credit
were not meeting the
economic or social needs of
girls
• Economic situation often
trumps their knowledge of
healthy behaviors
• Started with Financial
Education, but not meeting
girls need for safe and
secure places to store their
money

23. SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
• Market research study in June
2007 on savings products for
adolescent girls
• Girls have money –
small/irregular
• Safe, trusting, easy to access –
if designed right eager for
savings account
• Want trainings/social activities
• Not yet ready for credit
• Keeping money at home can
be risky

24. Safe and Smart Savings Products for
Vulnerable Girls in Kenya & Uganda
• Funded by NIKE Foundation
• Based on Safe Spaces Model
to build girls social, human and
economic assets
• Groups of 20-25 girls, ages 10-
19 (two segments of groups)
• Girls within groups open
individual savings accounts
• Weekly meetings in safe place
provided by FI
• Mentors above age of 18 in
each group facilitate group
meetings and deliver financial
education and health training
• Parents meetings & fun days
• Benefits: ID, homebank,
t-shirt, friends

25. Common sources of cash
Kenya Uganda
Mother 78% 80%
Father 55% 54%
Other Relatives 38% 36%
Own Savings 18% 20%
Casual Job 8% 9%
Steady Job 3% 3%

26. Financial Education
• Critical content component in the safe
space group trainings
• Earning Money
• Saving
• Budgeting
• Financial Negotiation
• Evolving Tools and Delivery Methods
• Goal to simplify and streamline delivery
of financial education

27. Financial Education and Savings
Girls were more likely to save if they had:
• Long-term goals
• Short-term goals
• Savings plan
• Said saving is ‘very important’
• Used bank services
• A family member who used bank services

32. “You must know why you are saving and must
have a plan, don’t save just because people
are saving.” Kenyan girl, age 10-14, Lunga
Lunga
Photo courtesy of the Population Council.

34. “They taught us the different ways of avoiding
contracting with the virus and this is a very
common topic among the youths because they
are the most victims of HIV so this was very
useful to me.” UG Girl, age 15-19, Kawampe.
Photo courtesy of the Population Council.

35. Protection against
Vulnerability and Risk

36. Increase in Girls Using own
Savings as Source of Cash
KenyaUganda
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
FINCA* Comparison
Baseline Endline Follow-up
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Faulu* Comparison
Baseline Endline Follow-up

37. Savings Alone is Potentially Risky
• Girls with accounts
only (and no group)
were more likely to
be robbed and
harassed by men
and boys
• Girls need a
combination of
financial and non-
financial services

38. Improvement in social capital
and social networks - Uganda
• At endline, compared to girls with
savings accounts only, girls in groups
were:
• more likely to agree that people in their
neighborhood trust one another
• more likely to have someone to borrow
money from in an emergency
• less likely to have been touched
indecently by someone of the opposite
sex in their neighborhood

39. Economic+Social+Health Assets
Reduces Risks
• Able to refuse sexual advances linked to
financial gifts
• Less dependent on men financially
• Having an emergency fund to meet needs

40. Able to refuse sexual advances
• What attracted me is that is saving is very helpful because
it minimizes chances of boys taking advantage of us in the
disguise of giving us money thus protect us from acquiring
HIV especially from those who come with such intentions.
Ugandan girl, age 10-14, Katwe.
• Sometimes a boy can tell you, “let me hold your hand then
I will give you 50 bob”…you then tell them, “I have more
than that 50 bob you want to give me”. Kenyan girl, age
10-14, Kawangware.

41. Less dependent on men
• Personally I joined because at times I can be having a
problem and my mother might not be having money at the
time then I can be able to help myself out instead of
seeking help from a boy who will later you ask for his
money you don’t have it at the end of it all he might resort
to raping you instead. Ugandan girl, age 10-14, Katwe.
• Now they fear me, in most cases what takes us more to
these boys is money, now when they see that I have my
own money they will not come to me telling me that I will
give you 1000 because I will tell them that I have it, don’t
even bother. Ugandan girl, age 15-19, Lugazi.

42. Emergency fund
• My mum was sick and my dad did not have money so we
went and withdrew my money and cleared my mum’s
hospital bill. It feels good. Kenyan girl, age 10-14, Kibera.
• I can now be able to buy things like sanitary towels on my
own without asking for money. Kenyan girl, age 15-19,
Kibera.
• I can use my saving to pay school fees if mum doesn’t
have enough. Kenyan girl, age 10-14, Kibera.

43. What Have We Learned?
• Vulnerable girls can save
• Girls and parents like the program
• Financial education is important with or
without a savings account
• Should be approached as a life skill

44. Program Expansion
• Expansion in Kenya to four new cites
(Nakuru, Kisumu, Thika and Kariobangi)
• AGEP program in Zambia – randomized
cluster design
• Study to understand effects of
economic assets on sexual behavior and
exploitation

45. For more information:
http://www.popcouncil.org/projects/48_SafeSmartSavingsVulnerableGirls.asp
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ASANTENI – THANK YOU