Showcasing learnings from efforts to scale life skills development in Africa and Asia

• In Event: Developing life skills among youth: programmatic approaches and research evidence

Proposal

The PSIPSE collaborative of education donors aims to increase the relevance of secondary education to societal needs in the 21st century. It seeks to equip youth with the vital skills they need to become independent, confident adults who drive inclusive economic and social development. To achieve this goal, the PSIPSE has invested in 15 projects that aim to strengthen life skills in East Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda), West Africa (Nigeria), and South Asia (India). These projects are focused on enhancing higher-order thinking skills (e.g. critical thinking and problem solving), personal strengths (e.g. self-awareness and drive), interpersonal skills (e.g. empathy and communication), or a mix of these different skill types. Through skills development, they ultimately hope to achieve a diversity of goals, including increased transition from primary to secondary school, reduced drop out from secondary school, post-secondary employment and entrepreneurship, active citizenship, greater autonomy and decision-making power, and healthy sexual and reproductive health behaviors.

The projects leverage a variety of strategies and approaches to achieve their goals. Interventions include:

• Highly interactive mentorship sessions—led by teachers, external facilitators, or youth mentors—to foster development of a variety of life skills

• Establishment of safe spaces for girls to express themselves, share their experiences, and develop vital socio-emotional skills

• Teacher training on active learning techniques to foster development of higher order thinking skills

• Assessment of higher order thinking skills in high-stakes examinations

• Generation, use, and dissemination of evidence around life skills to policymakers and practitioners

Mathematica conducted a study to draw out lessons from the implementation of these projects—around the content of life skills programming, delivery of this content, measurement of life skills and their impacts, and efforts to scale life skills programming. It drew on an intensive document review and in-depth interviews with headquarters, field, and evaluation staff from grantee organizations. This presentation will focus on lessons related to scalability. For instance, it will discuss how to develop a model that is both streamlined and prescriptive enough for scale, but at the same time nuanced and tailored enough to grow life skills in target youth groups. It will explore how best to “make the case” for life skills to educators and policymakers, and share insights from grantees on how to position government to adopt and cascade life skills programming.

Author

• Swetha Sridharan, Mathematica Policy Research