The impact of life skills education and mentoring on girls’ life outcomes: results from alumnae surveys and a tracer study

• In Event: Ensuring girls’ empowerment to improve education outcome: harnessing the gatekeepers

Proposal

Building life skills has become a key objective within many development programs and country policy frameworks, as research highlights the impact of life skills to enable children to grow into independent thinkers and productive citizens, able to adapt to the needs and demands of the 21st Century economy .
Life skills are even more critical for girls, who often lack the information, agency and voice to negotiate with their families about staying in school and make informed choices about their lives. Girls who develop foundational life skill coupled with positive support from families, communities, and mentors will be more likely to stay in school, graduate, and improve their life outcomes. These girls are changing their communities, with a sustainable impact on economic growth, democratic development, and public health, creating ripple effects that are passed on from generation to generation. Through educated girls, communities sustain change, one person and one family at a time. More informed, more self-reliant girls make for more gender equal, inclusive, prosperous, healthier and peaceful societies, where men and women can fully express themselves and contribute to political, social and economic life.
While life skills education is gaining traction nationally and internationally, it is strategic for international development organizations focused on girls’ education to have an integrated strategy for program delivery and advocacy, deeply rooted in evidence. However, very few programs have considered the short and long-term impact of life-skills based girls and gender equality education on a country’s socio-economic indicators, or integrated life skills into schools internationally.
Based on the learnings and experiences of 17 years of program implementation in life skills education for girls in nine countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia), this presentation will highlight the best practices and lessons learned in building evidence around the impact of life skills education and mentoring for girls.
New evidence will be shared on the life outcomes of alumnae who have graduated from the program between 2010-2014 and were part of an in depth qualitative tracer study. Also, based on the findings from surveys of alumnae one to five years out of the program, the presenter will provide an overview of the current educational, employment, community engagement and family outcomes of a wide sample of young women across multiple countries in Africa and Asia. The presentation will also outline the various pathways these women have taken toward their education, employment and with their families and how they perceive the participation in the program contributed to their pathways and current status.

Authors

• Linda Tran, Room to Read

• Lucina Di Meco, Room to Read