Understanding the causal pathway of girls’ club effects on educational outcomes for adolescent girls in Tanzania- Binti Shupavu Study

• In Event: Girlhoods

Proposal

School-based girls’ clubs have been identified as a promising practice for supporting vulnerable
girls’ retention and achievement in school. Marcus et al. conducted a systematic review
of 44 girls/youth club programs located largely in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia which showed that the vast majority of programs positively impacted girls’ social emotional competencies such as self-confidence, decision making, etc with 25% of programs also showing an increase in school enrollment, attainment and a reduction in dropout (2017). Although a wide range of social emotional learning outcomes have been identified as the result of girls’ clubs programming (Catalaon et al. 2019), the causal process of how these skills produce the desired educational outcomes has yet to be established (Kwauk & Braga 2016).

At the micro-level this paper explores how girls club programs that support girls’ agency such as the Binti Shupavu program in Tanzania, can and should be viewed as a form of protest. Binti shupavu (brave daughters in Swahili) build their capacity to resist societal pressures and expand their life opportunities. Programs like Binti are the drivers of social change in rural Tanzania, and are building momentum for increased gender equality for girls and women in the region. At the macro-level the Binti Shupavu Process Tracing Study provides an example of how to ‘localize’ and thereby decolonize approaches to scale and scalability. By providing a deep investigation of causal complexity (Ragin 2004) and causal mechanisms, and how those mechanisms directly address contextual challenges, this paper offers insight into how to replicate outcomes, rather than simply replicating programs (as is the common approach in scaling strategies).

This paper applied a qualitative process tracing method to identify the causal mechanisms through which the Binti Shupavu program influences agency as an outcome for girls and consequently how an increase in agency influences educational outcomes. Binti Shupavu is an afterschool girls’ club program currently operating in government secondary O-level schools in three regions of Tanzania. It is a four year training and mentoring program for adolescent girls operated by Tanzanian NGO GLAMI (the Girls' Livelihood and Mentoring Initiative) and delivered through small group tutorials held weekly by university educated Tanzanian women. Although this is a multi-component program, the center-piece of Binti Shupavu and GLAMI’s theory of change, rests on the importance of mentorship in increasing girls’ agency and success as conceptualized by Sidle et al. as a four dimensional construct made up of: self governance skills, self beliefs, leadership skills and beliefs about the structure of gendered norms (Sidle & Oulo, 2023).

This paper will both provide an overview of the Binti Shupavu program theory and practical processes for its effectiveness in improving educational outcomes for secondary school girls in Tanzania and similar contexts. The process tracing component was carried out as part of a mixed methods cluster randomized trial to assess the effectiveness of the Binti Shupavu program on increasing girls agency and the effects on specific educational outcomes such as school retention and academic achievement for girls in rural Morogoro, Tanzania. We hypothesize that an increase in girls’ agency is an intermediate outcome in the causal pathway of the Binti Shupavu program and the specific education outcomes, but that these causal pathways are intimately linked to specific contextual factors in rural Tanzania.

Qualitative data collection was conducted in mid 2022 to produce the program theory through describing the causal mechanisms for achieving program outcomes.The baseline data collection involved adult Binti Shupavu staff (Program managers, Mentors and Social Workers), school teachers from GLAMI partner schools, parents, community members and Binti Shupavu alumni in the form of Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and In Depth Interviews (IDI) amounting to a total of 13 FGDs and two IDIs. Interviews were translated and transcribed, codes were assigned based on the program structure, content, mechanisms and described outcomes. ATLAS.ti was used for data coding and analysis.

The findings have highlighted that key program components such as the training curriculum, parental engagement and social worker support jointly result in the desired program outcomes. The program components have a unique supplemental addition to each other in contributing to specific outcomes. "They depend on each other. We won’t have a scholar without a parent. If we would teach without engaging parents, girls wouldn’t get the chance to talk to their parents….’’ Mentor

Training curriculum: Findings showed how the program topics supplement each other as a process of education outcomes.

Mentor Relationship: Findings showed relationships between Mentors and girls were considered as a significant enabling factor of program successes. Aside from the mentors' role in delivering the curriculum, their words of encouragement, attentive to girls' needs, act as role model figures and considered as a source of information contributed to the outcomes. “But a mentor would come to class and will advise us that kind of advice that says more of her feeling the same way when she was like us in this stage. With all of that, even if you are about to give up you get encouraged. ” Alumnae

Parents engagement: Findings showed that engaged parents increase the likelihood of positive education outcomes among girls through developing a positive attitude on girls’ education to provide a more supportive learning environment for their girls.

Social work (psychosocial support and emergency fund): Girls face significant structural barriers within and outside the school. It was observed that continuous check ins are required in ensuring girls psychological and material needs are met through psychosocial and scholastic materials support.

Pedagogy: Girl centered and style of instructions strengthen the relationship between the mentors and girls and allows girls to practically familiarize themselves on decision making and taking action when faced with scenarios related to the curriculum content.

Authors

• Brenda Oulo, AMPLIFY GIRLS

• Asimwe Suedi, AMPLIFY Girls

• Aubryn Allyn Sidle, Cornell University, Global Development

• Monica Andrew Swai, Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiative (GLAMI)

• Eugenia Joseph Kafanabo, UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM