GAGE Report: Title Adolescent girls’ capabilities in Nepal The state of the evidence on programme effectiveness Maria Stavropoulou with Nandini Gupta-Archer d December 2017 Disclaimer Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) is a nine-year longitudinal research programme building knowledge on good practice programmes and policies that support adolescent girls in the Global South to reach Acknowledgements their full potential. The author would like to thank all those who helped to produce this country evidence review, including Rachel This document is an output of the programme which is Marcus and Sudeep Uprety for valuable comments, funded by UK Aid from the UK Department for International Katie Parry for the MSSM coding, Alex Cunningham and Development (DFID). The views expressed and information Madeleine D’Arcy for database searches, Alexandra contained within are not necessarily those of or endorsed Vaughan for administrative support, Aaron Griffiths for by DFID, which accepts no responsibility for such views or copy-editing and Jojoh Faal for formatting. information or for any reliance placed on them. Table of Contents Acronyms ............................................................................................................................................ i Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... ii Report objectives ............................................................................................................................... ii Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... ii State of the intervention evidence base on adolescent girls in Nepal ................................................. ii Key findings ...................................................................................................................................... iii Key evidence gaps .............................................................................................................................. v 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Methodology and overview of the literature ................................................................................ 1 1.2 Limitations ................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Voice and agency interventions .................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Overview of the evidence ............................................................................................................. 3 2.2 Interventions improving girls’ voice and leadership skills ............................................................. 3 2.3 Interventions targeting youth with peacebuilding objectives ....................................................... 7 2.4 Child and youth club interventions ............................................................................................... 9 2.5 Interventions addressing discriminatory norms and promoting gender equality ........................ 11 2.6 Communication interventions .................................................................................................... 12 2.7 Child-centred disaster risk reduction interventions .................................................................... 13 2.8 Assessment of the evidence and key gaps .................................................................................. 13 3. Education and learning interventions ......................................................................................... 15 3.1 Overview of the evidence ........................................................................................................... 15 3.2 Scholarships and financial incentive programmes ...................................................................... 15 3.3 Clubs and life skills training ........................................................................................................ 18 3.4 Interventions targeting out-of-school girls ................................................................................. 21 3.5 Interventions targeting child labourers ...................................................................................... 22 3.6 Assessment of the evidence and key gaps .................................................................................. 24 4. Economic empowerment interventions ...................................................................................... 26 4.1 Overview of the evidence ........................................................................................................... 26 4.2 Vocational skills training and livelihood interventions targeting youth ....................................... 26 4.3 Youth savings interventions ....................................................................................................... 29 4.4 Public works interventions ......................................................................................................... 29 4.5 Interventions with peacebuilding objectives .............................................................................. 30 4.6 Women’s economic empowerment interventions ...................................................................... 32 4.7 Interventions tackling child labour ............................................................................................. 34 4.8 Assessment of the evidence and key gaps .................................................................................. 35 5. Bodily autonomy, integrity and freedom from violence interventions ....................................... 36 5.1 Overview of the evidence ........................................................................................................... 36 5.2 Interventions tackling violence against girls ............................................................................... 36 5.3 Communication interventions .................................................................................................... 40 5.4 Interventions tackling child marriage and other harmful traditional practices ............................ 41 5.5 Interventions tackling human trafficking .................................................................................... 43 5.6 Assessment of the evidence and key gaps .................................................................................. 43 6. Psychosocial wellbeing interventions .......................................................................................... 45 6.1 Overview of the evidence ........................................................................................................... 45 6.2 Psychosocial support interventions targeting conflict-affected youth ........................................ 45 6.3 Psychosocial support interventions for children and women ...................................................... 47 6.4 Interventions with psychosocial wellbeing outcomes ................................................................. 48 6.5 Assessment of the evidence and key gaps .................................................................................. 48 7. Sexual and reproductive health, health and nutrition interventions .......................................... 49 7.1 Overview of the evidence ........................................................................................................... 49 7.2 Interventions targeting adolescent girls ..................................................................................... 49 7.3 Reproductive health interventions targeting youth .................................................................... 51 7.4 Interventions targeting women and girls .................................................................................... 54 7.5 Assessment of the evidence and key gaps .................................................................................. 55 8. Conclusions: key findings and gaps ............................................................................................. 56 References....................................................................................................................................... 59 Annex I: Nepal Interventions Table ................................................................................................. 64 Annex II: Methodology .................................................................................................................. 138 Search grids for Google and Google Scholar ................................................................................... 138 Tables Table 1: Thematic foci of impact studies and evaluations ................................................................... 2 Table 2: Distribution of MSSM Scores ................................................................................................ 2 Annex Table 1: Gender and empowerment .................................................................................... 138 Annex Table 2: Education and learning .......................................................................................... 139 Annex Table 3: Economic empowerment ......................................................................................