Core Project Overview

Objectives

Core has three main objectives:

Gain new perspectives of women’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and India

Co-design more relevant, innovative service interventions together with women, men experts, delivery partners and governments stakeholders

Provide the foundation with an immersive, practical experience in human-centred design (HCD) which can be replicated and embedded into future investments

Life Course and sexual and reproductive health

● The life course approach looks at women’s health over time to understand the connections between past experiences and future outcomes.

● Sexual and reproductive health – including maternal and newborn health – is a vital part of women’s overall wellbeing and quality of life.

Core countries

India

Kenya

Tanzania

Nigeria

Core project country selection has been aligned to support global Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) and Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) goals. The project is guided by international and national SRH / MNCH data and research. The project countries have also been selected to support the key programme and country strategies and goals of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

Core India

The focus of Core Project in India is adolescent girls and their agency.

Core India recognised that the transition from pre-marriage adolescence to married adolescence is one of the most important transitions in her life.

Objectives

Process Overview

Discover I + II trips● 33 sessions● 130 people

Co-creation I + II trips● 28 sessions● 90 people

Solutions

Role-Space-Time Framework

Changes in Agency across life course

Levels of the Socioecological Model

SUPPORT (EXTRINSIC)

INTENT(INTRINSIC)

R O L E

S P A C E T I M E

19 20 21

As transitions occur during the life course, the Role-Space-Time dynamic for a particular girl influences the level of Intent and Support she has, and therefore her Agency in decisions about many aspects of her life, including uptake of healthy SRH behaviours.

42

Design drivers based on RST Framework

Leverage rapid changes in social norms that advance girls’ agency, enhancing enabling factors in populations that are lagging

Identify critical transition moments in girls’ lives and ways to increase awareness and support to mitigate potential vulnerabilities

Create safe spaces where girls can express themselves and build capacity to achieve aspirations, free from repercussions

Expand girls’ ideation of potential aspirations through exposure to diverse role models

Enlarge girls’ networks to fill unoccupied supporter roles enabling them to translate awareness into action

Amplify positive examples of enabling roles and facilitate shifts in restrictor to supporter roles in the family and community

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

It was decided that most solutions would leverage adolescent girl group formats, drawing on knowledge and evidence to date and identifying opportunities for integration as well as standalone solutions.

Significance of Adolescent Girl Groupsand missed opportunities

Pre-marriage adolescence emerged as a critical transition point to prepare girls for the future.

The proliferation of life skills education and girls’ empowerment programs provides an opportunity for girls to fulfil enabling and supporting roles for each other during this critical transition.

*UNICEF. Global evaluation of life skills education programmes. 2012. ODI. GAGE Rigorous Review: Girls’ clubs, life skills programmes and girls’ well-being outcomes. 2017.

Space

Time

Role

A girls-only group format provides girls a safe space to learn, express and socialize.

Missed opportunities Success factors Unknowns

Lack of meaningful engagement of girls in designing interventions

Insufficient participatory activities to help learners move beyond knowledge acquisition to development of skills, attitudes and behaviors

Use games and fun activities for learning

Involve family and other members of the community

Provide time for girls to relax and socialize

Benefits of social support and trust developed between girls in the groups

How to scale and sustain these programs

Responding to global & local needs

Community aware

Core’s design challenge: To co-create solutions to transform facilitator-led education programs to experiential and socially supportive girl-led and owned groups.

TARA club provides a platform to design, prototype and test solutions for adolescent girls in Bihar.

Characteristics for solution design Desirability Trust building Girl-led

Experiential Learner responsive

We co-designed with-

Adolescent girls to understand their aspirations, how these aspirations form, what roles can we build/leverage upon to enable her access to information and ability for expression and negotiation, how do we build their agency?

Brothers, Mothers and Fathers of adolescent girls To design solutions that will not face backlash from family and community and will enable these actors to move from restricting to enabling roles.

Partners and experts:Project Concern International,IndiaBMGF India Country Office Pathfinder IndiaWISH foundation Institute of Design Population Council IndiaCentre for Catalyzing Change India

Mothers With good and sub-optimal SRH outcomes to determine how agency or its constituent elements as per the RST Framework influence the SRH outcomes.

Design Drivers Co-design Solutions Prototyping & Feedback

Experiential prototype

Continued engagement with same groups of girl to create group-like experience for the girls and test our solutions.

Prototyping and Feedback

Solution package responds to R-S-T

● Fosters support roles among girls● Helps girls develop skills to identify and

ask for support in achieving their goals● Links girls to women and programs in the

community that can provide support

● Brings girls together at a critical transition moment in their lives, preparing them for future situations

● Shapes boys perceptions about relationships with women and girls at a critical moment

● Creates a girls’ only space where they can feel free to self-express, play, practice skills, experiment and grow

Space Time

Role

● Transforms brothers protector role from restrictor to supporter

● Responds to family and community roles in enabling girls’ participation

23

A gamified learning tool to enable girls to express aspirations, discuss life pathways and potential risks and opportunities in a fun and engaging manner. The tool can be used for various topics based on learning objectives, e.g. empowerment, employability and health issues.

Solution 1. Pathfinder

24

Goal-completion Counselling

Peer-to-peer advice Risk mitigation

Solution 1. Pathfinder

Create a persona Goal settingFuture goals

Play the game: Response & advice

During the game:

Blue card: “Something happened”E.g. Someone forces her to do something

Red card: “Tell me more about”E.g. Tell more more about what can make things worse for her now?

Green card: “Let me tell you about”E.g. Let me tell you what she should avoid right now?(Facilitator shares information)

Yellow card: People picture cardA variety of roles to spark conversation

25

Prototyping: Running a prototyping session with adolescent girls

“After today, I learned that I need to achieve a goal even if I face barriers, I

need to keep moving forward.” - Adolescent girl

“It is in fact easy after played once. And the gaming structure was really easy to get girls to share stories freely. ” - Facilitator

Prototyping: Training facilitators

Solution 2. Theatre for Change

Theatre for Change is a platform where through active role-playing of life scenarios and observation, girls identify challenges in interactions with others that they face collectively and come up with strategies on how to navigate through challenging situations.

27

Negotiation skill Problem-solving strategy

Realization of existing support

Girls had fun playing the characters and even made jokes. For example, the girl playing the chemist in this role play refused to provide change which elicited much laughter.

Even seemingly simple scenarios, such as fighting over the television remote with a brother, brought out complex conversations about gendered hierarchies within the household.

Prototyping: Girls are invited to role-play situational incidents where require them to

negotiate for themselves

28

Solution 3. Expanding Horizons

Girls learn from the life journey of role models, who represent diverse examples of professions and life experiences, through an in-person or digital talk format. The life stories provide girls with inspiration to expand their aspirations and to identify strategies to approach their goals.

29

Positive role model Goal-setting

Awareness of potentials/challenges

Prototyping: The community mobilizer serves as a role model sharing her life story with girls

During the session, the role model started crying because the girls were so inspired by her story. The experience helped the role model to understand how much she went through. She realized how important it is to share her story with girls and encourage them not to give up in the face of any life challenges. 30

Prototyping: Later the same story was shown to another group of girls by video.

Both in-person and digital formats appear to be influential. Both groups were very touched by role model’s story and had similar reflections.In a digital format, a repository of inspiring and enabling content involving more role models without geographical limitation can be developed.

“We are so inspired by her story. We learned not to be afraid of any obstacles to our goals.” - Adolescent girl

31

An opportunity for girls to practice collective action through development and implementation of plans.

A series of workshops enable girls to identify issues they collectively face, prioritise a key issue, plan resource and skill acquisition to address that issue, and iteratively adapt the plan based on experiences when carrying out the plan.

This format can be used to facilitate: 1.) Change Collective: issues in the community where girls want to make a change 2.)Skills Lab: develop skills that girls need to meet their goals.

Solution 4. Change Collective & Skills Lab

32

Group cohesion

Peer support

Collective action

Life skill development

Solution 4. Change Collective & Skills Lab

Step 1: Explore & Define Step 2: Design Solution

Step 4: Improve Step 3: Review

Iteration Practice

Session one

Session two

33

“Why do only girls face all the problems?”- Adolescent girls

When the facilitator read out the issues that girls written, there was a shared moment of realization where girls discovered that they’re not alone facing these challenges.

Prototyping: Running a prototyping session where girls can go through the process.

34

Solution 5. Brothers for Sisters*

An experimental creative engagement program focused on adolescent brothers to bring about a shift in their self-perceived role from a protector to a supporter.

35

Enabling roles

Redefined supporting brother

Mindset shifts

* ‘Brothers for Sisters’ emerged as a necessary and important solution while prototyping other solutions. Hence this is at a concept stage and hasn’t been prototyped yet.

5. Brothers for SistersProblem Structure

Most brothers identify Protector as their primary role in their sister’s lives.

Some brothers also identify both Protecting and Supporting to be their primary roles in their sister’s lives.

Brothers Sisters

Social norms dictate brothers’ roles as the protectors of family honour which leads to brothers restricting their sister’s mobility and agency.

While some brothers recognise the inequalities faced by their sisters and are open to change, current social norms induce them to restrict their sister’s freedoms. They face challenges similar to girls in establishing their self-identity and navigating personal aspirations that may conflict with social norms.

Community

36

#brothers4sistersInfluencer led dialogue platform to redefine what it means to be a brother and what does protection mean.

5. Brothers for SistersCreative Strategy

Activating progressive brothers to shift their role from protectors to supporters. Following the influencers to catalyze the dialogue around redefining brotherhood.

1

2Challenging the social norms and making it cool to be Supportive Brother.

3More brothers shift their self perceived roles from protector to that of a supporter.

37

Discussion

● What do you think about the solutions? How do they add to current programming?

● Which are interesting to you? Which might need further modifications to achieve their potential?

Recommendations for implementation

TARA Club initiative

● TARA club introduction● How HCD adds value in their process● Core India solutions and TARA club Implementation plan

40

Invite 6-8 girls to a mock session where they can experience and interact with the solutions

● During the session, observe the overall group flow, girls’ reaction to the solutions and the facilitator’s confidence to run the group.

● After the sessions, gather feedback from both girls and the facilitator(s) on their overall experience and suggestions for adapting the solutions.

The testing will provide an opportunity to

● Understand girls’ experience or any additional expectations.

● Guarantee facilitators are supported and ready to execute the solutions.

● Ensure things are in place and materials are culturally sensitive.

● Identify implementation challenges and finalize the process and logistics for the local context.

Test before implementation

Before implementing any solutions, we highly

recommend to run a beta testing with 1-2 groups of girls

to fine-tune the solutions.

41

Community buy-in: For wider audience, opening certain sessions for caregivers, community leaders aids in acceptance in the community for the group and its activities.

For parents specifically, having a clear identity to establish credibility of the group and offering certified concrete skills training are important.

Brainstorming sessions. These can be conducted in different ways - ideas can be generated aloud or on paper, in larger groups or in small groups.

Group size. It is recommended to mix the groups up. Small groups are normally recommended as they work better for girls who normally don’t speak up to express themselves.

Monitoring and evaluation. Engage girls in the process of monitoring and evaluation. Each group could have a focal point who would be responsible for collecting girls’ feedback routinely

Process

42

Logistics

Sessions could be adjusted to different timing. Additionally, sparing some unstructured time for girls to socialize and enjoy themselves apart from formal activities.

The resources needed to implement these solutions are low as most materials can be locally sourced.

Referral Resources. It is important that local mapping of additional psychosocial support is conducted or offer a hotline if resources are available so girls are able to access further support if needed.

43

The physical space should be private and secure. Using a recognized community building e.g. a school of a local government post, could increase acceptability.

The participants should be guaranteed a psychological safe space, where they are able to voice their concerns where anonymity and confidentiality is preserved, and without repercussions.

When the space is dedicated for club activity, there should be only a facilitator.

Establishing the space. If the group has its own permanent space, the materials signifying group identity (logos, banners, etc) can remain there.

Space Select a space that has the

following characteristics

44

Demonstrates empathy for and ability to form relationships with adolescent girls

Presents the qualities of a supportive older sister rather than an authority figure

Excellent listener and observer

Communication skills for both public speaking and interpersonal conversations

Ability to be responsive and adapt based on what girls need

Has or is able to develop relationships with programs and leaders in the community

Facilitator Preferred characteristics

45

Further develop empathy for adolescent girls and their challenges and opportunities

Enhance learning through experience by having facilitators practice doing the sessions with other facilitators

Develop listening, observation and facilitation skills, towards sparking conversations, supporting girls to lead and enabling all girls to participate

Strengthen communication skills, such as counseling for girls who are upset and public speaking for the larger group

Identify relevant adaptations that the facilitators might use to respond to their local context

Provide platforms for facilitators to share experiences and challenges and learn from each other

Facilitator Elements of training

46

Developing solidarity

Organizes some solidarity group-building exercises

for girls

47

We propose the following group exercises:

● Craft the group statement● Brand the group● Express group identity e.g. group rules,

song, banner

These activities help girls to get to know each other as well as defines the purpose and nature of the club. It helps develop a sense of group cohesion and ownership through rituals and activities, including girl-led branding exercises for the group name, logo, song, etc.

Self-expression Group identity

The different tasks brought out different talents and leadership skills among the girls, e.g. communications, drawing, music, etc.

Girls liked that these elements would further cohesion of the group “We will sing the song when we sit together at the beginning of the meeting, like an anthem” 48