Combining Mentoring Programs with Cash Transfers for Adolescent Girls in Liberia : Baseline Report

Hallman, Kelly ; Kelvin, Elizabeth ; Ozler, Berk ; Seban, Juliette ; Kuhlik, Erica ; Alton, Cooper ; Kamara, Joseph ; Goodman, Sarah

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: adolescent girls;    mentoring;    non-consensual sex;    sexual violence;    cash transfers;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7797
RP-ID  :  WPS7797

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This report presents findings from thebaseline assessment of International Rescue Committee's(IRC)Girl Empower (GE) program in Nimba County, Liberia.GE seeks to help 13 to 14 year-old girls make healthy lifechoices and decrease their risk of sexual abuse. The programcenters on weekly meetings between girls and trained localmentors, during which the girls learn about life skills andfinancial literacy. GE also holds monthly discussion groupsfor participants' caregivers, and trains local healthand psychosocial care providers on how to improve and expandservices for survivors of gender-based violence. Thisbaseline report is part of a cluster-randomized controlledtrial, which aims to assess the program's impact 24months after baseline. 21 percent of the baseline sample of13-14 year-old females reported having previously had sex.Within this group, 29 percent indicated that their firstsexual act was non-consensual.Among all GE girls, 37percent reported having experienced sexual violence of sometype, such as being physically forced to have sex,non-physically pressured (coerced/persuaded) to have sex,someone unsuccessfully attempting to have sex with them, andbeing touched in a sexual way. The levels of nonconsensualfirst sex and any experience of nonconsensual sex are at thehigh end of the range reported by the UNICEF Violenceagainst Children Surveys (VACS) in Swaziland, Tanzania,Kenya and Zimbabwe. As the VACS reporting is for (a varietyof) age ranges, each of which is higher than that in thisstudy, the levels of sexual violence reported here are veryhigh in comparison.