Does it take a village? Fostering gender equity among early adolescents in Nepal

In rural Nepal, traditional gender norms contribute to a lack of opportunity for woman and girls and limit their access to reproductive health services. Early adolescence provides provides a key opportunity to shift these harmful norms. Choices, Voices, Promises is a package of interventions developed by Save the Children to improve gender equity among very young adolescents. The package works across the ecological model to address norms at the individual, family, and community levels.

This study of Choices, Voices, Promises was conducted in four Village Development Committees in the Kapilvastu district. Results suggest a positive effect on norms at the individual level and an added benefit from interventions for families and communities.

Rebecka Lundgren, Susannah Gibbs, Brad Kerner, gender norms; gender transformative programing, social norms, gender norms, very young adolescents, VYAs