Empowerment and Livelihood of Adolescents (ELA)

In Uganda, girls face disproportionate risks that impact their educational and economic opportunities, such as early pregnancy, marriage, and exposure to sexual violence and transactional sex. For example, one in ten girls aged 15-17 in Uganda has had a child or is pregnant [1]. More than one in three (35.3%) girls experience sexual violence, and nearly 11% experience forced or pressured sex before age 18 [2]. Among girls who had sex in childhood, 14.5% had ever participated in transactional sex (sex in exchange for money, favors, or goods), a finding that is associated with increased HIV risk behaviors, self-harm, and attitudes supportive of spousal violence [3].

BRAC established the Empowerment and Livelihood of Adolescents (ELA) program to strengthen girls’ and young women's life skills, as well as their educational and economic opportunities. The program aims to increase their control over their own bodies,  by reducing experiences of unwanted sex, early pregnancy, and marriage.

What it is and how it works

The ELA program began as the Adolescent Development Program (ADP) in Bangladesh in 1993. Since then, 9,000 established clubs have reached over one million girls[1]. Now renamed ELA, it has been expanded to five African countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Liberia [3]. 

Working closely with national ministries of youth and gender, ELA programs target girls aged 10-22 years who are out of school or at risk of dropping out of school. ELA provides social and economic support to adolescent girls through interventions via “safe spaces” in girls’ communities. Although specific activities vary by context, the program provides girls with opportunities to build peer social networks through recreational activities and to develop life and livelihood skills through structured sessions. These include mentoring, health and financial well-being education, vocational training, and, for older girls, access to microfinance [3]. 

ELA has positively transformed participants' lives by enhancing their knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy [5, 6]. Participants learn critical life skills through the program, including:

• Psycho-social skills: Confidence, self-esteem, leadership, negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution skills, entrepreneurial mindset, self-worth, personal autonomy to take care of themselves.
• Life skills: Financial literacy, knowledge of rights, how to make decisions, avoiding early pregnancy and marriage, staying in school.

With funding from the Bank Netherlands Partnership Programme, Africa Gender Innovation Lab, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Mastercard, Nike, the World Bank, and the IGC, BRAC Uganda ran the ELA program from 2008 to 2012. The program reached 50,000 in- and out-of-school girls aged 14 to 20 through 1,200 ELA clubs across 27 districts [6].

At the time, the ELA program was the largest youth empowerment platform in Uganda [5]. The initiative provided girls with vocational training, life skills, and a secure environment to connect and interact with other adolescent girls. The club activities are run by older girls selected from the communities, trained to deliver life skills and sexual and reproductive health education and mentor younger girls in exchange for a small lump-sum incentive. The clubs are open five afternoons a week and are scheduled out of school hours [5].

In later years, entrepreneurs and professionals delivered livelihood training on income-generating activities and financial literacy for senior out-of-school girls (aged 15 and above). Upon completing the training, participants become eligible to receive a small loan to capitalize on their newly acquired skills. To further support girls, periodic meetings were organized with parents and village elders [5].

Outcomes in Uganda

Researchers worked with program implementers to implement an RCT, assigning clubs across Uganda, surveying 3,522 adolescent girls between the ages of 14 and 20 years at baseline, after two years, and after four years.

Evaluation findings [5,6] found:

The increase in young women’s wages was valued at more than the total cost of participation ($17.90 a girl) [5].

Challenges

While ELA has shown a positive impact in high-quality implementations such as Uganda, program implementers have also documented the challenges of bringing it to scale, which may account for differences in impact that are dependent on context and adaptation [6].

• Dedicated locations: the space provided for club activities is often small and shared with other community groups, making scheduling activities difficult.
• Quality materials: the availability of educational materials such as books and games to engage girls is important.
• Time requirements: the expected time commitment for girls can make participating difficult.
• Monitoring and supervision: can be complex when program managers oversee too many clubs in different locations [6].

Lessons learned

• Community engagement: Involving the community, such as inviting elders to events and community-related meetings, ensures local buy-in [5].
• Mentorship: Trained mentors lead the clubs, fostering a supportive environment [5,6].

Disclaimer: Quality of implementation is key [7] as independent researchers in Tanzania have determined that the program did not have the same impact as in Uganda [8]. Similarly, implementation in Sierra Leone showed that while young adolescents who participated in ELA had positive outcomes, older girls (ages 18-25 years) experienced significantly more unwanted sex and transactional sex after participating in ELA than before [9].