Addressing School-Related Gender-Based Violence as part of the Keeping Girls in School Initiative in Zambia

The Empowerment Pilot Toolkit is developed by Health Focus and includes the following main components:
• Teachers’ Curriculum. This curriculum is designed for Teacher Mentors to provide training to other teaches and will be implemented over a period of 13 weeks, with one 1-hour session per week. The curriculum covers eight modules with one or two sessions per module. The modules cover the following topics: gender; SRGBV; children’s rights and policies; corporal punishment and positive discipline; creating a safe and supportive classroom environment; sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation; and responding to SRGBV.
• Learners’ Curriculum. This curriculum is designed for Teacher Mentors to deliver to student learners and will be implemented over 24 weeks, with one 45-minute session per week. The curriculum will cover seven topics, with different activities developed to address a particular learning objective. Each topic will also include an activity to be implemented at the school level. The topics include the following: gender and equity; gender equality and positive role models; awareness of GBV; a focus on SRGBV; communication skills for respect-based relationships; skills for people who witness violence; and help-seeking and peer support skills. The implementation partner Health Focus will develop a detailed protocol on how to identify, select, and encourage girls to participate in the Empowerment Pilot.
• Guide for engaging Parent Teacher Committees (PTCs). This material is for teacher mentors to activate the role of the PTCs to work alongside the Empowerment Pilot in addressing SRGBV. The Teacher Mentors will provide an orientation to the PTCs on SRGBV and the Empowerment Pilot and clarify the expected role of the PTCs in the Empowerment Pilot (about 30 minutes). It is up to the PTCs to decide how they will take action to address SRGBV. The teacher mentors are expected to follow up with PTCs by attending all subsequent PTC meetings and allocate 15 minutes to discuss PTC actions and project updates.
Teacher Mentors will facilitate the intervention, supported by KGS district coordinators and the Health Focus team. Teacher Mentors will be responsible for training the teachers and the learners. It is expected that in each school, there will be one girls’ club and one boys’ club, with approximately 25 girls or boys per club. Two teachers in each school will become Teacher Mentors and train up to 20 teachers per school. The girls’ groups will be open to all girls attending secondary school, but priority will be given to KGS girls. The implementing partner will establish a clear protocol describing how girls will be incentivized to participate in the empowerment pilot and how they will be selected.

2023-05-30

2023-11-30

Experience of SRGBV, past two weeks
Experience of SRGBV, past school term
Attitudes towards gender roles and SRGBV (adolescents)
School climate attitudes
Socio-emotional well-being

Experience of SRGBV, past two weeks- A binary variable of self-reported experience of any SRGBV (sexual violence, bullying or corporal punishment) in the past two weeks
Experience of SRGBV, past school term- A binary variable of self-reported experience of any SRGBV (sexual violence, bullying or corporal punishment) in the past school term
Attitudes towards gender roles and SRGBV (adolescents)- A normalized index based on 16 items that measure attitudes towards gender roles, SRGBV, and support to victims
School climate attitudes- A composite score based on 16 statements about aspects of school climate and student-teacher interactions
Socio-emotional well-being- A normalized index based on 3 scales related to subjective well-being: perceived social support; perceived safety; and anxiety

Knowledge of SRGBV- the fraction of correct responses to 12 questions that ask whether an act is considered violence
School Engagement
School enrollment- A binary indicator for school enrollment status
School absenteeism- number of days an adolescent missed in the last completed month (self-reported)
Socio-emotional skills
General self-efficacy- a composite score of 10 items on the General self-efficacy scale.
Assertiveness communication- a composite score of 6 items on the Assertiveness Communication scale
Norms about gender equality
Gender equitable injunctive norms - A composite score of injunctive norms for gender equality norms, GBV, Corporal punishment, and GBV reporting
Gender equitable descriptive norms- A composite score of descriptive norms for gender equality, GBV, Corporal punishment, and GBV reporting
Attitudes towards gender roles & SRGBV
Attitudes towards gender roles and norms- a composite score based on 7 items with a likert-scale
Attitudes towards SRGBV-a composite score based on 7 items with a likert-scale
Attitudes towards reporting SRGBV- a composite score based on 2 items with a likert-scale
Bystander reporting
Bystander reporting- A binary indicator coded to 1 if adolescent reported any case of violence in the past school term (0/1)
Attitudes towards bystander intervention (vignettes)- A score based on 2 questions on attitudes towards bystander intervention in hypothetical situations
Descriptive norms around bystander intervention (vignettes)- A score based on 2 questions on descriptive norms
Injunctive norms around bystander intervention (vignettes)- A score based on 2 questions on injunctive norms
Experience of violence – past school term
Experience of sexual violence, past school term- composite scores based on the frequency of different types of sexual violence reported by the respondent
Experience of emotional violence, past school term- composite scores based on the frequency of different types of emotional violence reported by the respondent
Experience of physical violence, past school term- composite scores based on the frequency of different types of physical violence reported by the respondent
Experience of violence – past two weeks
Experience of sexual violence, past two weeks- composite scores based on the frequency of different types of sexual violence reported by the respondent
Experience of emotional violence, past two weeks- composite scores based on the frequency of different types of emotional violence reported by the respondent
Experience of physical violence, past two weeks- composite scores based on the frequency of different types of physical violence reported by the respondent
Aspirations
Aspiration - education attainment- a variable that indicates the level of formal education the respondent would like to complete
Aspiration for a career- a binary indicator coded to 1 if adolescent aspires for professional career
Aspired age of marriage- a binary indicator coded to 1 if adolescent aspires to marry after the age of 18
Socio-emotional well-being
Anxiety- a composite score based on 7 items with a likert-scale (Spitzer et al, 1999, translation from Spitzer et al,2006)
Perceived social support- mean score based on the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support
Perceived safety at school- A composite score of 5 items about whether respondent feels safe at school
Agency- A composite score based on 20 items that measure different aspects of agency, including freedom of movement, voice, behavioral control and decision making, adapted from the Agency Scale from the Global Early Adolescent Study (Zimmerman et al., 2019)
Teachers Outcome Measures
Teachers' knowledge of SRGBV- the fraction of correct responses to 12 questions that ask whether an act is considered violence
Attitudes towards gender roles and SRGBV (teachers)- A normalized index based on 16 items that measure attitudes towards gender roles, SRGBV, and support to victims
Teachers' assessment of school climate- An index based on 17 items that measure to what extent the school climate is safe for both boys and girls

We used a two-stage sampling approach to obtain our quantitative samples. At the first stage, we used administrative data collected in the beginning of the 2023 school year by the KGS Team at the Ministry of Education of Zambia. This data allowed us to identify all schools located in the Kasama, Mpongwe, Zambezi districts that had more than ten KGS girls enrolled in grade 8 to 11. A total of 90 schools met these criteria. These eligible 90 schools were then randomized to treatment (45) and control (45), stratified by district, school size (above/below median), and school type (boarding or not). Second, we extracted data from class attendance registers to create a list of all students in grade 8 to 11 at baseline as our sample frame. This list included a total of 24,090 students, out of which 2,133 were KGS girls.

For our main research question on “average” students, we randomly drew 25 boys and 25 girls from each study school. Additionally, we included all KGS girls identified in the listing exercise as a separate “KGS girls” sample specifically focused on evaluating the impact of the intervention on KGS girls. This resulted in a total sample size of 6100 students. To create a sample of teachers, we used convenience sampling to select one teacher from each grade between grades 8 to 12, for a total of 450 teachers.

Not available

Randomization was done using a statistical software.

The first unit of randomization is schools which were eligible (more than ten KGS girls enrolled in grades 8 to 11). These eligible 90 schools were then randomized to treatment (45) and control (45), stratified by district, school size (above/below median), and school type (boarding or not).
Secondly, we randomly drew 25 boys and 25 girls from each study school. Additionally, we included all KGS girls identified in the listing exercise as a separate “KGS girls” sample specifically focused on evaluating the impact of the intervention on KGS girls. This resulted in a total sample size of 6100 students.

To create a sample of teachers, we used convenience sampling to select one teacher from each grade between grades 8 to 12, for a total of 450 teachers.

Yes

90 schools were eligible for the program. 45 of them were allocated to the control group and 45 to the treatment group.

6100 students and 450 teachers.

45 schools in the treatment arm and 45 in the control group. 25 girls and 25 boys were randomly drawn to receive Empowerment Pilot program. In addition, KGS girls also received treatment in treatment schools.

Based on the Zambia 2018 DHS data, we constructed a dichotomous variable indicating whether a girl or young woman between 15-23 years of age agrees with at least one of the reasons specified that could justify beating a wife. For the power size calculation, one endline survey, an intra-group correlation of 0.1, autocorrelation of 0.3, and power of 80%. We found that to detect an 11 percentage points (pp) decrease in the likelihood of agreeing with at least one of the reasons specified that could justify beating a wife, we would need 47 secondary schools and 1,296 adolescent girls per arm (accounting for 15% attrition and 80% take-up).

KGS Empowerment Pilot PAP