Baseline Evaluation of Aarambha Project: Cohort III, 2021

The Aarambha Project, Cohort III baseline evaluation adopted a pre-post test research design to measure changes that can be attributed to the project interventions. The evaluation was guided by the longitudinal mixed-method approach, comprising quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques. The quantitative data was collected via a girls' survey among 400 sampled out-of-school girls along with the ASER test. Moreover, a household survey was also conducted among the families of the same group of girls. The qualitative data was collected comprised of Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and Key Informant Interview (KII) with various stakeholders. Observation of the CLCs and the community the girls lived in were also observed.

The Aarambha Project is funded by the UK AID flagship, Girl's Education Challenge (GEC) program's Leave No Girl Behind (LNGB) window. The project is being implemented by People in Need (PIN) Nepal and aims to mitigate the risk of early marriage among Out-of-School (OOS) adolescent girls in order to uplift their status and help them lead healthy, safe, and educated lives. The project works in two districts of Province-2, namely, Bara and Rautahat. Over the period of four years, the PIN will work in four cohorts and aim to reach 8500 young married and unmarried girls, 17000 of their family members, 4000 in-school girls and 4000 in-school boys, and 400 newly elected local government officials, and community/religious leaders. The implementation capacity of the project is to work directly with approximately 2125 girls each year ( i.e. evaluation for each year will have 2125 OOS girls.) In Cohort III, 2528 girls directly benefitted from the project. In line with the main objective, the project implemented Community Learning Centre (CLC) classes targeting the marginalized OOS girls, to enhance their learning proficiency, and eventually prepare for their transition into formal schooling. Apart from the learning intervention, the project is also teaching girls life skills that include financial literacy, social skills, and family planning, training school teachers to create a safe learning environment, organizing gender-transformative workshops with in-school adolescents, and training OOS girls' families and the local government officials. For Cohort III, a pre-post research design was like that of Cohort II. In both of these cohorts, barriers such as poor households, unsupportive parents, repressive parental attitudes, and dowry practices existed that refrained from girls accessing education.

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