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Development of Leadership Self Efficacy and Collective Efficacy: Adolescent Girls as Peer Educators in Rural Nepal
Date Published: 30 July 2008 Document Type: Research Report Issue: Advocacy & Policy, Education (including Non-formal), Family Planning & Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, Training, Youth Languages: English Country: Nepal Purchase Method: Download |
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Adolescent girls in Nepal face enormous social barriers accessing education, and health due to exclusionary socio-religious traditions and years of conflict. The program and study reported here address two issues that girls identified as critical to their well-being—HIV risk awareness and menstrual restrictions. Local NGOs developed a peer education program in three districts of Nepal that paired girls from different castes and different educational levels. The program sought to increase peer educators’ leadership and collective efficacy to inform peers and adults in the community about the effects these issues have on women and girls. In total, 504 girls were selected and trained as peer educators (PEs). They conducted targeted discussion sessions with other girls and organized mass awareness events, reaching 20 000 people. Examination of the effects of participating in the program on key outcome measures showed that leadership self efficacy, which was an organizing construct for the program, was a strong predictor of both increased HIV knowledge and reduced menstrual taboos practiced at endline. The project demonstrated that girls from different caste and educational backgrounds can work together effectively to begin to change individual behavior and socio-cultural norms.