Adolescent Girls Program in Upper Egypt: Final Narrative Report

I. Project Summary Adolescence is a critical formative and transitionary period especially in girls’ lives: decisions made, and experiences undergone during adolescence can lay the foundation for later life outcomes and trajectories. Adolescent girls in rural Upper Egypt are particularly vulnerable to child, early and forced marriage (CEFM), have poor access to social and health services, and low knowledge levels on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) matters. Another harmful practice which persists in Egypt is female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C). While declining within younger generations, rates of FGM/C in Egypt are still high: according to the 2014 SYPE, 73% of girls aged 13-17 years were cut, compared to 88% of women aged 30-35 years. Few comprehensive programs in Egypt to empower adolescent girls and combat child marriage have been rigorously evaluated or strategically implemented to generate robust evidence. Accordingly, it is essential to understand how to improve adolescent girls’ wellbeing and to determine the relative influence of contextual social and economic factors in improving their sexual and reproductive health and overall wellbeing. The initial project included conducting three qualitative to further our understanding of contextual social and economic factors that influence adolescent girls sexual and reproductive health as well as conducting a rigorous evaluation of a comprehensive package of interventions that are implemented by UNFPA and the National Council for Women for the empowerment of adolescent girls in rural Upper Egypt (Noura program). This report describes activities that were undertaken by Population Council (PC) over the last 34 months to complete the above three qualitative studies and quantitative evaluation of the program.