Highlight Cases


GENDER ACTIONS                                                                                                              April 2012


                                                               Adolescent Girls Initiative – AGI in Haiti
              Why?
              Evidence shows that investing in adolescent girls’               This initiative is fully aligned with Haiti’s Post
              economic opportunities has a large development                   Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and is
              impact on their families, future children, and                   highlighted as a commitment in the Haiti ISN
              communities with long term benefits for poverty                  FY12.
              reduction and potentially for growth. Young
              women that are more educated, earn income,
              and have greater access to reproductive health
                                                                               How?
              information and services are more likely to delay
              marriage and childbirth, have healthier babies,                  Recipients will receive vocational, professional,
              attain higher literacy rates, and grow into                      and life skills training, stipends to cover expenses
              productive adults who contribute to their                        for the training and internship delivered via a
              country’s wellbeing. Helping girls and young                     mobile payment system, and an internship to
              women stay in school, avoid early pregnancy and                  facilitate entry into the labor market and give the
              marriage, build capital assets, and find jobs are                girls hands-on experience. Trainings will be held in
              critical to help them gain financial independence                Port-au-Prince in 2 phases: 500 girls in 2012 and
              and become productive members of society. In a                   another 500 in 2013. The project was designed
              society with the youngest age structure in the                   after holding consultations in Port-au-Prince and
              Caribbean (70% of Haiti’s population is under 30                 Cap Haitian with potential employers, NGOs,
              years old), investing in Haitian adolescent girls is a           vocational training centers, and young girls. To
              direct investment in the country’s future.                       improve the evidence base on what works to
                                                                               increase the employability of young girls and
                                                                               facilitate their entrance into labor markets, a
              What?                                                            rigorous impact evaluation will be carried out. The
                                                                               impact evaluation will focus on whether the AGI
              The Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) is socially and            intervention increased the skills of young girls
              economically      empowering       1,000      young,             and/or increased their employment outcomes.
              vulnerable Haitian women between the ages of                     Also, it will try to assess whether the mix of
              17-20 to transition from school into productive                  vocational, mentoring, stipend and life skills
              employment       to    increase     their      future            provided increases in the empowerment and
              employability and earnings. The AGI, a public-                   agency of young girls.
              private partnership to promote economic
              independence for girls and young women, was                          “Life and professional skills
              launched by the World Bank in 2008 and is also
              being implemented in South Sudan, Lao PDR,                             development to help girls
              Liberia, Afghanistan, Jordan, Nepal, and Rwanda.
              Each country has a tailored project based off of its                 make good decisions about
              specific needs and challenges for adolescent girls.
                                                                                                their future.”




Poverty, Equity and Gender Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank - http://www.worldbank.org/lacgender
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