OUR WORK AND IMPACT

Growing Up GREAT!: The Way Forward / « Bien Grandir : La Voie à Suivre ! »

Growing Up GREAT! (GUG) is a multi-level intervention in urban Kinshasa, DRC for very young adolescents (VYAs – ages 10-14 years). GUG also involves VYAs’ parents and caregivers and other influential community members to address spheres of influence—individual, family, school, community—that most affect early adolescent life experiences. This ecological program approach provides information and addresses social and gender norms related to reproductive health and wellbeing at each of these levels, with the goal of improving sexual and reproductive health outcomes among in-school and out-of-school VYAs (10-14 years).

Growing Up GREAT! started under the larger seven-year (2015-2022) Passages Project, a USAID-funded initiative to address the root challenges of family planning and reproductive health – such as gender-based violence, child marriage, and unintended pregnancy – by transforming social norms. Growing Up GREAT! also received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (2018-2023) to establish a consortium of implementers, researchers, scale-up experts, and implementation scientists to generate evidence on the value of investing in interventions with early adolescents in order to foster effective contraceptive use as they enter older adolescence and young adulthood.

The GUG consortium has three intermediate outcomes: 1) Build understanding of how gender attitudes, behaviors, and norms are formed and transformed among very young adolescents, and their medium-term life course trajectories; 2) Institutionalize the GUG intervention within the Ministry of Education and community-based partners in Kinshasa; and 3) Generate knowledge on how to sustain and scale gender and sexual and reproductive health interventions for early adolescents, including the feasibility and acceptability of engaging parents. Progress towards these outcomes occurs through coordinated program implementation, implementation science research studies, outcome evaluation studies, and continuous stakeholder feedback and engagement.

PAST EVENTS

Growing Up GREAT! at the International Social and Behavior Change Communication Summit 2022 (Read our blog!)

We hosted an engaging webinar on A Framework for Understanding What Works to Shift Gender Norms and Attitudes for Very Young Adolescents on November 29th. (View the recording!)

Growing Up GREAT! at the International Conference on Family Planning 2022 (English, French)

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Briefs

  • Growing Up GREAT! Theory of Change (English, French)
  • Scaling Up Gender-transformative Sexuality Education for Adolescents in DRC: A Summary of the Growing Up GREAT! Project (English, French)
  • Growing Up Great! (English, French)
  • Intentional Youth Engagement in the Passages Project (English, French)
  • Insights From Two Norm-shifting Interventions to Support Very Young Adolescents (English, French)
  • For Youth by Youth: Engaging Adolescents as Evaluators of the Growing Up GREAT! Project (English)
  • Youth Advisory Council Informational Brochure (French)

Reports

  • Case Study in WHO’S Guidance on Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement (MAYE) (see page 9) (English)
  • Passages Growing Up GREAT! End of Project Report (English)

Presentations

  • Growing Up GREAT! Results & VYA Investments: What do we know? Where should we go? (English)

Webinars

  • A Framework for Understanding What Works to Shift Gender Norms and Attitudes for Very Young Adolescents (English and French)
  • The Growing Up GREAT! Legacy: Building and Applying Evidence to Support and Scale Gender-transformative Sexuality Education (English, French)
IMPLEMENTATION

Briefs

  • HCD Process and Learnings Brief on Gender-equitable Adolescent Programming (English, French)
  • HCD Insights on Engaging Parents in Sexual and Reproductive Health programs for VYAs (English, French)
  • Design & Test Report: Using human-centered design to enable Sexual Reproductive Health and gender equality dialogue between parents, caregivers and Very Young Adolescents within the parental component of the Growing Up Great program in Kinshasa (English)
  • Creating a Gender-Equitable Environment for Very Young Adolescents (English)
  • Leveraging Human-Centered Design to Improve Gender-Equitable Adolescent Programming in DRC and Indonesia: Process Brief & Learnings (English, French)

Reports

  • Growing Up GREAT! Implementation Guide (English, French)
  • Rapport sur l’Exploration des Normes Sociales (French)
  • Learning Lab Report (English)

Presentations

  • Lessons Learned from Growing Up GREAT!: Using a Systems Approach to Implement a Multi-level Adolescent Reproductive Health and Wellbeing Intervention in Kinshasa, DRC (English)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Approach to Adaptive Management (English)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Increasing Gender Equality For Very Young Adolescent Boys and Girls: Adaptive Management (English)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Increasing Gender Equality For Very Young Adolescent Boys and Girls: Implementation Lessons (English)

Manuscripts

  • Implementing Interventions to Address Gender and Power Inequalities in Early Adolescence: Utilizing a Theory of Change to Assess Conditions for Success (English)
Evaluation & Research

Briefs

  • Profiles of Very Young Adolescents in Urban Kinshasa, Growing Up GREAT! Baseline Brief (English, French)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Impact Brief (English, French)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Wave 3 & 4 Impact Brief (English, French)

Reports

Presentations

  • Comment Saurons-Nous Que BG! A Reussi ? Evaluation Participative de BG! (French)
  • For Youth by Youth: Participatory Evaluation of Gender Norms Intervention. Giving Power and Voice to Minors within Evaluation: Longer-term Strategies with Adolescent Evaluators (English)
  • Les Très Jeunes Adolescents et Leurs Parents – Comment Bien Grandir ! Les a-t-il Touchés ? (French)
  • Résultats des Deux Evaluations Participatives avec les Jeunes du Projet Bien Grandir ! (French)
  • Résultats de l’Etude Participative Menée par les Jeunes: Comment Bien Grandir! a-t-il Touché les Adolescent.es et les Adultes Influents dans Leurs Vies ? (French)
  • Gender Normativity, Sexual Conservatism, and Homophobic Teasing: Findings among Very Young Adolescents in Kinshasa, DRC (English)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Gender-transformative Sexual and Reproductive Health Programming for Very Young Adolescents: Impact Assessment Findings from Kinshasa (English)

Posters

  • Gender-transformative Sexual and Reproductive Health Programming for Very Young Adolescents in Kinshasa, DRC: Impact Assessment Findings from Growing Up GREAT! (English)
  • Lasting and Novel Impacts of a Multi-level Adolescent Norms-shifting Sexual and Reproductive Health Intervention: Five-year Longitudinal Cohort Findings from Kinshasa (English)
Manuscripts
  • The Intersection of Power and Gender: Examining the Relationship of Empowerment and Gender-Unequal Norms Among Young Adolescents in Kinshasa, DRC (English)
  • Assessing the Relationship Between Agency and Peer Violence among Adolescents Aged 10 to 14 Years in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Blantyre, Malawi: A Cross-sectional Study (English)
  • Balancing Quality, Intensity and Scalability: Results of a Multi-level Sexual and Reproductive Health Intervention for Very Young Adolescents in Kinshasa (English)
  • The impacts of two gender-transformative interventions on early adolescent gender norms perceptions: a difference-in-difference analysis (English)
  • Adolescent–Parent Relationships and Communication: Consequences for Pregnancy Knowledge and Family Planning Service Awareness (English)
  • Understanding How Gender Transformative Interventions Affect Adolescent Sexuality: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (English)
  • Do gender-equitable attitudes translate to gender-equitable choresharing behavior? A sex-stratified longitudinal analysis among adolescents in Kinshasa (English)
  • Using Responsive Feedback in Scaling a Gender Norms-Shifting Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo (English)
Institutionalization & Scale-up

Briefs

  • Learning and Adapting: Using Responsive Feedback to Increase Growing Up GREAT!’s Effectiveness and Scalability (English, French)
  • Integrating Family Life Education into Distance Learning during COVID-19 Closures (English, French)
  • Sustainability of GUG! Institutionalization in the Ministries of Health and Education: A Rapid Qualitative Learning Study (English, French)
  • Policy Recommendations for Institutionalization and Project Transition to DRC Ministry Partners (English, French)
  • Costing Norms-Shifting Interventions: Five Insights for Program Implementers (English, French)

Reports

  • Costing of Norms-Shifting Interventions: A Primer from the Passages Project (English, French)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Scale-up Planning Meeting Report (English)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Scale-Up Plan (English, French)
  • Growing Up GREAT! Scale-Up Assessment Report (English, French)
  • Growing Up GREAT! End of Project Scale-Up Assessment Report (English, French)
  • A Seven-Year Retrospective of Investment in and Scale Up of Gender-transformative Sexuality Education for Very Young Adolescents in DRC (English, French)

Presentations

  • Gender-transformative Sexual and Reproductive Health Programming for Very Young Adolescents (English)
  • “Beginning with the end in mind” – Engaging Scale-up Stakeholders Early and Continuously for Accelerated Institutionalization of CSE in Kinshasa (English)
  • Improving Effectiveness for Scale: Use of Responsive Feedback in a Multi-sectoral Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Program in the Democratic Republic of Congo (English)
  • Integrating Family Life Education into Distance Learning-Learnings from COVID-related Program Adaptations in Kinshasa, DRC (English)
  • Multi Sectoral Engagement for Scale Up-Lessons Learned from a Gender Norms-shifting and Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Program in Kinshasa (English)

Manuscripts

  • Using Responsive Feedback in Scaling a Gender Norms-Shifting Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo (English)
  • Do Gender-equitable Attitudes Translate to Gender-equitable Chore-sharing Behavior? A Sex-stratified Longitudinal Analysis among Adolescents in Kinshasa (English)

OUR PARTNERS

Save the Children

Global Early Adolescent Study, Johns Hopkins University

University of Kinshasa School of Public Health

Experts SARL

SUPPORTED BY

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

Agency for All
Project Director
Kathryn Barker, SCD, MPH
she/her
Co-Investigator
Growing Up GREAT!
Assistant Professor
Infectious Diseases & Global Public Health

GEH PROJECT MEMEBERS

Sarah Smith, MPH
Francine Wood, PhD, MPH
Princess Luna, BSPH

PROJECT CONTACT

 Sarah Smith, MPH
Research Program Manager
SAS022@health.ucsd.edu

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