Shaping futures: planning ahead for girls’ empowerment and employability

The PAGE program, funded by MacArthur Foundation, was designed to build empowerment and employability skills in school settings for girls from low-income communities. The PAGE project’s two main goals were to build girls’ self-efficacy and build their ability to identify; and to plan and realize their future personal and professional goals. PAGE was implemented in four government schools in New Delhi, India and was designed to engage adolescent girls (ages 15-17) from low-income communities.

In late 2016, ICRW conducted an evaluation of the program to better understand the program’s effect on girls. ICRW research staff measured several key outcomes to understand the impact of the program on girls’ empowerment and the employability outcomes.

The empowerment indicators included measures of girls’ self-efficacy (their ability to have a say in critical decisions in their lives, around their marriages for instance), attitudes toward gender norms or gender equitable attitudes and recognition of discrimination in their lives. The employability indicators included measures of aspiration for higher studies and for a career, enrollment in learning opportunities outside school, seeking information for future goals and preparing a resume.

This report outlines the goals of, challenges around, and results from an evaluation of the PAGE program.