Action to empower adolescent mothers in Burkina Faso and Malawi to improve their sexual and reproductive health (PROMOTE)

Project Period

December 2021 - November 2024

Project Partners

  • Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi
  • Institut Supérieur Des Sciences De La Population (ISSP), Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso and Malawi, as in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, girls’ and women’s health and social and economic well-being are negatively impacted by early childbearing. A vast majority of adolescent girls who get pregnant drop out of school, which results in widening gender inequalities in schooling and economic participation. 

APHRC together with its partners will implement a randomized controlled trial in Blantyre (Malawi) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) to estimate the incremental effect of three interventions aimed at facilitating adolescent mothers’ (re)entry into school or vocation training. This gender-transformative study aims to generate rigorous evidence that provides insights on how policymakers and program implementers can support pregnant and parenting adolescents.

The PROMOTE project will assess three interventions; a cash transfer conditioned on (re)enrolment into school or vocational training; subsidized child care; and life skills training offered by community health workers that will cover nurturing childcare, sexual and reproductive health (SRH), and financial literacy. Given their role as a bridge between the community and the health sector, working with community health workers will also be critical in facilitating access to SRH and child health services for adolescent mothers and their children. 

The project aims to maximize the translation of the evidence into policy and action through, one, sustained engagement from inception with key stakeholders and decision-makers and, two, strategic communication of research findings using a variety of knowledge products tailored to diverse groups of end-users. In addition, we expect that this project will result in a cadre of researchers in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Malawi able to conduct, monitor, and evaluate rigorous, mixed-methods intervention research that responds to the needs of pregnant and parenting adolescents. To achieve this result, a team comprising senior, mid-career, and early career researchers from the three countries will jointly implement the research to facilitate south-to-south learning and leverage organizational strengths and local knowledge.

Project partners:

  • Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi
  • Institut Supérieur Des Sciences De La Population (ISSP), Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkina Faso

Project timeline: December 2021 to November 2024

Project resources:

Project Funders

  • Project Funder

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