Abstract

The Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) in South Sudan was initiated in 2010 to support economic and social empowerment of young women (aged 15-24 years) in the country. Inspired by the success of similar interventions in Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania, where the program is known as Empowerment and Livelihoods of Adolescents (ELA), BRAC piloted AGI in four states of South Sudan. Before the commencement of the program, a baseline survey was carried out by BRAC Research and Evaluation Unit with the twin objectives of assessing the pre-program situation and impact evaluation. It is evident that households targeted by the program face severe poverty, food insecurity and poor quality of lives. Young women have additional vulnerabilities in their lives. Over 30 percent of adolescent girls are mothers and about 70 percent of them reported having unprotected sex. With limited education and livelihood skills, their engagements in earning activities are also very minimal. Less than 20 percent of the girls have ever received any skills training and only one-third are engaged in any form of earning activity. Despite these difficulties in their livelihoods, about a quarter of the girls have savings.There is significant scope of improvement in changing their knowledge and attitudes. Girls have also expressed their willingness to participate in the program. More importantly, those girls who are more likely to derive benefits from participating in such a program also have greater intention to participate. Therefore, the program has the potential of meeting their objectives, although excessively high expectations of the participant girls can discourage community ownership of the interventions. The baseline data will be used to compare relevant indicators to data from the endline data collection. Furthermore the data are an opportunity to assess the pre-program situation of households and adolescent girls.

Geographic coverage

Research subjects were recruited from Juba, Bor, Yei and Torit. More details under “Sampling”.

Analysis unit

Households and Individuals

Universe

This data set is the baseline survey dataset from a study of 4,075 households and adolescents in South Sudan who were targeted by the NGO BRAC in 2010-2013 for an adolescent girl’s initiative program with the aim of helping adolescent girls and young women make a successful transition from school to work. There were four program sites, in Juba, Bor, Yei and Torit.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The randomization method used was over-selection of clusters (or villages). At the initial stage BRAC program management identified 10 branch offices from four states of South Sudan (Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, Jongolei and Lakes) as intervention sites. The branches are Munuki, Kator, Hai Gwafa, Kanjoro, Inkas, Hai Police, Dukurut, Langbhar, Makuriric and Matangai. In each branch BRAC staff identified 20 clusters which could potentially have the intervention. A social mapping of the households living in each cluster was conducted.

Following the mapping a census of girls aged 15 to 24 was conducted in all 200 villages. The census contained basic identification and background information which was also used as a sampling framework for the baseline survey. Based on the information from the mapping and the census, 160 villages (16 villages per branch) were selected for project implementation.

In each branch 10 villages were randomly selected for the intervention, with the remaining six villages acting as the control group. Following the random assignation the baseline survey was conducted. In order to balance the sample between treatment and control groups, 6 intervention villages (from the 10 in each branch) were randomly selected for the survey. In total the survey was conducted in 120 villages, of which 60 belonged to the treatment and control groups.

From each cluster a random sample of 35 adolescent girls was drawn for the baseline survey from the census. One girl was interviewed in each household. The initial target of 4200 girls and their parents was not met, with the final sample size in the baseline survey of 4075. Interviews were conducted with the girls/young women and a separate instrument use to collect information from their parents, however in cases where the adolescent was found to be the household head, both instruments were administered to her.

There were resources available to implement the program in 100 villages. Therefore, in each branch 10 villages were randomly selected for the interventions, and the other 6 villages belong to the control group. Following this random assignation, the baseline survey was conducted. In order to balance the sample between treatment and control groups, 6 intervention villages (from 10 villages in each branch) were randomly selected to conduct the survey. In total, we conducted the survey in 120 villages, of which 60 villages belong to treatment and control groups each.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

SURVEY MODULES A - Household Module 0 - Identification and Consent S1 - Household Members Characteristics S2 - Household Members Education S3 - Income Generating Activities of All HH members S4 - Expectations for young (aged 5-25) HH members S5 - Assets S6 - Housing Conditions S7 - Water and Sanitation S8 - Loans Outstanding S10 - Expenditure Section 10 - Household Tracking Form

B - Adolescent Module 0 - Identification and Consent S1 - Education S2 - Income Generating Activities S3 - Spare Time S4 - Financial Literacy S5. Loans and Savings S6. Expenditure S7 - Expectations and Empowerment S8 - Networks S9 - Program Participation S10 - Childhood S11 - Risky Behaviours S12 - Sexual Behaviours/AIDS awareness

Cleaning operations

Each completed questionnaire was scrutinized in the field and at the field office on the day of the interview by field supervisors. Further scrutiny took place during data editing. Consistency checks were done to yield cleaned datasets. A team of researchers worked on data analysis using STATA software.

According to a 2023 survey, about ** percent of young people in Hong Kong spent less than *** Hong Kong dollars on printed books in the last six months prior the survey period. Almost one third had not purchased any paper books.