Clinical Research Directory

Estimating the Impact of Sexuality Education and Mobile Health Services on Reproductive Health and Empowerment Among Adolescents in Sierra Leone for the Family Planning Impact Lab

The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to learn if comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and access to mobile sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in secondary schools can improve short- and long-term health, well-being, social and economic outcomes among adolescents and young people in two districts of Sierra Leone. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. How do CSE and mobile SRH services (individually and combined) change adolescent SRHR, well-being and socioeconomic outcomes in the short term and in the longer term (over 3 years)? 2. What are the economic costs of providing CSE and mobile SRH services? 3. How cost-effective is the provision of CSE and mobile SRH services, given its potential impact on health, socioeconomic, and well-being outcomes? 4. To what extent are CSE and mobile SRH services being implemented according to the original plan and timeline? Researchers will compare schools receiving CSE and mobile SRH services to schools not receiving these services, to see if adolescent SRHR, well-being and socioeconomic outcomes are better in those schools that received the services. The trial will compare four groups of schools, each with 60 participating schools: 1. No additional services (control schools) 2. Only CSE 3. Only mobile SRH services 4. CSE and mobile SRH services The implementation of these services will be led by Marie Stopes Sierra Leone (MSSL) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. MSSL will ensure that participating schools: * Attend teacher training on the CSE curriculum before the study starts, followed by yearly refresher training during the study * Have sufficient time allocated to CSE in the weekly school schedule * Have adequate teaching materials \& equipment to teach CSE * Have guidance counsellors in each school who will monitor the implementation of CSE * Have a designated "safe space" which adolescents can access for menstrual products and care. * Have access to mobile SRH services (provided by MSSL staff) on the school premises 3 times per school year

Impact Evaluation of Türkiye's Adolescent Girls' and Boys' Empowerment Programme for Elimination of Child Marriage

Low income, refugee, displaced and disaster affected populations face a variety of protection risks, including higher risk of child, early and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU). This is the case in Türkiye, where low income, refugee populations and those affected by the 2023 earthquake in Southern and Central Türkiye face elevated risk of child marriage. As part of the UNICEF Türkiye Country Office (TCO) commitment to implement comprehensive interventions that aim to contribute to a change in social norms and attitudes towards gender equality, the CO and partners have developed the "Adolescent Girls' and Boys' Empowerment for Elimination of Child Marriage" program (hereafter "the program"). The program is an 8-week group-based empowerment and life skills training for adolescent girls aged 12 - 18 years old, a 4-session adolescent boys awareness training, and a one-time awareness raising seminar for caregivers. The current trial has the overall objective of evaluating the short-term causal impact of the program with respect to CEFMU and related outcomes for adolescent girls. The trial design is an individual randomized control trial, allocating 820 households with adolescent girls to either treatment or control on a 1:1 basis. The primary data collection includes a pre- and post-intervention caregiver and adolescent face-to-face survey, as well as a one-time qualitative data collection. The trial results will inform the future operation and scale-up of the program, as well as contribute to the broader evidence base on what works to increase the empowerment of adolescent girls and reduce CEFMU.