Binti Shupavu Study Results: Midline Report on Girls’ Agency and Educational Outcomes
The Binti Shupavu Study midline results are out!
The Binti Shupavu Study is a four-year, mixed-methods design using a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) to examine the program's impact on girls’ agency and educational outcomes.
Led by Principal Investigators Aubryn Sidle and Brenda Oulo alongside GLAMI and AMPLIFY Girls, the study tracks participants in 10 Morogoro District government schools, comparing them to non-participants in 10 other schools. Combining quantitative experimental methods with a qualitative Process Tracing study that tracks participants' experience over four years, the study aims to capture both concrete outcomes of the program for girls’ agency and education and to understand the underlying mechanisms of change.
The reports below present qualitative and quantitative midline (end of year 2) results:
Key Digest Insights from the Reports:
Binti Shupavu: Midline Report on Agency and Educational Outcomes:
Higher agency scores were associated with a nearly five-fold increase in the odds of passing exams - that is to say, girls with higher agency scores appear almost 5X more likely to pass their Form 2 exams and proceed to Form 3
The #1 predictor of passing exams was previous academic performance. If a girl had high scores on her PSLE, she appears 7X more likely to pass secondary exams.
Strategic takeaways include: investing in agency is a good idea for both personal development and academic achievement, school quality (namely, historical graduation rates, student-teacher ratios, gender demographics, teacher certification, safety, etc.) can make or break a girl's experience. Investing in agency is key, but so is investing in school quality.
Agency score was the single greatest predictor of retention - no other data was as strongly able to estimate if a girl dropped out of school or not
Agency score was also the second greatest predictor of secondary school exam scores (after previous performance on the PSLE)
Inflection Points on the Road to Agency:
This paper explores how, why, and under what conditions the Binti Shupavu program improves girls' agency. We know from the previous paper that Binti has a positive effect on agency, but it's small so far (about +4-5%). This paper asks: how are they doing that?
Two important processes emerged here: the first is called the "Acquisition to Application to Integration" process. In simple terms, a girl learns how to do something (acquisition), she formally applies what she learned (application), and she gains skills from doing this that can be useful in all parts of her life, not just the program she's in (integration).
The other process is the "Interaction with Environmental Resistance as Key Inflection Points." In simple terms, this indicates that a girl with knowledge and skills is not likely to develop a true sense of agency if there are environmental barriers. For example, a girl with agency who can't get to school because it's too far, she doesn't have food/clothes/pads, etc.? She can't really develop lasting agency. Similarly, a girl with agency who is criticized or restricted by her parents/family/community values? Also has a hard time really developing agency.
Two skills seem to be particularly key to agency-building: problem solving (can a girl ask for help? get advice? voice her needs?) and decision-making (can she set her schedule? decide what is important and what isn't?)
The paper proposes that life skills programs that want to help girls succeed in school are really targeting agency as a key intermediary. So better life skills -> better agency -> better school performance.
Guidance and mentorship are vital as girls go through agency-building pathways. They provide support when girls look for reinforcement and confirmation that they're on the right track, and it helps remind them that they can ask for help and problem-solve with a partner as needed. It is a reinforcing, iterative benefit.