Agency for All
Improving Health and Well-Being by Increasing Power to Act

We're taking a moment to celebrate some milestones this year

When people describe something as a “banner year,” it means it’s been particularly successful or noteworthy. It seems unlikely that such a term could be used to describe the inaugural year of a complex research project like Agency for All.

Yet, within this first year, while still getting to know each other, our consortium of 80+ people launched and completed eight research studies. We collaborated across USAID Missions and other sectors of USAID to tackle additional studies on the intersection of agency and vaccine hesitancy, adolescent childbearing, reproductive coercion, gender norms, and more. We rolled out emerging insights from the evidence, literature reviews, and various research and program recommendations. We held workshops focused on moving data to action with conversations where we asked hard questions and actively listened.

In everything, we are working hard to maintain our ambitious goals of generating context-specific evidence on agency while keeping local leaders in the driver's seat, and equitable partnerships our priority. We have arrived at the end of 2023 energized by what we’ve learned together, and by how much is still underway across our teams, research, and program activities.

As we enter the new year, we're committed to keeping the same question at the forefront: “What if everyone—women, men, children, families, and communities—had the power to make healthier choices for themselves?”
What We've Been Up To
Agency for All Honored with Annual USAID Marge Horn Award
 
In October, the Agency for All Project Consortium received the 2022–2023 Marge Horn Award from the USAID Bureau for Global Health’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health’s Research, Technology and Utilization Division (RTU). This annual award recognizes stand-out implementation science research, global innovators, and practitioners who advance the field of sexual and reproductive health.

None of our progress this year would be possible without the hard work of our talented team, who share a dedication to advancing social and behavior change.
Agency for All Attends Social Norms and Agency Learning Collaborative Launch in India

Earlier this month, 60 members of the newly named South Asia Social Norms and Agency Learning Collaborative convened in New Delhi to explore the role of agency in promoting gender equality, followed by a session on research methods that honor and integrate decolonial feminist perspectives. The group aligned on a fresh vision, shared resources, and discussed challenges.

Agency for All's Rebecka Lundgren, Lotus McDougal, Vikas Choudhry, Harish Chand, and Sushmita Mukherjee participated in this exciting event, collaborating closely with the Learning Collaborative.
Co-Creation Workshop with Ouagadougou Partnership Grantees a Success 

In August, Agency for All began a new two-year activity to aid in a research capacity building effort for the grantees of the Ouagadougou Partnership Research Agenda as part of its "Beyond 2020 Strategy." Under this initiative, we are working to enhance the institutional and individual capacity of grantees to generate new evidence on effective strategies to improve family planning and reproductive health and MNCH outcomes, and lead knowledge application to catalyze health-system strengthening.

At the end of November in Dakar, Senegal, we led a successful three-day co-creation workshop to reflect on the results of the baseline capacity assessment, develop a common vision, discuss the capacity training framework together with grantees responding to their specific needs and contexts, and co-create training modules, delivery methods, and mentoring approach.
New Executive Summary on USAID-Supported SBC Programs in Ethiopia

As one of the largest USAID missions in Africa, Ethiopia has made substantial investments in SBC programming. Our goal was to understand what worked and what could be improved related to monitoring, evaluation, and learning, costing and cost-effectiveness, and SBC best practices.

This executive summary includes six key insights from the main report and lists the simplified recommendations according to three principle areas of focus: Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation; Social and Behavior Change; and Costing and Cost-effectiveness.
Where to Find Us
Coming soon! Knowledge SUCCESS 2023 Family Planning Resource Guide to include Agency for All Literature Review 
For the second year, Knowledge SUCCESS is showcasing the Family Planning Resource Guide, a “holiday gift guide” end-of-year compilation of the essential FP-related resources. Agency for All’s literature review, “Infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Literature Review to Inform a SBC Program Approach,” is one of the resources. This literature review of data in the region of sub-Saharan Africa shares five main insights. Look out for the guide coming soon!
Agency for All Hosts Side Event at 12th Ouagadougou Partnership Annual Meeting  
At the 12th Ouagadougou Partnership Annual Meeting this week in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Agency for All hosted a side event, "Institutional Capacity Building for Research Institutions in Ouagadougou Partnership Countries: Designing and Planning for and with Target Institutions." #RAPO2023 brought together key stakeholders engaged in SRHR, focusing on the theme Strategies for Social and Behavioral Change in Favor of Youth.

Thanks for visiting the EVIHDAF team at the Agency for All booth!
In Case You Missed It
ClimateLinks Blog on Agency, Gender, and Climate Change  
Agency for All's Rachel Taylor, Piyush Kumar, and Courtney McLarnon published “Focusing on Agency can Strengthen Social and Behavior Change Programming to Support Climate Adaptation" on USAID's ClimateLink blog. With support from USAID’s Office on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, we are building evidence on the relationships between agency, gender, and climate change adaptation.
USAID Advancing Nutrition Blog on Psychosocial Resources for Caregivers  
Thank you to USAID Advancing Nutrition's Neha Jhaveri, Kate Dickin, and Stephanie Martin for collaborating on this piece with Agency for All's Courtney McLarnon: "The Psychosocial Resources Caregivers Need to Provide Nurturing Care: How Can We Help?" Understanding, measuring, and addressing caregiver resources and agency can enhance efforts to improve child nutrition, and improve caregivers’ quality of life.
New “Centring Agency” Commentary Published in Lancet Health Policy 
"Centring agency and norms to meet the health needs of pregnant adolescents" is co-authored by Agency for All’s Lotus McDougal. This conversation matters because “...meeting the needs of the 21 million adolescents who become pregnant each year in low- and middle-income countries requires recognition of the power imbalances, restrictive norms, and compromised agency with which many of these girls live,” said McDougal.
Recording from Learning Collaborative’s Webinar on Links between Agency and Social Norms for Child Rights
The South Asia Social Norms and Agency Learning Collaborative hosted a “Critical Conversation” webinar, “Exploring Linkages between Agency and Social Norms to Promote Child Rights and Justice.” Speakers included Dr. Abhijeet Pathak, Agency for All’s Dr. Paul Bukuluki, Dr. Aparajita Gogoi, Dr. Vikas Choudhry, and Sudha Nair.
What We're Reading
Join the conversation:
Agency for All on Social Media
We need your help
to spread the word.
Know someone who may want to hear more from Agency for All?
Share a link to this newsletter with a colleague or friend.
USAID's Agency for All Project | www.agency4all.org