Announcement
The Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH) is thrilled to announce the appointment of Katherine Hay as Distinguished Fellow in Gender Equity and Health and a Senior Strategy advisor to the Vice-Chancellor of Health Sciences, Prof. David Brenner. Hay, currently Deputy Director of Gender Equality at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will join UC San Diego in November 2021.

“We are thrilled to have Katherine join the UC San Diego family and advance gender equity in our health sciences research and practice. Today more than ever we need to ensure policies are inclusive and evidence-based to ensure everyone in the US and globally can achieve their full potential. Katherine is one of those rare people who understands how to generate research and effectively support translation of the science for policy and decision-makers.” Anita Raj, Professor of Medicine and Director of the GEH.
Adolescent Health and Development
October 11th marked the International Day of the Girl Child focusing attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and fulfillment of their human rights.

DYK?
• Globally, 1 in 5 girls are married before age 18
• Gaps in evidence around child marriage lead to gaps in programs, advocacy and investment
To mark the day, the Child Marriage Learning Consortium held a session on ‘The Diversity and Complexity of Child Marriage’ on October 12th, to share learnings on what drives child marriage and its impact on married girls.

The session recording can be found here.
Report
With 1.8 billion young people aged 10–24 years in the world today, millions of adolescents are confronting sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges. Read our report ‘Proposing a conceptual framework to address social norms that influence adolescent sexual and reproductive health’, which calls for an increase in the clarity and rigor of the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of programs that address the social context of adolescent SRH.
EMERGE grants from last year supported research and surveys related to the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents’ agency. Find out more:
Building the evidence on COVID-19 and Gender through rigorous survey measurement 

Principal Investigator: Dr. Modupe Taiwo, Institution: Save the Children, Nigeria: A rapid assessment was conducted to understand the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents’ agency in Northern Nigeria. Findings are reported in this blog post.
COVID-19 survey on gender and adolescents in Ethiopia and Palestine/Jordan 

Principal Investigator: Dr. Sarah Baird Institution: George Washington University: This project surveyed adolescents in Bangladesh, Jordan and Ethiopia. The final survey tools for Ethiopia and Palestine/Jordan can be found on the GAGE website here and here respectively.
We might have what you are looking for! 
Recent GEH work on adolescents
Journal

This study assesses associations between freedom of movement and sexual violence, both in marriage and outside of marriage, among a representative sample of adolescents in India. We analyzed data from girls aged 15 to 19 years taken from India’s nationally representative National Family Health Survey 2015–2016. Results showed that only 2 percent of girls reported nonmarital sexual violence among married and unmarried girls; 6 percent of married girls reported marital sexual violence.
Brief

Girls who are married at a young age are more vulnerable to adverse outcomes, from lower educational attainment and fewer economic opportunities to increased risk of unintended pregnancy and maternal mortality. This study provided a unique opportunity to quantitatively assess the relationship between community norms about whether and when girls should marry, and the link to girls’ age of marriage and involvement in marital decision-making
Blog
Adolescence is a critical transitional stage. Supporting adolescents during this transition is imperative. However, within global health and social policy, the needs of adolescents are often overlooked resulting in minimal investments in adolescent-centered programming, lack of social safety support interventions compared to other age groups, and most importantly, limited robust and credible evidence on adolescents.

Learn more and read the blog by Swetha Sridhar, on Adolescents’ sexual behaviors and needs in India: Barriers to effective evidence
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Know more!
Report
Young Women’s Empowerment and Fertility Intentions, USAID’s Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program

This study develops and analyzes a new youth empowerment scale, exploring the relationship between empowerment in women ages 15–29 and outcomes on the ideal number of children and intention to use family planning.

Read the analysis brief and the “Measuring Youth Empowerment” working paper to learn more about the youth empowerment scale.
Upcoming events
Tuesday, October 26, 9:00-10:30 am (Washington DC)
This event co-hosted by CGD, Data2X, and FinEquity will launch an initiative to identify and test a core set of WEE indicators for financial inclusion. GEH Founding Director will participate as a panelist in PANEL 2: WEE Indicators for Financial Inclusion: What Should We Prioritize?
Thursday, October 28, 9:00 am EST
The 2021 IGWG Annual Plenary will explore perspectives on gender-transformative programming in global health programming, particularly in family planning and reproductive health. Slated to participate as a panelist is incoming GEH Strategist, Katherine Hay.

 
$ Funding Announcement $
Co-Impact is excited to announce its Open Call for Country-Level Grants to Advance Gender Equality through the common goal of transforming systems for women & girls to rise and thrive in leadership positions– in the household, in their communities and the highest national institutions.

The deadline for submission is 20 December 2021.
EMERGE: Family Planning
Did you miss it?
Check out our previous newsletter EMERGE: Family Planning