Gender Equity Today for Youth (GET 4 Youth) Pilot Package

The Gender Equity Today for Youth (GET 4 Youth) Pilot Package aims to create a gender-equitable environment in which very young adolescents (VYAs) (10–14 years old) can grow and thrive. The five interventions that comprise this package are designed to complement each other and reach key audiences in the VYA environment. Users can adapt and apply these interventions to other settings and contexts.

Companion Materials

Process Brief: This brief documents process challenges and lessons learned from low- and medium-fidelity co-design, prototyping, and testing activities in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [ Bahasa Indonesia | English | French ]

Advocacy Briefs: These briefs offer policy and program recommendations based on learnings from activities in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Addressing gender inequity during early adolescence in Indonesia: Implications for programs and policies from a human-centered design process [ Bahasa Indonesia | English ]
Engaging parents in sexual and reproductive health: Programs for very young adolescents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [ English | French ]

Message Framework: This message framework can be used by advocates working to increase funding for and improve the implementation of programs that seek to create a gender-equitable environment for VYAs. [ Bahasa Indonesia | English ]

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the GET 4 Youth Pilot Package available in multiple languages?

The pilot package is currently available in English; it will be available in Bahasa Indonesia in early 2024.

How and where was this package developed?

This package was developed using a human-centered design (HCD) approach, meaning it was created alongside the intended audiences across multiple rounds of testing. These intended audiences include key influencers across the very young adolescent (VYA) environment, as well as potential implementers and facilitators. One round of testing was conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Learnings were taken from that project and then applied to three additional rounds of designing and testing across two sites in Indonesia: Denpasar and Semarang.

How much will it cost to pilot or implement this intervention package?

The actual amount will vary depending on location, but the itemized resources required for piloting or implementing are available in the GET 4 Youth Pilot Package.

How long will it take to conduct this pilot?

This largely depends on the resources available to the piloting organization, as well as the size of the location or jurisdiction of the pilot. While there is no set period, organizations should plan for at least six months, with evaluation occurring during and immediately after. Evaluating the pilot could take an additional three months, depending on the size of the population reached.

How can this be adapted to address new topics that affect VYA health and well-being, like suicide and teen pregnancy prevention?

While the package provides detailed adaptation guidance for each intervention, the best place to start is the Theory of Change (see pages 6–7 of the GET 4 Youth Package). The Theory of Change is rooted in the need to address gender norms. For example, if suicide and teen pregnancy are identified as the most salient issues related to VYA health and well-being in your community, your first task in adapting this package would be to link these topics and their corresponding outcomes to gender norms—what, if any, are the gender norms that are influencing these outcomes of interest?

How should we approach gender when it can be such a sensitive topic in many settings?

This is such an important question and a critical reason why harmful gender norms are often not addressed. We learned through the design and test process that a critical first step is to level-set with people about what we mean when we say gender and gender norms; for this package, we simply are referring to the social expectations for boys and girls.

To that end, we created a customizable Overview Presentation within the Multi-Stakeholder Forum intervention that is designed to help level-set with audiences, specifically with public officials or government representatives who may be limited in what they can address.

It is important to note this package was designed with and for heterosexual, cisgender people due to the predominance of this relationship type and the legal and political context in Indonesia. Breakthrough ACTION recognizes this as an inherent limitation and encourages those who may adapt these materials for use in other contexts to include sexual and gender minorities in all aspects of the adaptation, implementation, and evaluation to ensure this package meets the needs of as many people as possible.

Since this is a family-oriented package, how do these interventions reach lower-resourced families that might not have the time or capacity to participate?

This is an important point, and particularly salient to one of the intended audiences for this project: low-income urban families. We recognize that in these settings, families often have competing priorities, especially if they have other children and the parents or caregivers work or take care of older relatives. This is why we made sure the family space includes whole families; though the material is largely intended for caregivers, all children in the family are welcome to participate. Additionally, building buy-in and support from community leaders through the Multi-Stakeholder Forum is intended to create an environment in which families receive positive reinforcement and resources to participate in the interventions.

Facilitation seems key to this intervention package. How do you prepare and support facilitators?

Since facilitation is a very important component, detailed guidance and resources for facilitators are included in the GET 4 Youth Pilot Package. Please see the Facilitator Guide for detailed information, as well as the intervention-specific guidance within the package.

Has this package been evaluated? How do we know this works?

This is a pilot package that has not yet been piloted and, therefore, has not been evaluated. However, the process undertaken to develop this package incorporated the best practices of HCD and social and behavior change (SBC) to create a program with the greatest chance for success. The HCD process enabled us to refine and test prototypes across three rounds of testing, where we tested for desirability, feasibility, and the potential for scalability. See the graphic below for details about what was tested in each round. For more information about the design and test process and results, please see the Design & Test Reports.

Additionally, we infused known SBC mechanisms into the interventions themselves. These are listed in the Theory of Change on page 6 of the intervention package.

How was the Theory of Change developed?

We started knowing we needed a multi-level approach that addressed key influencers and systems in the VYA environment, based on evidence and lessons learned from the literature, Global Early Adolescent Study research, and previous programming for VYAs. With this in mind, we developed a series of “design challenges” for the low-fidelity co-design workshop that would lead to a package of interventions operating at multiple levels of the Socio-Ecological Model (see page 13 in the Design & Test Report: Low- and Medium-Fidelity Prototyping for the list of design challenges). We also worked with our intended audiences to understand which gender norms are most applicable to this population and issue (mental health and bullying). This was done by starting with the gender norms developed through formative research with 15 countries worldwide and identified as particularly salient to young adolescents. We then used co-design to identify which specific norms we should be targeting to shift to achieve our intended outcomes.

After the co-design workshop, our team developed these concepts into low-fidelity prototypes for testing. During this stage, the Core Design Team*—with expertise in gender, VYAs, and SBC—used what we know from theory, evidence, and past programming to inform prototype development. For example, the interactive video was designed to prompt collective reflection and discussion on gender norms, diffuse positive social norms, and create opportunities for observed social normative decision-making, while the family space fosters empathy building between caregivers and VYAs and employs role modeling to strengthen caregivers’ listening and communication skills.

These “change mechanisms” are a mix of evidence-informed strategies and best practices. You can find the full list of change mechanisms and our Theory of Change in the GET 4 Youth Pilot Package. You can find more information about the design process in our Design & Test Reports.

*The approach to ensuring human-centered co-design in this activity draws inspiration from the Four Voices of Design Model© created by ThinkPlace, the HCD lead for Breakthrough ACTION. The intention of leveraging this model is to suspend the power that comes from rank and ensure that all participants have equal power and the opportunity to contribute. Therefore, one of the first steps was to establish a Core Design Team: a multi-disciplinary group that coalesces the four voices of design—intent, design, experience, and expertise—and the necessary diversity of skills and experience to drive the design process. More information about the Core Design Team can be found on page 7 of the Design & Test Report: Low- and Medium-Fidelity Prototyping.