Midterm Review Report: Girls Unstoppable – Lego Project (Vietnam, 2025)

Despite growing policy commitments to gender equality in education, younger adolescent girls in Vietnam—particularly those facing ethnic and socio-economic disadvantages—continue to have limited opportunities to develop leadership, agency, and voice within school environments. This mid-term review examines the implementation and early outcomes of the Girls Unstoppable project (2023–2026), implemented by Save the Children International in Vietnam with support from the LEGO Foundation, which applies a play-based, rights-focused approach to empower girls aged 10–13 in Quang Binh province. Using a mixed-methods design, the study draws on quantitative survey data from 200 Girls’ Club members and qualitative evidence from focus group discussions to assess project relevance, effectiveness, coherence, impact, and sustainability.

Findings indicate statistically significant improvements across key empowerment domains, including agency, peer solidarity, emotional well-being, and perceived safety, with several performance indicators exceeding mid-term targets. The project demonstrates strong alignment with national education priorities and effectively addresses gaps in life skills and gender-responsive extracurricular programming through efficient use of local partnerships and inclusive learning spaces.

While results primarily reflect direct participants and cannot be generalized to the wider school population, the study identifies critical enabling factors—such as institutional support, trained facilitators, community engagement, and platforms for girl-led advocacy—that underpin sustainable impact. These findings underscore the potential of play-based, school-centered interventions to strengthen early adolescent girls’ leadership and inform future scale-up within Vietnam and comparable contexts.