Rapid Gender Assessment of the Youth in Action Program in Malawi

Youth in Action (YiA) is a six-year learning and livelihood program. In partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, YiA aims to improve the socio-economic status of approximately 40,000 rural out-of-school young people, both girls and boys, in Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda.

A Mid-term Evaluation of the programme showed that the project faced a number of challenges, and amongst them was girls’ participation and drop out rates. The Rapid Assessment was conducted with the objective of exploring the barriers to ongoing learning for girls and boys; identifying what can keep them on the learning path and determining actions required to better support their learning and pursuing the livelihood pathway options they have selected.