Equipping Adolescent Girls with Health, Life Skills and Financial Literacy Through Safe Spaces: Learning brief

Adolescent girls in Kenya face a number of risks and vulnerabilities that can affect their health, education status, and general well-being. The Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya (AGI-K) is currently delivering multi-sectoral interventions, targeting violence prevention, education, health, and wealth creation to adolescent girls aged 11 to 15 in two marginalized areas of Kenya.

This learning brief is one of three, prepared during the implementation phase of the project, focusing on key areas of best practices and lessons learn. These briefs aim to share learning with specialists and civil society networks, and help inform future design and management of adolescent girls’ programmes in hard-to-reach, marginalized communities.

A safe space is a place where anyone can relax and be able to fully express themselves, without feeling uncomfortable, unwelcome, or unsafe on account of gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, cultural background, religious affiliation, age, physical or mental ability. It is a place where the rules guard each person’s interaction, ensuring self-respect and dignity. Within the context of the AGI-K programme, a safe space refers to an adolescent girls’ group that meets over an extended period of time to learn under the mentorship of a trained female community member on a range of topics – including health, life skills and financial education. This learning brief provides a summary of findings from implementation in the field, providing an overview of existing challenges and learning points, which will impact further development and implementation of programmes.