Improving outcomes for girls is a priority for the sector, but hearing from girls authentically is an ongoing challenge for evaluators. Girls are usually interviewed by someone outside their community and social customs mean family members are often present. Do girls really speak openly in these situations? We have noticed that girls speak most candidly when they self-report, on their own in private. So we designed TEGA (Technology Enable Girl Ambassador) Selfie - a mobile-based, girl operated research app that empowers girls to self-report via a smartphone over several months. Without anyone listening, girls can share their views more truthfully. Girls aged 15-17 are trained to use the TEGA Selfie research app on smartphones through in-person and mobile learning. Over months, they complete surveys in the app and interview a panel of close family and friends. Via the app, they send the findings to Girl Effect’s highly secure, multi-media content hub that houses the data and instantly analyses it programmatically.
TEGA Selfie gives us an unprecedented longitudinal and holistic view into girls’ worlds. We can capture and analyse data faster than ever. With better, faster research, we have the opportunity to transform programming. Our session is for anyone who wants to include more girls’ voices, more authentically, in development. In our session, we will present the TEGA Selfie method, including a live demo of the app. We’ll share a case study and learnings from TEGA Selfie monitoring in Nigeria. In Kano and Edo, we are using TEGA Selfie to monitor and evaluate a Girl Effect digital service for teenage girls called Girls Connect. Girls call an IVR line to hear informative stories and get information and advice from mentor. Monitoring is being done with adolescent girls (our TEGA Selfies) and their families. We will share the challenges, learnings and findings from the project. We’ll close with a Q and A and a idea sharing session focused on how to improve, innovate and best use TEGA Selfie. We want to use this opportunity to bring together experienced development professionals to share challenges honestly and come up with creative and innovate solutions to improve how we monitor projects as a sector.
Georgie's slides
