Knowledge Generation

George Wehby and colleagues at the University of Iowa in the U.S. will evaluate newborn metabolic biomarkers for their ability to predict gestational age, and identify associations between them and long-term academic achievement. They will analyze existing newborn metabolic profiles and academic tests from almost one million children in Iowa born between 1980 and 2006 to identify the most predictive biomarkers. In the future they will expand their method to developing countries to help estimate gestational age and identify newborns at risk of neurodevelopmental defects.

Saiqa Mullick of Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Research Institute (RHI) in South Africa, along with Grass Root Soccer (GRS), Sonke Gender Justice, and the Population Council, will empower adolescent girls in South African townships as they progress in education by increasing their educational, health, social, and economic assets, while at the same time shifting gender attitudes and encouraging positive behavior among adolescent boys.

Priya Nanda of the International Center for Research on Women in the U.S. will help young women in India secure decent employment and raise healthy families by giving adolescent girls access to relevant skills, resources, and connections, and engaging schoolboys and male community members to promote gender equality. They will recruit teachers to implement a specialized curriculum in schools, and connect with local businesses to create pathways to employment. Providing women with access to work should improve family health and income as well as promote economic growth and development.

Denise Dunning of the Public Health Institute's Rise Up program's "Let Girls Lead" initiative in the US in collaboration with the Girls' Empowerment Network (GENET) of Malawi, and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) will develop and test a multi-armed approach to empower girls with information, leadership skills, and support networks to reduce the incidence of child marriage and associated harmful traditions in Southern Malawi. Malawi has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with half of all girls married by the age of 18.

Randeep Kaur from Room to Read in India will evaluate a program that teaches life skills, provides mentoring, and establishes community support to ensure girls complete secondary school education and can build healthier lives for themselves and their families. Life skills such as self-confidence and relationship building have recently been shown to boost adult economic outcome. Their Girls' Education Program will be tested in a randomized control trial with over 100 schools in Rajasthan, India, where there is a high incidence of child labor and relatively few girls enroll in school.

Ranjan Kanti Panda of the Child in Need Institute in India in collaboration with the International Center for Research on Women, and Accenture for the "Couple Power" project, will evaluate their approach to motivate women between 15-24 years old to have their say in sexual and reproductive health decisions at home, thereby improving maternal and family health in India. The project will use digital technology and is designed to engage both men and women in couples and families to encourage equality within relationships.

Poonam Muttreja of the Population Foundation of India will conduct a pilot project using entertainment via digital media as a form of education (edutainment) to change cultural and social norms underlying gender-based violence in India. They will recruit national celebrities to relay messages that motivate young girls to stand up against violence, and show boys that masculinity is not connected with violence. They will also produce six short films and an anthem condemning gender-based violence targeted to young people to be disseminated across various media channels over ten months.