To get a handle on what girls needed most urgently during the pandemic, an international youth-development foundation sent a group of researchers to conduct interviews in seven Indian cities over the winter.
But the researchers weren’t graduate students or Ph.D.’s. They were about a dozen girls and young women, who helped design the surveys and interviewed their peers. As a result, the interviews gleaned more information than a rigid scientific study ever could, according to the foundation’s leaders and the interviewers.
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The conversations covered a lot of ground: Did the girls being interviewed feel safe? Were they afraid to leave their homes? Did they have access to a telephone or computer? Were family members giving them negative messages about menstruation, and did they have access to sanitary pads? Was food readily available, and did they have gear to protect themselves against the virus?
While the surveys don’t have the rigor of a major research project, they yielded responses that allowed the Emerging Markets Foundation, which goes by the name EMpower, and its grantees to get an idea, at the neighborhood level, of the needs of the girls it serves. Topping the list of needs were food, access to the internet and phone lines, mental-health care, the ability to go out, and personal safety.
The team of young interviewers helped EMpower take quick action, says Cynthia Steele, the grant maker’s president. EMpower identified participants, got clearances for them to take part, trained them, and received results from interviews within a few months.
“Given the urgency of figuring out how to quickly respond and get smart money to the right solutions, having a project that would take a year or 18 months and a lot of a data collection just didn’t seem the right way to go,” she says.
The approach was so successful, EMpower plans to deploy it in its work going forward. The peer interviews helped the young women the foundation works with and provided a quick snapshot of where the most urgent needs were. EMpower will use the findings to shape future grants and is working with other grant makers to incorporate the results into how they distribute support.
‘Agents of Change’
Soni, a 20-year-old participant from Delhi, says the conversations stirred a lot of emotions among the girls she talked with.
“They trusted me and shared a lot, even things beyond the interview questions,” she said, according to an EMpower report summarizing the process. “I listened to them as a researcher but also as a friend. They saw me as someone who understands the problems they are facing because we are similar.”
Soni and the other interviewers had already participated in other leadership-development programs supported by EMpower. They were paid a modest stipend and received a credential for doing the work. The foundation didn’t give the girls and young women a set list of questions to ask. Instead, the participants helped craft the questions and fine-tuned the language so the queries were more open-ended and relevant to each neighborhood where the surveys took place.
Steele says the process not only allowed EMpower to act quickly on issues identified by the people experiencing the challenges but it also gave the girls who participated a valuable experience to share with potential employers.
The girls who were interviewed could benefit, too. If their families received direct payments, food, or educational support through nonprofits or local governments because of their participation, the girls could gain in status, making it less likely they’ll be pulled out of school or married off, Steele says.
The research process culminated in a report that presented the findings and included observations from interviewers, interviewees, and experts on the subject. Aparna Uppaluri, a Ford Foundation program officer who shared with EMpower her reflections on the process, says the project can also reduce violence against girls and non-gender-conforming people.
Too often the approach of antiviolence programs is focused on “surveillance and protection,” she says, according to the EMpower report. Instead, empowerment programs should concentrate on the agency and rights of young women. If they are seen as the reason money is flowing into the community and have the backing of an established organization, Uppaluri reasons, they are less likely to be targeted.
I listened to them as a researcher but also as a friend. They saw me as someone who understands.
The key takeaway from EMpower’s survey is to “invest in girls and young women in communities as change makers, as they have the best understanding of their lived experiences of violence and discrimination,” Uppaluri says. “Funding practices need to make a shift from viewing them as ‘recipients’ of development funding towards agents of change for gender justice.”
At the same time it was training girls to interview their neighbors in India, EMpower used the approach in a more limited fashion in several of the other countries where it makes grants. It asked grantees to pick a small number of girls who benefit from EMpower grants and have them answer a few questions or send a photo showing what life was like for them during the pandemic.
Steele believes the approach could be used by other foundations, whether they make grants to end discrimination against girls or in another area, like supporting young mothers or assessing the needs of people in prison.
“We’re not researchers,” she says. “That’s not what we do. But it’s something that any foundation that really wants to get a sense of what is going on with its grantee partners could do.”
