Chapter 2 cover photo credits: Mark Henley / Panos Picture

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2 | Son bias

of  separate  school  toilet  facilities  for  girls  and  boys,  flexible 

school schedules, the redesign of teacher training to change 

attitudes or behaviour towards female students and campaigns 

to promote girls’ education can serve to reverse aspects of the 

school environment that effectively favour boys’ learning, or 

can make schools more acceptable environments for daughters 

in the eyes of parents. However, more systematic evaluation 

work is required to understand the causal mechanisms at 

work (ibid). 

A second important cluster of promising policy and 

programme approaches focuses on capacity strengthening 

and empowerment for adolescent girls. Such programmes 

aim to increase girls’ capabilities so that their opportunities 

can be broadened, their self-esteem and social status enhanced 

and  gender  discriminatory  attitudes  undermined.  Although 

the goal to lower son preference is not explicit, empowering 

adolescent girls and young women is important, given the 

generally positive relationship between female education and 

reduced son bias (see Box 22). 

The Abriendo Oportunidades (‘Opening up Opportunities’) 

programme in Guatemala was launched in 2004 and is led by  

the Population Council. It targets poor Mayan girls in 

remote  rural  areas  who  suffer  from  chronic  poverty,  lack  of 

schooling, high rates of early marriage and social isolation. 

The programme aims to increase Mayan girls’ social support 

networks, to connect them with role models and mentors 

and to build a base of life skills and professional experience 

using a model of mentoring and creating safe spaces. The 

programme reaches more than 40 communities and has 

worked with more than 3,000 girls aged between 8 and 18, 

and has proved a significant vehicle for change for both girls 

and their communities. Age-appropriate girls’ clubs are led 

by a peer mentor who conducts workshops with mothers and 

daughters on topics like self-esteem, life skills and developing 

plans for the future. Situated close to their homes, the clubs 

offer:  weekly  sessions  in  life  and  leadership  skills;  sexual 

and reproductive health information; a space to voice ideas 

and aspirations; peers who become role models and friends 

whom girls can visit and have fun with; and stipends to help 

them learn money management. Girls who have participated 

in the project remain connected through a national network 

(the Indigenous Resource and Empowerment Network) 

and the organisation provides internship and employment 

opportunities. 

Evaluation findings suggest that girls have become more 

confident about their skills and participate in public activities, 

with many aiming to continue school, delay marriage and 

lead a productive life. Girl club leaders in particular are 

changing community attitudes about gender restrictions.  As 

one girl leader explained: ‘After my personal and professional 

training, I began organising girls’ clubs in my community to 

teach groups of girls the subjects I had learned, to share my 

experience with them, to motivate them to dream about what 

they would like to be, and to work hard in order to reach 

their goals’ (Catino et al., 2009). Many girls have been able to 

continue  their  schooling  and  find  paying  jobs  in  the  private 

and public sectors or have been employed in the programme, 

which is now expanding to more communities.

A third key area involves the promotion of social health 

protection. It is increasingly recognised that costs are a critical 

barrier to the uptake of health services and that removing user 

fees can have a powerful effect on service usage (ILO, 2008). 

Given gendered barriers in accessing health services (discussed 

in the previous section), supporting health fee exemptions for 

 

A number of innovative adolescent girl empowerment 

initiatives offer valuable models. The Better Life Options 

programme in India trains low-income married and unmarried 

adolescent girls aged 12 to 20 in literacy, vocational skills, 

health and reproductive care. A 1999 evaluation found that 

programme participants scored better on a wide range of 

indicators. On average, they married later, were more likely to 

use contraceptives, had better nutrition, received professional 

obstetric care and postnatal care, had an institutional 

delivery, had fewer children and fewer infant deaths, enjoyed 

increased control over resources and felt more confident 

speaking in front of elders (Boender et al., 2004; CEDPA, 

2001). 

The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) 

Adolescent Education Centres in Bangladesh were created in 

1993 to encourage adolescent girls to retain their maths and 

literacy skills, and later added a life skills training element 

where emerging adolescents leaders were trained to provide 

training to their peers. There is also training on business 

skills, which has doubled participating girls’ involvement in 

income-generating activities, including microfinance groups 

(Plan International, 2009). 

Box 22: The multiplier effects of empowering 

adolescent girls 

 

A study in Mbale, eastern Uganda, and in Kasama, Zambia, 

highlights the time-saving effects of better infrastructure for 

girls and women. It estimated that, if woodlots are within 30 

minutes of the homestead and if the water source is within 

400 metres, Mbale women and girls will save more than 900 

hours per year: around 240 hours in firewood collection and 

660 hours in water collection. Similarly, in Kasama, Zambia, 

they would save 125 to 664 hours per year in water collection 

and 119 to 610 hours per year in firewood collection.

Source: Barwell (1996, in Blackden and Wodon, 2006)

Box 23: Engendering energy policy and 

investment priorities 

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