Gates Foundation: Exploratory research on Group Antenatal Care cohorts and Women’s empowerment collectives

AISE Consulting was contracted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct explorative research focused on identifying opportunities for leveraging the Group Antenatal Cohort for pregnant women in Kano, Kaduna, and Nasarawa for other health and development interventions that would utilize women’s peer groups and networks. AISE Consulting also did a mapping of existent women empowerment collectives in the 3 states and provided recommendations on opportunities for leveraging them for financial and gender empowerment interventions.

UNESCO CSE Evaluation Program.

The UNESCO O3 program Is a global initiative aimed at promoting comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for young people around the world. In Nigeria, the program has been implemented in Nigeria with case studies focused on Lagos public schools, with the goal of educating adolescents and young people on various aspects of sexuality and reproductive health. As part of the implementation process, an evaluation program was conducted to assess the impact of the program on the target population. This post will explore the evaluation program and its findings.

AISE consulting was contracted by KIT (Royal tropical Institute in Amsterdam) to conduct the evaluation of the 03 program in Nigeria. The evaluation was designed to assess the effectiveness of the CSE curriculum in improving the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adolescents and young people regarding sexual and reproductive health. The evaluation program involved a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, including surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

The findings of the evaluation program were quite positive. The program was found to have a significant impact on the knowledge and attitudes of the students who participated in it. Students who received the CSE curriculum were found to have a better understanding of various aspects of sexual and reproductive health, including contraception, HIV/AIDS prevention, and gender-based violence. They also exhibited more positive attitudes towards sexual and reproductive health issues, with a greater willingness to seek information and support when needed.

Learning review and Process Evaluation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Mama-Ye project for Options Consultancy Services UK

AISE conducted the learning review and process evaluation on the 2-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Mama Ye project - Evidence for Action, to improve Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health outcomes in Kenya and Nigeria. Details of our key findings are available here in the learning brief: https://mamaye.org/sites/default/files/docs/E4A%20Learning%20review%20and%20evaluation%20summary_June2022.pdf

Guttmacher Toolkit.

AISE Nigeria supported the Toolkit Development for the Guttmacher Institute focused on research and advocacy for sexual and reproductive health issues. A political economic analysis was done and partners were engaged through participatory focus group discussion, needs survey analysis, and several theory of change workshops, to ensure their insights were incorporated into the toolkit development roadmap.