Improving Youth Agency Through Mentorship and Media: Our Partnership with the Global Innovation Fund

Impact(Ed) is pleased to receive a new grant from the Global Innovation Fund (GIF). Together we seek to improve girls’ self-efficacy and educational aspirations via mentorship, community mobilization, and Impact(Ed)’s award-winning animated life skills series, My Better World.

My Better World is the story of six African teens as they navigate the complex challenges of school, family, and friendship. Episode themes address issues like early marriage and sexual harassment while imparting essential skills such as communication, negotiation, and resilience.

The series is a unique tool included in Impact(Ed)’s life skills education and mentorship model, delivered to school children aged 10-15, which includes engagement of boys, parents and communities to enable an environment for girls to exercise agency and develop the skills they need to succeed in school and in life.

Life skills are critical to helping girls navigate a world marked by gender inequality as they transition into adulthood and can result in improvements in education, health, and livelihoods. However, life skills education interventions are often not scalable or sustainable, and fail to address wider social norms.

Impact(Ed) has enjoyed a partnership with the Kenya Ministry of Education for 15 years and looks forward to using GIF’s grant to support the government’s mentorship policy with a view to ultimately reach millions of young people.

Impact(Ed) will systematically evaluate different components and delivery approaches to establish a standardized and well-documented innovation package that is high-impact, cost-effective, and scalable.

In Kenya alone, Impact(Ed)’s programs have already reached over 305,000 children across 514 schools. An evaluation of its school-based clubs by Oxford Policy Management found positive impacts on girls’ educational aspirations, self-efficacy and life skills, and preliminary results from a World Bank study reveal community screenings of Impact(Ed) videos increased primary school attendance among girls by 46%.