Development of Leadership Self-Efficacy and Collective Efficacy: Adolescent Girls Across Castes as Peer Educators in Nepal

Adolescent girls in Nepal face enormous social barriers to accessing education and health services due to exclusionary socio-religious traditions and years of conflict. The program and study reported here address two issues that a national assembly of in-school and out-of-school adolescent girls, who had completed a basic life skills class, and, in the case of unschooled girls, an intensive literacy course, identified as important to their well-being – menstrual restrictions and HIV awareness and prevention. Local non-governmental organizations developed a peer education program in three districts of Nepal that paired girls from different castes and different educational levels. The program sought to increase peer educators’ (PE) leadership and collective efficacy for informing peers and adults in their communities about the effects that these issues have on women and girls. In total, 504 girls were selected and trained as PEs. They conducted targeted discussion sessions with other girls and organized mass awareness events, reaching 20,000 people. Examination of the effects of participating in the program on key outcome measures showed that leadership self-efficacy, which was a central theoretical construct for the program, provided a strong predictor of both increased HIV knowledge and of practicing fewer menstrual restrictions at end line. The project demonstrated that girls from different caste and educational backgrounds are able to work together to change individual behaviour and to address socio-cultural norms that affect their lives and well-being within their communities