Empowering Youth Through Evidence: Applying Outcome Harvesting to Evaluate Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Advocacy in Ethiopia.
Outcomes: Child, Early, and Forced Marriage, Gender‑Based Violence, Sexual and Reproductive Health
View SourceKey Social Norms Takeaways Social norms around gender, harmful traditional practices, and youth roles can shift through participatory, youth-led advocacy that engages community gatekeepers such as religious and traditional leaders. The study highlights that changing norms is a non-linear, community-driven process, where empowering youth as visible advocates and decision-makers helps reshape expectations around practices like child marriage, FGM/C, and gender-based violence.
Objectives This study evaluated the Power to You(th) (PtY) programme in Ethiopia, aiming to assess its contribution to improving youth participation, strengthening SRHR awareness and advocacy, and transforming harmful social norms and practices affecting adolescents.
Methods A participatory mixed-methods evaluation using Outcome Harvesting (OH) was employed to capture both intended and emergent changes from 2021–2023. OH identified observable changes in behaviors, relationships, and policies among social actors. Data collection included key informant interviews (n=51), workshops, desk reviews, and descriptive statistics. Social norms were assessed indirectly through documented shifts in behaviors, attitudes, and practices among communities and influential actors (e.g., religious leaders), as well as through changes in gender norms and harmful practices captured in outcome statements.
Intervention Details The PtY programme is a youth-centered SRHR advocacy intervention that builds youth capacity, supports youth-led networks, and facilitates engagement with community leaders and institutions. It integrates training, advocacy dialogues, and community engagement to challenge harmful norms, promote gender equality, and increase youth participation in governance and decision-making spaces.
Results The evaluation identified 14 verified outcomes, including increased youth participation in governance, strengthened advocacy capacity, and improved SRHR awareness. Community norms shifted positively, with former practitioners abandoning FGM, religious leaders advocating for youth rights, and communities canceling child marriages. Youth-led advocacy led to institutional changes such as free SRHR services and youth inclusion in governance bodies. The table on page 6 illustrates diverse outcomes, including prevention of harmful practices and policy engagement.
Conclusions The study concludes that participatory, youth-driven approaches can effectively shift entrenched social norms and influence both community behavior and institutional responses. Outcome Harvesting proved particularly valuable in capturing complex, emergent social change processes often missed by traditional evaluations. The findings emphasize that empowering youth as active agents—rather than passive beneficiaries—is central to achieving sustainable transformations in SRHR and social norms.
Norms Addressed
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