IDEO.org & PSI
The Kishua Academy program is an add-on to an existing sexual reproductive health program (Kuwa Mjanja) that equips young women to live healthy, productive economic lives. Centering on building connections to mentors and near-peers, Kishua Academy equips young women with the skills, capital and relationships they need to lay the foundations for economically prosperous lives.
IDEO.org and PSI partnered together to design an economic empowerment (EE) program on top of an existing sexual reproductive health (SRH) program for young adolescent girls in rural Tanzania. The existing program, Kuwa Mjanja (swahili for "be smart") is designed to inform girls around different types of contraceptives, and help them understand how contraceptives and birth spacing can empower them to achieve their dreams. Beyond access to information on sexual health however, girls also expressed a clear desire to learn more business and vocational skills, gain market exposure, and have access to capital.
Over a 3 month period, we collaborated intensely with the PSI research team in Tanzania to gather insights around girls between 15-19 years old; their communities, and have a better understanding of their hopes, dreams, and pain points. Kishua Academy builds on the narrative behind Kuwa Mjanja of every girl having the skills and resources to determine her own future. We designed 8 different prototypes, ranging from various mentorship models, to self-paced business kits, to celebratory business fairs.
“Kishua Academy” is designed to be a mentor-based program where a girl can be guided through every stage of her entrepreneurial journey. Throughout the program, she attends business and vocational workshops, is matched with both a peer mentor and more experienced business mentor, and is linked to contraceptive resources through Kuwa Mjanja. They also have the option of joining a savings group led by a community role model.
By far my favorite moment during this project was working together with the PSI Tanzania team to host a marketplace and festival event called “Tamasha la Furaha.” The celebration featured booths where girls could sell their products (baked goods, jewelry, etc); guest speakers on sexual health, entrepreneurship, and government loans; and live dances and music.
It was a smashing hit! All members of the community were engaged in the event, and even men and young boys were asking questions around sexual health and how to protect themselves. We learned that live dances and entertainment are key to drawing a crowd, and communal events such as these provide a safe opportunity for communities to learn about sensitive topics together, and anonymously. Here are some quotes from the event:
A girl after selling out her fried pastries: “I feel I am more confident now. I improved my business. I see that what I do has more value than I thought.”
“The speakers encouraged us to be brave and confident. They motivate us to do something in our lives rather than staying at home.”
Even though most girls we are designing for are out of school, they come from a variety of backgrounds. Some are young mothers, while others are young single girls who still live with their parents. Most girls engage in some sort of entrepreneurial activity, but their aspirations are limited to what they see in their communities.
We came up with the concept of a “Career Dada,” a peer mentor who has experience in business who can also act as an older sister and give sound sexual health advice. Career Dadas, and their mentees “Career Bintis,” also are mentored and have hands-on apprenticeship opportunities from their “Career Mamas,” older women who are successful businesswomen and have stable family lives. By designing multiple layers of mentorship opportunities, we are creating a program that engages the broader community, and also ensures generational support for girls.
We could not have extracted insights with such depth without collaborating with the PSI Tanzania team. Traditionally, IDEO.org would be the ones traveling and conducting interviews in the local communities, but COVID-19 presented us with opportunities to co-design with local research teams who have a far better understanding of the communities we were designing for. During this project; Don, Sela, and I learned to take on the posture as learners and rely on PSI Tanzania to guide our insights, initial concepts, and final prototype designs. It was uncomfortable for us to let go of control, but having the Tanzanian research team lead our designs also forced us to ask difficult, yet essential questions: “How can we ensure that Kishua Academy truly benefits the local community instead of just satisfying donor requests?” “Are we truly solving real and urgent issues for girls?” “Is our solution a program that the community would feel ownership over?”
Ideo.org, PSK and the Maverick NEXT team came together to design adaptive tools and resources to integrate economic empowerment and sexual reproductive health education for young women in Kilifi County, Kenya. Our goal was to take a core sexual reproductive health program (Binti Shupavu) and introduce components that may help young women feel more more empowered to make decisions about not just their bodies, but their futures, their finances and possible career paths.
The Kishua Academy program is an add-on to an existing sexual reproductive health program that equips young women to live healthy, productive economic lives. Centering on building connections to mentors and near-peers, Kishua Academy equips young women with the skills, capital and relationships they need to lay the foundations for economically prosperous lives.
Kilifi County in Kenya has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the country. Due to poverty and high dropout rates, 50% of women are married by age 19; and 22% of women between ages 15-29 have already begun childbearing. While there is a strong fear and risk of social discrimination with sex, contraception is also stigmatized among unmarried teens due to a preception that it will lead to sexual promiscuity.
Created in partnership with PSI Kenya and MaverickNext, Binti Biashara is a program that builds off of existing economic empowerment (EE) prototypes that were created in a previous sprint (see Kishua Academy). Working in a team of two, Alex and I had five weeks to extract key inspiration from our Tanzania and Nigerian prototypes to overlay onto Binti Shupavu - a newly designed sexual reproductive health (SRH) prototype in Kenya. Our mission was to create more pathways for girls to access sexual health information by demonstrating how child spacing is directly tied to an increase in savings and financial prosperity.
At the end of the five weeks, we expanded the original prototype design for Binti Shupavu (“determined” girl in kiswahili), to also include new programming for Binti Biashara (“business girl”). Binti Shupavu created space for communities and the girls to share stories around SRH, access family planning information, and also showcase their businesses in a community setting.
We realized that to empower adolescent girls, we needed to create an enabling environment and help the community identify the link between birth spacing and financial prosperity. The lives of girls are heavily defined by their community, especially their “mwenyes” or influencers, who can be their boyfriend, husband, mother-in-law, or community leaders. Young girls were often hesitant to ask about contraceptives due to social stigma, as well as many inaccurate rumours.
Our team designed activities where “mwenyes” and girls could learn facts around contraception and birth spacing independently. Worksheets and a “smart start” guide helped them see how much raising a child would cost, and how much they could save financially by birth spacing and planning strategically. Afterwards, mwenyes and girls can make more informed decisions, and aspire together through a joint goal-setting activity.
Due to poverty and high school dropout rates, many girls sell low-value commodities that do not generate enough income for them to sustain themselves. We realized that girls needed to see the potential in themselves to become successful, independent women; and have role models who they can aspire to become. When they realize their ability to create change, they are inspired to seek the resources and skills necessary to secure the future for themselves and their family.
We designed the Binti Biashara program to inspire girls to dream big, and offer practical business skills inspired by previous Nigeria and Tanzania prototypes. The courses empower girls to critically analyze local and regional markets, and identify opportunities that match their strengths, skill sets, and passions. Additionally, they are also linked to mentors within the community for hands-on apprenticeship opportunities, and vocational training programs in the region.
Internally, one of our biggest takeaways from this project was learning to make space for ourselves (instead of having hours of back-to-back zoom calls). Alex and I discovered that when we intentionally blocked moments of rest and recreation for ourselves, we also allowed our creativity to flow in the hours of uninterrupted, heads down time.
During these moments, I had time to design the entire Binti Biashara program without feeling overwhelmed. Some of our builds in the past felt overly complicated and difficult to follow. In this case, Binti Biashara was delivered as a simple, efficient prototype that also clearly addressed the key issues in the region. As a bonus, I also had plenty of fun creating custom illustrations that complemented Zack’s original designs for Binti Shupavu.