Changing Gender Norms: Monitoring and Evaluating Programmes and Projects

To understand whether projects and programmes to change discriminatory gender norms affecting adolescent girls are having their intended effect – and to make the necessary changes if they are not - it is important to monitor change (or lack of change) at regular intervals. In addition to being vital to helping individual programmes and projects be as effective as possible, impact monitoring data and evaluations can contribute to the pool of global knowledge on how to change discriminatory gender norms. This research and practice note focuses on monitoring gender norm change in programmes and projects, outlining key principles for monitoring and evaluating changes. The note also provides indicators of gender norm change which have been used in local, national, and international surveys, such as the Demographic and Health Survey, World Values Survey, and studies carried out by BRAC. It is part of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI)'s Knowledge to Action Resource Series 2015, which was funded by the Department for International Development (DFID). This series emerged from the 4-year programme Transforming the Lives of Adolescent Girls, which involved fieldwork in Ethiopia, Uganda, Nepal, and Viet Nam.

It is noted that, to assess the impact of programmes and projects on gender norms, it will normally be necessary to collect primary data. (Another research note in this series explains how you can use existing data to understand norm change - see Related Summaries, below.) Four main types of indicators and data that can help shed light on gender norms are described in detail; in brief:

1. Attitude data - examples include the proportion of people who think girls should get married soon after puberty, or think that education is more important for boys than girls.
2. Data on intentions - example: the intention to send a daughter to high school or university or to arrange her marriage during the next year.
3. Measures of practices or outcomes - examples of practices: school attendance rates for girls and boys or average age at marriage; examples of outcomes: the proportion of girls who complete primary school or pass school-leaving exams, or who give birth during adolescence.
4. Measures of what people perceive prevailing norms to be - asking how strongly a person agrees with a particular statement (e.g., "Around here, people think it's more important for boys to complete their education than it is for girls.").

A multi-page table within the research note highlights some relevant indicators of changes in gender norms, with details of the studies in which they were used (you can find out the precise questions used by going to each source study - linked to within the research note). Insightful studies are likely to use a combination of different types of indicators.

The next section outlines some pointers to guide efforts to monitor and evaluate changes in the gender norms that affect adolescent girls. Suggestions include:

• Use a combination of standardised and locally relevant indicators.
• Aim to capture insights into attitudes, intentions, practices, and perceptions of norms.
• Use a combination of qualitative and quantitative data.
• Make use of contextual data.
• Where possible, design your monitoring and evaluation (M&E) so that you can isolate the effects of different programme activities.
• Design M&E activities to take into account the effects of external factors.
• Follow up several years after the end of a programme or project to assess sustainability of impact.
• If possible, use samples that will enable you to disaggregate between different social groups.
• Balance the need to gather enough information to understand what is really going on with the need to refrain from taking up too much of respondents' time or generating more data than you can usefully analyse.

An annotated bibliography of resources on monitoring change in gender norms and attitudes and additional related resources conclude the research note.