Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Girls Action Initiative (Program) »

Adolescence phase has high intrinsic and instrumental relevance. The Transformative Action for Rural Adolescents intervention delivered PACE++ curriculum with innovations to introduce a) health and nutrition sessions and b) delivery of the content in community settings of rural Bihar. This paper examines impact of the intervention showcasing establishment of intergenerational community connect for empowering and invigorating adolescent girls on gender attitude, empowerment and adolescent health and nutrition. The impact evaluation is based on a two-arm (intervention and comparison groups) cluster randomized controlled design with two rounds of representative cross-sectional surveys. The baseline and endline sample comprised of 2327 and 2033 adolescent girls (15–19 years), respectively. Descriptive statistical, difference-in-differences and propensity score matching methods are used to confirm the program impact. The DID and PSM analyses confirm high significance of impact on gender equity norms, diets and nutritional knowledge and understanding of employee related rights and responsibilities. School-going adolescent girls performed better than those who have discontinued formal education. The intervention showcases the importance of delivering the modified PACE curriculum in rural settings through leveraging community platforms. The findings call for greater policy attention on scaling up of similar initiatives for empowerment and social capital development of adolescent girls.

The incredible force with which ITCs have arrived in society and the consequent risks to children when dealing with the Internet and social networks make it necessary for the domain of virtual environments to be included in the school curriculum. However, the initiatives in this direction are limited and there is a lack of rigorously evaluated programs that might act as a basis for designing educational lines of action. The ConRed Program is based on the theory of normative social behavior and aims to reduce problems such as cyber-bullying and addiction to the Internet and refocus the misadjusted perception of information control in the social networks in order to promote their use in a more beneficial way. The ConRed Program has been evaluated using a quasi-experimental methodology, with an experimental group (N=595) and a quasi-control group (N=298) consisting of 893 students (45.9% girls) with an average age of 13.80 years (SD=1.47). The reduction of problems in the experimental group and the lack of change in the control group is evidence of the program’s validity, and show that by working and collaborating with the whole educational community it is possible to improve the quality of the virtual and, therefore, the real life of adolescents. La vertiginosa incorporación de las TIC a la sociedad y los consecuentes riesgos a los que los menores se enfrentan en Internet y las redes sociales han dejado en evidencia la necesidad de incorporar en el currículum escolar el dominio de los entornos virtuales. En cambio, son escasas las iniciativas en esta dirección y más aún programas rigurosamente evaluados, de modo que sirvan de fundamento para el diseño de las líneas de acción educativa. El programa ConRed está basado en la teoría del comportamiento social normativo y persigue los objetivos de mejorar y reducir problemas como el cyberbullying, la dependencia a Internet y la desajustada percepción del control de la información en las redes sociales, para así potenciar el uso beneficioso de éstas. La evaluación del ConRed se ha desarrollado mediante una metodología cuasi experimental, con un grupo experimental (N=595) y uno cuasi-control (N=298). Del total de los 893 estudiantes, el 45,9% eran chicas y la edad media 13,80 años (DT=1,47). Los resultados positivos de reducción de problemas en el grupo experimental y la ausencia de cambio en el grupo control son muestra de su validez y demuestran que trabajando con toda la comunidad educativa y en colaboración con ella es posible mejorar la calidad de la vida virtual y, por tanto, real de los adolescentes.

AbstractA recent Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that TikTok floods child and adolescent users with videos of rapid weight loss methods, including tips on how to consume less than 300 calories a day and promoting a “corpse bride diet,” showing emaciated girls with protruding bones. The investigation involved the creation of a dozen automated accounts registered as 13-year-olds and revealed that TikTok algorithms fed adolescents tens of thousands of weight-loss videos within just a few weeks of joining the platform. Emerging research indicates that these practices extend well beyond TikTok to other social media platforms that engage millions of U.S. youth on a daily basis.Social media algorithms that push extreme content to vulnerable youth are linked to an increase in mental health problems for adolescents, including poor body image, eating disorders, and suicidality. Policy measures must be taken to curb this harmful practice. The Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED), a research program based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital, has assembled a diverse team of scholars, including experts in public health, neuroscience, health economics, and law with specialization in First Amendment law, to study the harmful effects of social media algorithms, identify the economic incentives that drive social media companies to use them, and develop strategies that can be pursued to regulate social media platforms’ use of algorithms. For our study, we have examined a critical mass of public health and neuroscience research demonstrating mental health harms to youth. We have conducted a groundbreaking economic study showing nearly $11 billion in advertising revenue is generated annually by social media platforms through advertisements targeted at users 0 to 17 years old, thus incentivizing platforms to continue their harmful practices. We have also examined legal strategies to address the regulation of social media platforms by conducting reviews of federal and state legal precedent and consulting with stakeholders in business regulation, technology, and federal and state government.While nationally the issue is being scrutinized by Congress and the Federal Trade Commission, quicker and more effective legal strategies that would survive constitutional scrutiny may be implemented by states, such as the Age Appropriate Design Code Act recently adopted in California, which sets standards that online services likely to be accessed by children must follow. Another avenue for regulation may be through states mandating that social media platforms submit to algorithm risk audits conducted by independent third parties and publicly disclose the results. Furthermore, Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which has long shielded social media platforms from liability for wrongful acts, may be circumvented if it is proven that social media companies share advertising revenues with content providers posting illegal or harmful content.Our research team’s public health and economic findings combined with our legal analysis and resulting recommendations, provide innovative and viable policy actions that state lawmakers and attorneys general can take to protect youth from the harms of dangerous social media algorithms.

AbstractThis forum paper dialogues with Crystal Morton and Demetrice Smith-Mutegi’s Making “it” matter: Developing African American girls and young women’s mathematics and science identities through informal STEM learning. Their article unveils the experiences of participants in Girls STEM Institute, and how they challenged beliefs about their ability to perform in science and mathematics. I extend the discussion to explore the importance of access through community-based initiatives and stand on the premise that we will continue to oxygenate master narratives and perpetuate inequities if the structure and function of our programs fail to challenge the status quo. Therefore, this paper serves as a call to action to (1) recognize and address spirit murdering from teachers and authority figures who dismiss the abilities of Black girls to perform in STEM; (2) create humanizing spaces within schools and the larger community for Black girls to access STEM with authenticity; and (3) leverage the multidimensional identities of Black girls in ways that validate their cultural resources and brilliance. When we commit ourselves to creating more equitable learning spaces in STEM, then our actions will align with our responsibility to make Black girls matter.

Among methods to engage youth in critical reflection processes, youth participatory action research (YPAR) is an emerging initiative, particularly with Black girls. While there are several published accounts of YPAR with Black students and YPAR with girls, there are few publications documenting YPAR with Black girls. This manuscript articulates the importance of centering Black girls in YPAR studies, outlining the benefits with a focus on punitive school discipline policies, issuing a call for more intentional inclusion and consideration of their needs with a goal of dismantling sexist and racist educational policies.

This paper studies the effects of an in utero program on birth outcomes for vulnerable pregnant women. We use information from the Buen Comienzo program, an initiative run by the local government of Medellín, the second-largest city of Colombia. To identify the effects, we obtain matching estimates using data from program participants and national birth statistics. We find that the program increased the birth weight of participant children by 0.09 and 0.23 standard deviations for boys and girls, respectively, and reduced the prevalence of low birth weight by 2.6 and 4.6 percentage points for boys and girls, respectively. In terms of size, the program reduces the incidence of being short by 3 and 4 percentage points, for boys and girls, respectively. The program also significantly reduced preterm births between 3 and 8 percentage points. We also provide evidence of the existence of heterogeneous effects depending on a mother’s exposure to the program and her frequency of attendance. Finally, an estimate of the cost-benefit ratio of the program suggests that the benefits could be two to six times the costs, respectively, for boys and girls born to participant mothers with early exposure to the program. JEL Classifications: I38, J13, J18

This article aims to crystallize the contributions of the Girls in Risk Reduction Leadership (GIRRL) Program in building resilient communities through the integration of adolescent girls into local level decision-making and action for reducing disaster risk. Disadvantaged adolescent girls carry a double burden derived from vulnerability associated with gender and age within the context of disaster risk. Girls often face greater danger than boys or adults and are perceived as powerless. Their needs go unheard and capacities ignored because of their exclusion from decision-making and social participation. Efforts to reduce risk must be inclusive of the needs of vulnerable populations. Despite global calls for the inclusion of women, children, and youth in risk reduction policy and planning, its application has been insufficient. The GIRRL Program, utilizing Participatory Action Research, helped to catalyze the capacities of girls through personal empowerment to drive the agenda for inclusive involvement of vulnerable populations to build community resilience. The paper will document the contributions of the GIRRL Program to improving community resilience through engaging decision-making, facilitating multi-sectoral understanding of vulnerability and risk, validating the importance of girls in risk reduction, creating capacity to manage girl-led processes, and strengthening risk reduction through local girl-led activities.

Abstract: We discuss the shift in program modalities during COVID-19 within the Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Kanyashree Prakalpa (SAG-KP) Convergence Program in the state of West Bengal, India. Field insights as well as available program data from the Child in Need Institute's (CINI) intervention areas revealed that strict lockdowns and restricted unlocking phases during the pandemic led to changed program pathways—from offline/in-person activities to online adolescent group discussions and health message dissemination, plus counselling services through social media and telephone. Prolonged school closures impelled the adolescent girls to undertake vocational/skill-based training, including kitchen garden work to supplement their nutritional needs. The circulation of key messages through online groups also helped in preventing child marriages. Important lessons learned from the lockdown phase are that adolescent girls can benefit from regular contact and regular online/offline sessions or workshops.

In my postgraduate formation during the last years of the 80’s, we had close to thirty hospital beds in a pavilion called “sépticas” (1). In Colombia, where abortion was completely penalized, the pavilion was mostly filled with women with insecure, complicated abortions. The focus we received was technical: management of intensive care; performance of hysterectomies, colostomies, bowel resection, etc. In those times, some nurses were nuns and limited themselves to interrogating the patients to get them to “confess” what they had done to themselves in order to abort. It always disturbed me that the women who left alive, left without any advice or contraceptive method. Having asked a professor of mine, he responded with disdain: “This is a third level hospital, those things are done by nurses of the first level”. Seeing so much pain and death, I decided to talk to patients, and I began to understand their decision. I still remember so many deaths with sadness, but one case in particular pains me: it was a woman close to being fifty who arrived with a uterine perforation in a state of advanced sepsis. Despite the surgery and the intensive care, she passed away. I had talked to her, and she told me she was a widow, had two adult kids and had aborted because of “embarrassment towards them” because they were going to find out that she had an active sexual life. A few days after her passing, the pathology professor called me, surprised, to tell me that the uterus we had sent for pathological examination showed no pregnancy. She was a woman in a perimenopausal state with a pregnancy exam that gave a false positive due to the high levels of FSH/LH typical of her age. SHE WAS NOT PREGNANT!!! She didn’t have menstruation because she was premenopausal and a false positive led her to an unsafe abortion. Of course, the injuries caused in the attempted abortion caused the fatal conclusion, but the real underlying cause was the social taboo in respect to sexuality. I had to watch many adolescents and young women leave the hospital alive, but without a uterus, sometime without ovaries and with colostomies, to be looked down on by a society that blamed them for deciding to not be mothers. I had to see situation of women that arrived with their intestines protruding from their vaginas because of unsafe abortions. I saw women, who in their despair, self-inflicted injuries attempting to abort with elements such as stick, branches, onion wedges, alum bars and clothing hooks among others. Among so many deaths, it was hard not having at least one woman per day in the morgue due to an unsafe abortion. During those time, healthcare was not handled from the biopsychosocial, but only from the technical (2); nonetheless, in the academic evaluations that were performed, when asked about the definition of health, we had to recite the text from the International Organization of Health that included these three aspects. How contradictory! To give response to the health need of women and guarantee their right when I was already a professor, I began an obstetric contraceptive service in that third level hospital. There was resistance from the directors, but fortunately I was able to acquire international donations for the institution, which facilitated its acceptance. I decided to undertake a teaching career with the hope of being able to sensitize health professionals towards an integral focus of health and illness. When the International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) was held in Cairo in 1994, I had already spent various years in teaching, and when I read their Action Program, I found a name for what I was working on: Sexual and Reproductive Rights. I began to incorporate the tools given by this document into my professional and teaching life. I was able to sensitize people at my countries Health Ministry, and we worked together moving it to an approach of human rights in areas of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). This new viewpoint, in addition to being integral, sought to give answers to old problems like maternal mortality, adolescent pregnancy, low contraceptive prevalence, unplanned or unwanted pregnancy or violence against women. With other sensitized people, we began with these SRH issues to permeate the Colombian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, some universities, and university hospitals. We are still fighting in a country that despite many difficulties has improved its indicators of SRH. With the experience of having labored in all sphere of these topics, we manage to create, with a handful of colleagues and friend at the Universidad El Bosque, a Master’s Program in Sexual and Reproductive Health, open to all professions, in which we broke several paradigms. A program was initiated in which the qualitative and quantitative investigation had the same weight, and some alumni of the program are now in positions of leadership in governmental and international institutions, replicating integral models. In the Latin American Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FLASOG, English acronym) and in the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO), I was able to apply my experience for many years in the SRH committees of these association to benefit women and girls in the regional and global environments. When I think of who has inspired me in these fights, I should highlight the great feminist who have taught me and been with me in so many fights. I cannot mention them all, but I have admired the story of the life of Margaret Sanger with her persistence and visionary outlook. She fought throughout her whole life to help the women of the 20th century to be able to obtain the right to decide when and whether or not they wanted to have children (3). Of current feminist, I have had the privilege of sharing experiences with Carmen Barroso, Giselle Carino, Debora Diniz and Alejandra Meglioli, leaders of the International Planned Parenthood Federation – Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF-RHO). From my country, I want to mention my countrywoman Florence Thomas, psychologist, columnist, writer and Colombo-French feminist. She is one of the most influential and important voices in the movement for women rights in Colombia and the region. She arrived from France in the 1960’s, in the years of counterculture, the Beatles, hippies, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre, a time in which capitalism and consumer culture began to be criticized (4). It was then when they began to talk about the female body, female sexuality and when the contraceptive pill arrived like a total revolution for women. Upon its arrival in 1967, she experimented a shock because she had just assisted in a revolution and only found a country of mothers, not women (5). That was the only destiny for a woman, to be quiet and submissive. Then she realized that this could not continue, speaking of “revolutionary vanguards” in such a patriarchal environment. In 1986 with the North American and European feminism waves and with her academic team, they created the group “Mujer y Sociedad de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia”, incubator of great initiatives and achievements for the country (6). She has led great changes with her courage, the strength of her arguments, and a simultaneously passionate and agreeable discourse. Among her multiple books, I highlight “Conversaciones con Violeta” (7), motivated by the disdain towards feminism of some young women. She writes it as a dialogue with an imaginary daughter in which, in an intimate manner, she reconstructs the history of women throughout the centuries and gives new light of the fundamental role of feminism in the life of modern women. Another book that shows her bravery is “Había que decirlo” (8), in which she narrates the experience of her own abortion at age twenty-two in sixty’s France. My work experience in the IPPF-RHO has allowed me to meet leaders of all ages in diverse countries of the region, who with great mysticism and dedication, voluntarily, work to achieve a more equal and just society. I have been particularly impressed by the appropriation of the concept of sexual and reproductive rights by young people, and this has given me great hope for the future of the planet. We continue to have an incomplete agenda of the action plan of the ICPD of Cairo but seeing how the youth bravely confront the challenges motivates me to continue ahead and give my years of experience in an intergenerational work. In their policies and programs, the IPPF-RHO evidences great commitment for the rights and the SRH of adolescent, that are consistent with what the organization promotes, for example, 20% of the places for decision making are in hands of the young. Member organizations, that base their labor on volunteers, are true incubators of youth that will make that unassailable and necessary change of generations. In contrast to what many of us experienced, working in this complicated agenda of sexual and reproductive health without theoretical bases, today we see committed people with a solid formation to replace us. In the college of medicine at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the College of Nursing at the Universidad El Bosque, the new generations are more motivated and empowered, with great desire to change the strict underlying structures. Our great worry is the onslaught of the ultra-right, a lot of times better organized than us who do support rights, that supports anti-rights group and are truly pro-life (9). Faced with this scenario, we should organize ourselves better, giving battle to guarantee the rights of women in the local, regional, and global level, aggregating the efforts of all pro-right organizations. We are now committed to the Objectives of Sustainable Development (10), understood as those that satisfy the necessities of the current generation without jeopardizing the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own necessities. This new agenda is based on: - The unfinished work of the Millennium Development Goals - Pending commitments (international environmental conventions) - The emergent topics of the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic, and environmental. We now have 17 objectives of sustainable development and 169 goals (11). These goals mention “universal access to reproductive health” many times. In objective 3 of this list is included guaranteeing, before the year 2030, “universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, including those of family planning, information, and education.” Likewise, objective 5, “obtain gender equality and empower all women and girls”, establishes the goal of “assuring the universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in conformity with the action program of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Action Platform of Beijing”. It cannot be forgotten that the term universal access to sexual and reproductive health includes universal access to abortion and contraception. Currently, 830 women die every day through preventable maternal causes; of these deaths, 99% occur in developing countries, more than half in fragile environments and in humanitarian contexts (12). 216 million women cannot access modern contraception methods and the majority live in the nine poorest countries in the world and in a cultural environment proper to the decades of the seventies (13). This number only includes women from 15 to 49 years in any marital state, that is to say, the number that takes all women into account is much greater. Achieving the proposed objectives would entail preventing 67 million unwanted pregnancies and reducing maternal deaths by two thirds. We currently have a high, unsatisfied demand for modern contraceptives, with extremely low use of reversible, long term methods (intrauterine devices and subdermal implants) which are the most effect ones with best adherence (14). There is not a single objective among the 17 Objectives of Sustainable Development where contraception does not have a prominent role: from the first one that refers to ending poverty, going through the fifth one about gender equality, the tenth of inequality reduction among countries and within the same country, until the sixteenth related with peace and justice. If we want to change the world, we should procure universal access to contraception without myths or barriers. We have the moral obligation of achieving the irradiation of extreme poverty and advancing the construction of more equal, just, and happy societies. In emergency contraception (EC), we are very far from reaching expectations. If in reversible, long-term methods we have low prevalence, in EC the situation gets worse. Not all faculties in the region look at this topic, and where it is looked at, there is no homogeneity in content, not even within the same country. There are still myths about their real action mechanisms. There are countries, like Honduras, where it is prohibited and there is no specific medicine, the same case as in Haiti. Where it is available, access is dismal, particularly among girls, adolescents, youth, migrants, afro-descendent, and indigenous. The multiple barriers for the effective use of emergency contraceptives must be knocked down, and to work toward that we have to destroy myths and erroneous perceptions, taboos and cultural norms; achieve changes in laws and restrictive rules within countries, achieve access without barriers to the EC; work in union with other sectors; train health personnel and the community. It is necessary to transform the attitude of health personal to a service above personal opinion. Reflecting on what has occurred after the ICPD in Cairo, their Action Program changed how we look at the dynamics of population from an emphasis on demographics to a focus on the people and human rights. The governments agreed that, in this new focus, success was the empowerment of women and the possibility of choice through expanded access to education, health, services, and employment among others. Nonetheless, there have been unequal advances and inequality persists in our region, all the goals were not met, the sexual and reproductive goals continue beyond the reach of many women (15). There is a long road ahead until women and girls of the world can claim their rights and liberty of deciding. Globally, maternal deaths have been reduced, there is more qualified assistance of births, more contraception prevalence, integral sexuality education, and access to SRH services for adolescents are now recognized rights with great advances, and additionally there have been concrete gains in terms of more favorable legal frameworks, particularly in our region; nonetheless, although it’s true that the access condition have improved, the restrictive laws of the region expose the most vulnerable women to insecure abortions. There are great challenges for governments to recognize SRH and the DSR as integral parts of health systems, there is an ample agenda against women. In that sense, access to SRH is threatened and oppressed, it requires multi-sector mobilization and litigation strategies, investigation and support for the support of women’s rights as a multi-sector agenda. Looking forward, we must make an effort to work more with youth to advance not only the Action Program of the ICPD, but also all social movements. They are one of the most vulnerable groups, and the biggest catalyzers for change. The young population still faces many challenges, especially women and girls; young girls are in particularly high risk due to lack of friendly and confidential services related with sexual and reproductive health, gender violence, and lack of access to services. In addition, access to abortion must be improved; it is the responsibility of states to guarantee the quality and security of this access. In our region there still exist countries with completely restrictive frameworks. New technologies facilitate self-care (16), which will allow expansion of universal access, but governments cannot detach themselves from their responsibility. Self-care is expanding in the world and can be strategic for reaching the most vulnerable populations. There are new challenges for the same problems, that require a re-interpretation of the measures necessary to guaranty the DSR of all people, in particular women, girls, and in general, marginalized and vulnerable populations. It is necessary to take into account migrations, climate change, the impact of digital media, the resurgence of hate discourse, oppression, violence, xenophobia, homo/transphobia, and other emergent problems, as SRH should be seen within a framework of justice, not isolated. We should demand accountability of the 179 governments that participate in the ICPD 25 years ago and the 193 countries that signed the Sustainable Development Objectives. They should reaffirm their commitments and expand their agenda to topics not considered at that time. Our region has given the world an example with the Agreement of Montevideo, that becomes a blueprint for achieving the action plan of the CIPD and we should not allow retreat. This agreement puts people at the center, especially women, and includes the topic of abortion, inviting the state to consider the possibility of legalizing it, which opens the doors for all governments of the world to recognize that women have the right to choose on maternity. This agreement is much more inclusive: Considering that the gaps in health continue to abound in the region and the average statistics hide the high levels of maternal mortality, of sexually transmitted diseases, of infection by HIV/AIDS, and the unsatisfied demand for contraception in the population that lives in poverty and rural areas, among indigenous communities, and afro-descendants and groups in conditions of vulnerability like women, adolescents and incapacitated people, it is agreed: 33- To promote, protect, and guarantee the health and the sexual and reproductive rights that contribute to the complete fulfillment of people and social justice in a society free of any form of discrimination and violence. 37- Guarantee universal access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, taking into consideration the specific needs of men and women, adolescents and young, LGBT people, older people and people with incapacity, paying particular attention to people in a condition of vulnerability and people who live in rural and remote zone, promoting citizen participation in the completing of these commitments. 42- To guarantee, in cases in which abortion is legal or decriminalized in the national legislation, the existence of safe and quality abortion for non-desired or non-accepted pregnancies and instigate the other States to consider the possibility of modifying public laws, norms, strategies, and public policy on the voluntary interruption of pregnancy to save the life and health of pregnant adolescent women, improving their quality of life and decreasing the number of abortions (17).

In British Columbia (BC), Canada, a school district effort was launched to focus on mental wellbeing in middle and senior secondary schools. The initiative “Got Health?” was intended to help students take the lead, through action research, in program development and delivery of information. The purpose of this action research project was to evaluate, assess, and report student and staff perceptions of “Got Health?” Particular focus lay with student and staff thoughts concerning the inspiration, benefits, and challenges of the student-led mental health initiative across multiple and diverse schools. Focus group interviews were conducted involving student and teacher members of “Got Health?” teams. Results revealed that the majority of participants believed a positive change occurred in their school environments, which included a favourable impact on the mental wellbeing messages shared throughout their school communities. This suggests that a student-led inquiry approach can be an effective means of promoting mental wellbeing in school settings.

Food insecurity refers to the lack of reliable access to nutritious and affordable foods for people of all backgrounds (Meenar and Hoover, 2012) and is a problem faced by approximately 50 million Americans (Smith, 2011) and thirteen percent of North Carolina households. Food security and poverty have been directly linked and North Carolina's poverty rate (14.3%) is above the national level (13%) (Curtis, 2010). Community gardens have been recognized globally by many experts including health professionals, community organizers, environmental activists, and policymakers, as an "important contributor to economic development, food security, and environmental management"(Baker, 2004). Together, these professionals use gardens as a means to educate the public about food production and nutrition. Empirical research has documented many community garden benefits, however, the examination of educational programs associated with these gardens is limited. The purpose of this case study was to examine the development and implementation of a beginner gardening program and its influence on program participants in an area known to be food insecure within North Carolina. The researcher utilized multiple means of qualitative methods including: 1) semi-structured pre- and post- interviews with program coordinators and participants, 2) content analysis, 3) a reflection journal used to observe the program, and the facilitation of a 4) focus group with program participants. The findings revealed the challenges program coordinators encountered throughout the development and implementation, as well as the effects of the beginner gardening program on program participants.
Master of Science in Life Sciences

This study used a qualitative methodology to examine treatment outcome and mechanisms of change from the perspective of the participants in a group cognitivebehavioral therapy intervention for depressed girls (i.e., the ACTION program). Data were collected from seventeen participants using semi-structured interviews. Seventeen initial and seven follow-up interviews were conducted. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the grounded theory approach. A theoretical model emerged from the data that explained mechanisms of change in relation to treatment outcome and evaluation. Prior to treatment, all participants were diagnosed with a depressive disorder. At post-treatment, approximately 88% of the sample no longer met criteria for depression. Thus, the ACTION program demonstrated a high rate of efficacy. Additionally, all of the participants described treatment as helpful. Level of helpfulness varied from high to low, with most participants rating treatment as very helpful, and depended on the ways in which the intervention produced positive change in the following areas: stressors, stressor management strategies, emotions, cognitions, and social support. Participants evidenced high levels of pre-treatment stressors, particularly in the interpersonal domain, and low levels of social support. Passive, emotion-focused strategies were used to manage these difficulties; however, they were largely ineffective. Not being able to resolve stressors successfully led participants to experience unpleasant emotions and negative ways of thinking. Together, these variables resulted in high levels depression prior to treatment. At post-treatment, most participants experienced several positive changes, including decreased stressors, increased effectiveness of stressor management strategies, elevated mood, and a more positive outlook. These changes were attributed to the acquisition and application of the core treatment components by the majority of participants. Some participants also experienced an increase in social support, which was associated with characteristics of the treatment structure. Thus, the two most important variables in relation to treatment outcome and evaluation were specific mechanisms of change (i.e., treatment components) and non-specific therapeutic factors (i.e., treatment structure). In addition, treatment outcome was also influenced by participant characteristics. Participants that held unrealistic expectations, were not ready for change, or engaged in limited problem-sharing experienced fewer positive changes over the course of treatment.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of two models, namely an adaptable wellness programming model and an action research model, when creating and administering a stress management initiative for campus recreation settings that will have a positive effect on freshmen participants at the University of Tennessee. Eight freshmen from the University of Tennessee (6 females, 2 males) volunteered to complete a five week stress management initiative entitled the FROSH! (FResh Out of Stress, & Healthy!) Program which was based upon action research methodology. Program participants completed an exit interview and exit interview questionnaire after the program to determine if their levels of perceived stress had changed and to measure the effect that the program had on each individual. The Perceived Stress Scale was also administered before and after the program to detect any changes in perceived stress levels that participants experienced, but the sample size was too small to detect any significant changes in perceived stress levels. E. T. Stringer’s Categorizing and Coding procedure was used to decode responses from all meetings as well as from the exit interviews. Results indicate that the FROSH! Program was rewarding in various ways for participants, and 86% of participants said that their stress levels had lowered by the conclusion of the program. All participants thought that setting weekly goals was helpful in lowering their stress levels. Furthermore, the revised adaptable program model was perceived to be successful in creating the stress management initiative. It is recommended to increase the number of participants for future programs, and also to test the success of such action research-based wellness programs in campus recreation centers.

A community school differs from other public schools in important ways: it is generally open most of the time, governed by a partnership between the school system and a community agency, and offers a broad array of health and social services. It often has an extended day before and after school, features parent involvement programs, and works for community enrichment. How should such a school be structured? How can its success be measured? Community Schools in Action: Lessons from a Decade of Practice presents the Children's Aid Society's (CAS) approach to creating community schools for the 21st century. CAS began this work more than a decade ago and today operates thirteen such schools in three low-income areas of New York City. Through a technical assistance center operated by CAS, hundreds of other schools across the country and the world are adapting this model. Based on their own experiences working with community schools, the contributors to the volume supply invaluable information about the selected program components. They describe how and why CAS started its community school initiative and explain how CAS community schools are organized, integrated with the school system, sustained, and evaluated. The book also includes several contributions from experts outside of CAS: a city superintendent, an architect, and the director of the Coalition for Community Schools. Co-editors Joy Dryfoos, an authority on community schools, and Jane Quinn, CAS's Assistant Executive Director of Community Schools, have teamed up with freelance writer Carol Barkin to provide commentary linking the various components together. For those interested in transforming their schools into effective child- and family-centered institutions, this book provides a detailed road map. For those concerned with educational and social policy, the book offers a unique example of research-based action that has significant implications for our society.

This book details how African American women used lessons in basic literacy to crack the foundation of white supremacy and sow seeds for collective action during the civil rights movement. Deanna Gillespie traces the history of the Citizenship Education Program (CEP), a grassroots initiative that taught people to read and write in preparation for literacy tests required for voter registration—a profoundly powerful objective in the Jim Crow South. Born in 1957 as a result of discussions between community activist Esau Jenkins, schoolteacher Septima Clark, and Highlander Folk School director Myles Horton, the CEP became a part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1961. The teachers, mostly Black women, gathered friends and neighbors in living rooms, churches, beauty salons, and community centers. Through the work of the CEP, literate black men and women were able to gather their own information, determine fair compensation for a day’s work, and register formal complaints. Drawing on teachers’ reports and correspondence, oral history interviews, and papers from a variety of civil rights organizations, Gillespie follows the growth of the CEP from its beginnings in the South Carolina Sea Islands to southeastern Georgia, the Mississippi Delta, and Alabama’s Black Belt. This book retells the story of the civil rights movement from the vantage point of activists who have often been overlooked and makeshift classrooms where local people discussed, organized, and demanded change.

This book is a toolkit for youth and young adult librarians–school and public–who wish to incorporate science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) into their programs and collections but aren't sure where to begin. Most educators are well aware of the reasons for emphasizing STEAM–topics that fall within the broad headings of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics–in the curriculum, regardless of grade level. But how do librarians who work with 'tweens in middle school, high school, and public libraries–fit into the picture and play their roles to underscore their relevance in making STEAM initiatives successful? This book answers those key questions, providing program guidelines and resources for each of the STEAM areas. Readers will learn how to collaborate in STEAM efforts by providing information on resources, activities, standards, conferences, museums, programs, and professional organizations. Emphasis is placed on encouraging girls and minorities to take part in and get excited about STEAM. In addition, the book examines how makerspaces can enhance this initiative; how to connect your programs to educational standards; where to find funding; how to effectively promote your resources and programs, including how school and public librarians can collaborate to maximize their efforts; how to find and provide professional development; and how to evaluate your program to make further improvements and boost effectiveness. Whether you are on the cusp of launching a STEAM initiative, or looking for ways to grow and enhance your program, this book will be an invaluable resource.

This book examines Teamsters Local 688's community stewards program, a nationally acclaimed initiative launched by Harold Gibbons and Ernest Calloway in St. Louis to advance their advocacy of working-class citizenship and total person unionism. Through the community stewards program, Gibbons and Calloway sought to develop new kinds of unionists whose workplace and civic lives were seamlessly integrated. In addressing the needs of the worker as a “total person,” the two men looked beyond the shop floor and attempted to influence political decisions “affect[ing] the common economic, social, and civic well-being” of the union member. Local 688's community stewards mounted a series of highly visible campaigns to improve the quality of life in St. Louis. These efforts included ballot initiatives, legal action, and direct worker engagement with city officials. This book explores how Gibbons and Calloway, despite their quite different personalities, forged a dynamic political alliance as they sought to claim the identity of “citizen” for themselves and the workers they represented.

This important book is a call to action for the library community to address the literacy and life outcome gaps impacting African American youth. It provides strategies that enable school and public librarians to transform their services, programs, and collections to be more responsive to the literacy strengths, experiences, and needs of African American youth. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP), only 18 percent of African American fourth graders and 17 percent of African American eighth graders performed at or above proficiency in reading in 2013. This book draws on research from various academic fields to explore the issues surrounding African American literacy and to aid in developing culturally responsive school and library programs with the goal of helping to close the achievement gap and improve the quality of life for African American youth. The book merges the work of its three authors along with the findings of other researchers and practitioners, highlighting exemplary programs, such as the award-winning Pearl Bailey Library Program, the Maker Jawn initiative at the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate writing institute in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, among others. Readers will understand how these culturally responsive programs put theory and research-based best practices into local action and see how to adapt them to meet the needs of their communities.

AbstractHere we describe a simple and inexpensive protocol for preparing ex vivo rodent phantoms for use in MR imaging studies. The experimental animals are perfused and fixed with formaldehyde, and then wrapped with gauze and sealed with liquid latex. This yields a phantom that preserves all organs in situ, and which avoids the need to keep fixed animals and organs in containers that have dimensions very different from living animals. This is especially important for loading in MR detectors, and specifically the RF coils, they are usually used with. The phantom can be safely stored and conveniently reused, and can provide MR scientists with a realistic phantom with which to establish protocols in preparation for preclinical in vivo studies—for renal, brain, and body imaging. The phantom also serves as an ideal teaching tool, for trainees learning how to perform preclinical MRI investigations of the kidney and other target organs, while avoiding the need for handling living animals, and reducing the total number of animals required.This protocol chapter is part of the PARENCHIMA initiative “MRI Biomarkers for CKD” (CA16103), a community-driven Action of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) program of the European Union, which aims to improve the reproducibility and standardization of renal MRI biomarkers.

AbstractThe investigation of the four relief agencies’ organizational models – undertaken by combining analysis of websites, strategic documents and policy guidelines with fieldwork and interviews with NGO staffers – has shown the different ways in which each organization works. Exploration of the different sectors of intervention has highlighted the different roles NGOs want to have not only in the lives of their beneficiaries but more generally in the governance system of their communities. As illustrated in Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-71143-6_5, the spectrum of activities is quite wide. Save the Children focuses on education and child protection (mainly through psychosocial support) complementary advocacy to secure policy change to enable a better world for children; Oxfam prioritizes ‘giving voice’ to the voiceless, water and sanitation, psychosocial support, legal counselling, combined also with a vigorous advocacy and influencing program to create lasting solutions to injustice and poverty. CARE has a similar focus on voice and empowerment especially for women and girls. Its gender transformative approach informs its work on protection, responses to gender-based violence) distribution of relief items, and, to a lesser extent, water and sanitation. As with Save the Children and Oxfam, CARE sets store by advocacy for policy reforms to end poverty and gender inequality. For its part, MSF operations focused on medical assistance, ranging from primary health care, surgery, mental health and psychosocial support, and medical evacuation. For MSF, belief in the power of témoignage has driven denunciations of those who hinder humanitarian action or divert aid and also critique of the wider disfunctionalities of the humanitarian system itself.

All of the contributors to this book are clearly in favor of community schools. We would like to see this movement grow rapidly or, as we often say, “go to scale.” This would mean that communities with high needs and low performance would be assisted in transforming their schools. The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) work is one of the streams that have come together to create a new field of full-service community schools. The CAS model has been strengthened by many adaptations throughout the country and overseas. A National Technical Assistance Center for Community Schools has been set up at Intermediate School (IS) 218 with facilities for orientation and training. More than 6,000 policy makers and practitioners from all over the world have taken the tour and observed the rich climate at this pilot school. The concepts of community schools do not necessarily sink in at first encounter; it sometimes takes a while for people to “get it.” The question often arises: Do you really expect the schools to do all of that? It is not well understood that the idea behind the community school movement is for schools to do less, not more! Partners such as CAS come into the building and take responsibility for health, social services, extended hours, and parent and community involvement. However, some school superintendents do get it; Thomas Payzant is a good example (see ch. 15 in this volume). Arne Duncan, head of the Chicago Public Schools, is another strong advocate: “We started with 20 community [school] centers this year [and] we want to add 20 each of the next five years so we will get up to 100 over five years. . . . [T]he Chicago School System cannot do this alone. . . . We have universities, local Boys & Girls Clubs, the YMCA’s, Jane Addams’ Hull House . . . helping to run our program with us.” The quest for appropriate space within schools for the core components is being addressed in large new school building initiatives around the country.

The provision of gender equality has been a critical agenda for public administrations and organizations. In Turkey, both local governments and central government has been dealing with initiatives towards the provision of equality of man and woman. At that context, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior, Foreign Affairs and European Union Department 2010 Circular on “Human Rights of Women and Girls” is an important Circular in terms of local governments and the issue of gender in Turkey. At the study, the local governments' relation with the issue of gender equality has searched. At that framework, firstly, the concepts of gender and gender equality have explained. Secondly, the national documents in related to women in Turkey, and Local Equality Action Plans of six provinces in the context of the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior and United Nations Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls and Development Joint Program have been explained to search the local governments' relation with the issue of gender, and lastly some practices of local governments have explained on the issue of gender equality.

The provision of gender equality has been a critical agenda for public administrations and organizations. In Turkey, both local governments and central government has been dealing with initiatives towards the provision of equality of man and woman. At that context, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior, Foreign Affairs and European Union Department 2010 Circular on “Human Rights of Women and Girls” is an important Circular in terms of local governments and the issue of gender in Turkey. At the study, the local governments' relation with the issue of gender equality has searched. At that framework, firstly, the concepts of gender and gender equality have explained. Secondly, the national documents in related to women in Turkey, and Local Equality Action Plans of six provinces in the context of the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Interior and United Nations Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls and Development Joint Program have been explained to search the local governments' relation with the issue of gender, and lastly some practices of local governments have explained on the issue of gender equality.

The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) early childhood initiative is located in two of our New York City community schools, Primary School (PS) 5 and PS 8, in the Washington Heights section of northern Manhattan. This initiative was conceived as a partnership between the New York City Board of Education and CAS. The collaboration brought newborns and their families into the schools in which the children would complete fifth grade. The initiative began in 1994 and has been in full operation since 1996. Since then, the need for such a project has been confirmed and experience has provided insights into how a program for pregnant women and children through age five (often called a Zero to Five Program) can be effectively implemented within a public school. The CAS Zero to Five model connects two federally funded programs—Early Head Start (birth to age three) and Head Start (ages three to five)—to provide comprehensive educational and social services to low-income families and their children. The population attending the Zero to Five Program confronts the obstacles facing all new immigrant families living in poverty in an urban setting. In both schools more than 75% of the families are from the Dominican Republic; another 20% come from other Central and South American countries. The parents’ language is Spanish, and language barriers and acculturation issues result in social isolation. In addition, because many residents lack legal documentation, they are reluctant to access health and social services. The few early childhood programs in the neighborhood all have long waiting lists. A majority of the families share overcrowded apartments with other families or extended family; whole families often live in one bedroom where books and age-appropriate toys are scarce and there may be little child-centered language interaction. However, in spite of the difficulties, these parents have a drive to succeed and they understand the importance of education. By combining and linking Early Head Start and Head Start programs and integrating them into a community school, the CAS Zero to Five Program provides children and families with quality educational, health, and social services, after which the children transition into public school classes within the same building.

This chapter explores ALPA's initiative to sustain education for Afghan girls, detailing its history, exile post-Taliban, and the growth of a robust online program for 500+ students. Despite the 70% exile of Afghan academics, ALPA engages educators to teach law and English, highlighting its vision for global collaboration. The concise narrative delves into challenges faced by Afghan girls in online education and ALPA's commitment to overcoming obstacles, concluding with the inspiring story of hope, resilience, and collective efforts in exile.

Established by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee at MIT, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) initially focused on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in developing countries. In 2013, J-PAL pivoted to mount RCTs in North America, evaluating the Oregon Medicaid program and developing an expansive study of the Nurse-Family Partnership in South Carolina. As a means to expand the talent pool of development practitioners, J-PAL developed a MicroMasters for students available worldwide. In order to extend RCTs, J-PAL introduced a Local and State Innovations Initiative, providing funding and technical assistance to encourage organizations serving the poor to mount field experiments.

This chapter is a case study, written from the perspective of a visual artist, designer, and educator, reflecting on a five-year volunteer initiative of developing, leading, and funding an art program at a domestic violence shelter for battered women and adolescent girls who experienced sexual violence. One purpose of this chapter is to provide information about establishing art programs that can be sustained by the institutions in which they are introduced. This chapter discusses the following aspects: 1) breaking the ice and establishing rapport; 2) training and supervising staff and student volunteers; 3) fund-raising, grant writing, and seeking support both within and outside the agency; 4) partnering with organizations or community groups to set up art exhibitions; 5) partnering with artists and writers to print and distribute an educational publication; and 6) developing research with vulnerable populations serviced by the agency.

This chapter is a case study, written from the perspective of a visual artist, designer, and educator, reflecting on a five-year volunteer initiative of developing, leading, and funding an art program at a domestic violence shelter for battered women and adolescent girls who experienced sexual violence. One purpose of this chapter is to provide information about establishing art programs that can be sustained by the institutions in which they are introduced. This chapter discusses the following aspects: 1) breaking the ice and establishing rapport; 2) training and supervising staff and student volunteers; 3) fund-raising, grant writing, and seeking support both within and outside the agency; 4) partnering with organizations or community groups to set up art exhibitions; 5) partnering with artists and writers to print and distribute an educational publication; and 6) developing research with vulnerable populations serviced by the agency.

ABSTRACTThe Assisted Research and Extension Group Digital Girls of the Federal Institute of Southern Minas Gerais, located in Machado, has as its main objective bring girls closer to the area of technology area, encouraging entry and preventing dropouts from higher education technology courses. This reports the main actions of the project, highlighting the relevance of the Santos Dumont research call "Program to increase the participation of students from Machado Campus in competitions and the number of girls in higher education courses and the completion rate of courses related to and completion rates of computer science-related courses", as a driving force behind the study group and sharing experiences, emphasizing the importance of research and extension initiatives for female participation in the technology.

This article reports on the experience of the Sabará: Racial Equity Program, which promoted the digital inclusion of black (black and brown) girls in Sabará. Held by the Federal Institute of Minas Gerais on the Sabará campus in 2023, the program offered programming and robotics courses to students from 6th to 9th grades in public and private schools. The main objective was not only to promote knowledge in technology, but also to strengthen female self-confidence and empowerment. The multidisciplinary approach aimed to stimulate interest in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) and reduce ethnic-racial and gender disparities in access to technological education. This initiative is essential to increase the representation and participation of black and brown girls in the field of technology and strengthen their presence in historically underrepresented areas.

This paper examines the Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) tools used in facilitating teachers’ education during the Covid-19 pandemic. It uses the Teachers Network for Girls Education (TEN-G) project, a Commonwealth of Learning (COL) initiative that trained teachers on open educational resources and Mobile Learning with Multimedia, as a premise to argue for inclusive space where knowledge is shared between facilitators and learners. In this study, we use Methodological Conversation as a functional tool that opens up spaces for active participation across diverse methodological processes so much so that the participants are empowered through living out the lessons learnt. We draw our population from the teachers of Government primary schools in Sabon Gari and Zaria LGAs. We use Focus Group Discussion (FGD), matrix and pair wise ranking as research instrumentations to get data on choice issues around note-making, chunking and module-to-module contents in podcasting. Our study found out that the TEN-G project offers teachers diverse opportunities to explore different educational options in reaching rural girls in the time of global health crisis as in the pandemic. It concludes that the PLA methodology deployed in the implementation of the TEN-G project offers an enduring sustainability plan that is anchored on sharing and change forecast.

The Maker’s Space is an attempt to democratize technological innovation by providing space and tools to rural youth to experiment and learn. Lack of infrastructure and access to educational tools inhibits the youth in rural India from realizing their full potential and creating innovative context-appropriate solutions for their communities. // The Maker's Space initiative is based on the idea of ‘innovate, invent, peer-learn, co-create,’. In these spaces, the students and adolescents are exposed to a hands-on, STEM-based approach and creative ways of learning to encourage them to design, build, experiment and innovate while they engage in science, technology, art, engineering and mathematics. Therefore, it facilitates a shift from “learning to know” to “learning to do” and “learning to work together”. It also provides an unstructured learning space supported by the machine and digital tools of learning that allows children and youth to take ownership of their learning. The Maker’s Space initiative also designs the physical spaces in a manner that fosters self-reflection and immersive learning. To teach digital literacy, DEF will be employing a variety of formats such as online learning and bot-based learning. // This program has a special focus on girls and persons with disabilities. This special focus is aimed at addressing their disproportionately low representation in STEM education. It is envisaged that this STEM learning program will support them in accessing livelihood, education and quality day to day life. The program is also designed to help them to think critically and will enable them to make tools that are beneficial to persons with disabilities. // Maker’s Spaces consist of a digital centre equipped with STEM learning and digital skilling tools. Understanding the importance of confidence-building, these spaces also conduct mental health sessions and motivational sessions.

This paper is for The PCF10 and on the sub theme “Promoting Equity and Inclusion” at the Tenth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF10), Calgary, Canada. The author discusses how the enrollment of women and girls in TVETs in Africa is being increased through ‘’Women in Technical Education and Development (WITED)’’, a program of the Association of Technical Education and Development in Africa (ATUPA) and supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). The paper gives: the background to the WITED program; the objective and strategies applied; revitalizing WITED through COL and ATUPA Women in STEM (CAWS) Project; the intended outcomes of the WITED Program and finally the conclusions. The methodology of this paper is desk research combined with interviews of the “WITED Champions”. The authors extensively examine available documents on WITED. The UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development aims to: “eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations” by 2030 (SDG target 4.5); and “achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value” (SDG target 8.5). Equality and non-discrimination are also reflected in the UN’s “Leaving no one behind” framework, endorsed by the United Nation System’s Chief Executives Board for Coordination. Women in Technical Education and Training (WITED) is a program which was initiated by Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa (CAPA), now Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa (ATUPA), with the support of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Commonwealth of Learning (COL) back in 1988. The author seek to evaluate the impact achieved by the programme, the challenges encountered and finally make a call to action by recommending ways by which the programe can reach more girls and women and bring them into TVET programmes.

The research was implemented within the framework of the University of Latvia master’s study program “Pedagogy” course “Effective classroom management”. During the action research, the researchers identified group management problems in music lessons at educational institution X, in group Y. Key problem identified was the insufficient attention of children at the beginning of the lesson. The research proceeded to also look for possible solutions. The aim is to analyse current methods of delivering effective music classes in a pre-school setting, and propose and validate new strategies to improve the beginning of a music lesson. The study involved 17 preschool children (11 boys and 6 girls), a music teacher, and two group teachers, and an observer. The study was conducted from October 2019 to March 2020. The first results of the action research show that as the teacher changed her classroom activities, introduced certain group management techniques, such as signalling and acoustic counting, and repeating these as a routine activity in each lesson, children’s attention improved significantly at the beginning of the music lesson and became more sustained.

Previous research conducted by the author investigated the socio-political backgrounds of two groups of female students studying computer-related university programmes. They came from distinctly different backgrounds and were enrolled at two institutions with very different legacies. The author found that socio-political factors, in particular the role of a dominant female household head and aggressive governmental affirmative action, had a significant effect on the girls’ levels of confidence and subsequently on their decision to study computer-related courses. Based on this insight, the researcher undertook to look further into gender diversity with respect to self-perceived general computer confidence and self-perceived ability to program a computer. A sample of both female and male Information T echnology students from very similar disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds was surveyed. The sample of 204 students was drawn from all three years of the National Diploma in Information Technology. The author considered the following research questions: (i) Do males and females studying computer-related courses have differing computer selfefficacy levels? (ii) Do males and females studying computer programming have differing attitudes towards their ability to program? (iii) Do males and females differ in their attitudes towards the programming learning environment?

Abstract Petronas currently operate 3,226 units of HVAC system to support its production facilities for its Upstream facilities. The HVAC systems are used to provide the required ventilation for shelters during emergency situations, ensuring required humidity for climate control for sensitive electronic equipment, and provide cooling for human comfort. Out of the 3,226 units currently under Petronas Upstream, 915 units are with R22 refrigerant, while the rest are a mixture of other refrigerants such as R134a and R407c. This paper explains about Petronas’ strategy in managing its refrigerant changeout program, to comply with Kigali Amendment to Montreal Protocol, to gradually reduce the consumption and production of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), moving to a more environmentally friendly refrigerants such as Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). This is to be achieved and tracked by developing a 10-year road map, from 2020 to 2030, to clearly indicate to stakeholders on key milestones for this initiative. Appropriate Key Performance Indicators have been developed to ensure key activities are tracked and monitored. 3 main methods to achieve the goal of 100% elimination of HCFC usafe in Petronas Upstream facilities are; Situational Assessment of HVAC inventories in Petronas facilities, focusing on units with HCFC Execution of identified action items including refrigerant retrofit guideline, changeout strategy and manpower competency program Continuous tracking, monitoring and improvement of the action items Key action items identified and included in the 10 years road-map are Refurbishment and rejuvenation of old HVAC units from HCFC to HFC Retrofitting suitable HVAC units HCFC to HFC Stocking up of R22 (HCFC) refrigerants to ensure uninterrupted operations. These 3 key action items are critical to ensure Petronas able to optimize cost as well as complying to the plans that was made. Beyond 2030, Petronas is looking for alternative refrigerants such as hydrofluoroolefin, which have a lesser Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP), and Global Warming Potential (GWP). This however, may require higher Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) investments, as well as adjustments to Operational Expenditure (OPEX)

In reaction to large scaled strategies that serve the city’s economic bottom line, but not individual residents, more decentralized and informal methods of city building have emerged at the turn of the 21st century. These informal city design initiatives seek to combat urban stagnation through the collaborative action of local stakeholders who are affected by such circumstances and seek to reverse or alter them. In the past decade, these actions often fall under the moniker of Tactical Urbanism. In the same manner that open-source software code is available to anyone who wishes to contribute, alter or customize a program, tactical urbanism begins with the initiative of public participants rather than from officially sanctioned protocols. Current literature focuses on methods and case studies for the implementation of the “informal” city; but there is scant study of the efficacy of these practices for neighborhoods seeking more permanent outcomes. What happens after the project is done (and perhaps gone)? This study seeks to begin to address that issue by using a MOMA exhibition on the topic to frame the discussion.

Abstract This paper highlights the value of Leadership characteristics, practices and regular development process inleadership to make the leaders responsible and effective for the sustainability and continuous growth oforganization. Moreover, this paper also addresses the importance of Leadership successions plans andidentification of potential future leaders within organization and develop an environment for the potentialcandidatesto practicetheleadership on regularbasis. The key characteristic of Leaders is to take the responsibility and ownership of the task. Accordingly it is highly recommended not to manage the task but to lead the task as leadership calls for taking the responsibility to deliver, however managing the task will only be an authoritative action to work within identified boundaries following some finite process and guidelines. Working with fixed boundary limits never allow personnel to think out of the box, lead to employees mostly to think and work within an identified boundary limit with only following their managers’ instructions. With this attitude, employees work for their own self-interest in mind instead of working for the best interest of the company Continuous improvement in the effectiveness of Leadership is key to success. Leadership is defined as the management of a challenging situation with the responsibility to achieve desired objectives in a respectable manner. ADNOC initiative of Target Leadership Development Program was not only a combination of Leadership Development and Succession Management, but also the changed mindset of employees by giving them a push in the right direction with the below methodologies and adopt as True Leadership characteristics. -Take initiative, communication & encourage risk taking.-A vailability & listening capabilities.-Respect & Trust.-Grow a culture of recognition & celebrate success.-Empowerment & use the individual strengths of people.-Time & Energy Management towards desired objectives and prioritiesFigure 1Symbolic Difference between Managers & Leaders

The majority of sexually active girls aged 15–19 in developing countries are married, and married adolescent girls tend to have higher rates of HIV infection than their sexually active, unmarried peers. Married adolescent girls represent a sizable fraction of adolescents at risk and experience some of the highest rates of HIV prevalence of any group. Nonetheless, married adolescents have been marginal in adolescent HIV/AIDS policies and programs and have not been the central subjects for programs aimed at adult married women. This paper offers a partial explanation for why married adolescents have so often been overlooked, the reasons why marriage might bring elevated risk of HIV, initial analytic tools to assist policymakers in determining how to accord appropriate levels of priority to the marriage process, five brief case studies, and a menu of potential policy interventions and actions to make married adolescents an integral part of reproductive health and HIV-prevention initiatives.

This brief is based on a paper prepared for the WHO/UNFPA/Population Council Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents, held in Geneva, Switzerland, December 9–12, 2003. The consultation brought together experts from the United Nations, donors, and nongovernmental agencies to consider the evidence regarding married adolescent girls’ reproductive health, vulnerability to HIV infection, social and economic disadvantage, and rights. The relationships to major policy initiatives—including safe motherhood, HIV, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights—were explored, and emerging findings from the still relatively rare programs that are directed at this population were discussed. Despite the program attention and funding that have been devoted to adolescents, early marriage and married adolescents have fallen largely outside of the field’s concern. Comprising the majority of sexually active adolescent girls in developing countries, this large and vulnerable subpopulation has received neither program and policy consideration in the adolescent sexual and reproductive health field, nor special attention from reproductive health and development programs for adult women. While adolescent girls, irrespective of marital status, are vulnerable in many settings and deserve program, policy, and resource support, the purpose of this brief is to describe the distinctive and often disadvantaged situations of married girls and to propose possible future policy and program options.

The Creating Spaces project was a five-year, multi-country initiative aimed at reducing violence against women and girls and the prevalence of child, early and forced marriage in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines. This evaluation focuses on tackling social norm change in the Muslim Mindanao region of the Philippines, working closely with the organizations AMWA, UnyPhil, PBSP and PLCPD. It found that strategies were effectively combined at community level to begin to shift local behaviours, while local change processes were linked to higher-level advocacy for progressive legislative and policy change at national and regional levels. Creating Spaces has successfully started to move the dial, proving change is possible with concerted, strategic and sustained effort. This evaluation provides key recommendations to guide future interventions to build on these successes, and create the basis for future social transformation around violence against women and girls and child, early and forced marriage. Find out more by reading the evaluation brief or the full report.

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) was a four-year initiative undertaken by the Population Council and K-Rep Development Agency to reduce adolescents’ vulnerabilities to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes by improving livelihoods options. The project targeted out-of-school adolescent girls and young women aged 16–22 residing in low-income and slum areas of Nairobi. TRY used a modified group-based micro-finance model to extend integrated savings, credit, business support, and mentoring to out-of-school adolescents and young women. A longitudinal study of participants was conducted with a matched comparison group identified through cross-sectional community-based studies, undertaken at baseline and endline to enable an assessment of changes associated with the project. This report states that 326 participants and their controls were interviewed at baseline and 222 pairs were interviewed at endline. The results suggest that rigorous micro-finance models may be appropriate for a subset of girls, especially those who are older and less vulnerable. The impact on noneconomic indicators is less clear. Additional experimentation and adaptation is required to develop livelihoods models that acknowledge and respond to the particular situation of adolescent girls.

The Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative (ESCI), launched in 2012, is the Bank's most recent response to the urban development needs in the region. Through ESCI the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) aimed at redirecting its focus to improving urban planning practices and shaping development in midsize cities. OVE's evaluation aims to take stock of IDB's work with emerging cities through ESCI to date, even though it is still early to assess the effectiveness of individual action plans produced by the initiative. The ESCI Special Program ended in December 2015 and is now being mainstreamed into the work of the Housing and Urban Development division (HUD) within the new Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department (CSD). This transition provides an opportunity for a productive stocktaking.

The "Malnutrition in the Elderly Knowledge Hub" (MaNuEL) is an action program as part of the Strategic Research Agenda of the Joint Programming Initiative "A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life". In the MaNuEL project experts of 22 research groups from 7 countries (Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and New Zealand) came together to bundle up all the knowledge on malnutrition.

Through the initiative of the Family Planning Fortnight: Meeting the Future Challenges, held in December 1993, the Government of Bangladesh made a policy statement about the critical importance of dealing with the nation's population problem. The Fortnight provided the strategic framework for developing actions to strengthen the National Family Planning Program that would meet the country's population challenges. To initiate rapid action, the Family Planning Fortnight Steering Committee, under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, formed a working group to prepare a report that would capitalize on all earlier efforts and lay out a plan of action. The working group identified a number of priority areas requiring immediate action to regain the momentum of the National Family Planning Program, and to ensure success in meeting the government's demographic, social, and economic goals. The working group recognized that there are a number of long-term, strategic policy issues that also require quick attention. As noted in this report, efforts to increase the dissemination and utilization of research results for policy formulation have been productive in Bangladesh from the perspective of the government, NG0s, and donors.

Participatory programs can reduce the informational and power asymmetries that engender mistrust. These programs, however, cannot include every citizen. Hence, it is important to evaluate not only if they affect allocations and trust among those who participate, but also if they could also affect trust among those who do not participate. We assess the effect of an informational campaign about these programs in the context of a survey experiment conducted in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Results show that providing detailed information about a participatory budget initiative shapes voters' assessments of government performance and political trust. Effects are larger for individuals with ex ante more negative views about the local governments quality and for individuals who believe in the ability of their communities to solve the type of collective-action problems that the program seeks to address. Because mistrustful individuals tend to shy away from demanding the government public goods that increase overall welfare, well-disseminated participatory budget programs could affect budget allocations directly and through their effect on trust. Investing in these programs could be worthwhile.