GAGE Baseline Qualitative Research Tools

Observing that qualitative methodologies for working with especially young adolescents and evaluating programme effectiveness with young people remain relatively underdeveloped, the GAGE (Gender and Adolescents: Global Evidence) consortium has created and piloted a range of different methodological approaches and instruments.

The tools offered in the resource are structured according to GAGE '3 Cs' socio-ecological framework (see also Related Summaries, below), where adolescents are situated at the centre. The framework reflects the close connections between:

• Capabilities - adolescents' multi-dimensional capabilities and the ways in which these differ depending on age, gender, and (dis)ability.
• Change strategies - approaches employed by families, communities, service providers, policymakers, civil society, and development partners to promote empowered and healthy transitions from adolescence into early adulthood.
• Contexts - the broader meso- and macro-level variables that shape the enabling /constraining environments in which adolescent realities are played out.

The toolkit is divided into group and individual research tools, all of which are age-tailored (early adolescents, mid/older adolescents, and adults). An example is mapping, where adolescents are asked to draw a large adolescent body that resembles an adolescent from their own context and then to reflect on what each body part symbolises in their lives. This activity can facilitate discussions around emotional and psychosocial well-being, relationships, pubertal development, sexual and reproductive health, and gender-based violence issues. It also enables participants to explore similarities and differences between adolescents who are able-bodied and those living with different types of disabilities.

Table of contents:

Introduction

Part 1: Adolescent capabilities

• 1 In-depth interviews with nodal adolescents

Part 2: Contexts shaping adolescent experiences

• 2 In-depth interviews and life histories with family members
• 3 Community timelines
• 4 Social norms mapping
• 5 Community and institutional mapping with adolescents
• 6 Body mapping with early adolescents
• 7 Vignettes for adults
• 8 Vignettes for adolescents
• 9 Small group discussions

Part 3: Change strategies mediating adolescent realities

• 10 Key informant interviews
• 11 Examples of target key informants and possible probes
• 12 Quick Tap surveys with adolescents about service uptake and quality
• 13 Madam President: understanding adolescent priorities

References

This set of tools reflects the collective learning among senior and junior researchers in the GAGE consortium from 5 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The instruments were further adapted following training and detailed adaptation, and have been rolled out for the baseline research data collection in rural and urban Ethiopia and Bangladesh, and camp, host community, and informal tented settlement sites in Jordan in 2018.