Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) is the largest global study on adolescents following 20,000 girls and boys in developing countries to understand what works to enhance adolescent capabilities and empowerment. From 2019-21, Global Health Strategies led a research project as part of GAGE and supported by Overseas Development Institute (ODI) to refine existing gender measures and scales to capture adolescents’ voice and agency more effectively. Measures were developed and pilot tested in India with over 250 adolescents and ultimately validated in Nepal to assess the measures’ applicability across other South Asian countries. Our analysis revealed that the understanding of gender is far more nuanced in these countries and developing contextualized gender measures is instrumental in being able to capture adolescents’ agency and voice conclusively.

For more information, you can read the policy brief via this link and the research brief here.