For the last few months, ECF has been working on new ways of measuring the impact of Action for Equality on participants and their female relatives. To do this, two new tools have been piloted in March and April that will help us to measure better the knowledge and skills development and changes in the adolescents boys’ gender attitudes and behaviour.
First the Attitude Questionnaire is a scenario-based survey adapted by ECF from the Gender Equitable Men Scale created by Promundo, one of the leading organisations working with men on gender equality. The Attitude Questionnaire assesses the gender equity of respondents’ attitudes by asking them questions based on fictional situations. The results of the pilot have given us a good sense of where boys’ gender attitudes are after participating in FP, AP and LP. It has also proved how efficient the survey is in measuring participants’ attitudes. The pilot has also allowed us to understand how to make the survey more user-friendly. The Attitude Questionnaire will now be used at the end of each cycle of the Foundation, Action and Leadership Programmes.
A Mentor Observation Tool has also been piloted. The MOT evaluates the performance of participants at different stages of each cycle on the basis of specific criteria, such as knowledge of gender discrimination, critical thinking, and communication skill. During the piloting phase, ECF’s mentors observed all the participants in the 12th cycle of the Foundation Programme. The results are currently being analyzed but they are already showing which skills have been acquired by participants and which skills will need to be developed further through the Action and the Leadership Programmes. The next step will be to adapt the MOT to generalize its use to all AFE programmes.
Both these tools will become systematic ways for ECF to measure the impact of AFE at the end of each programme and to make recommendations to improve our programmes.