A dissemination forum was convened by The Learning and Action Alliance for Girls’ Agency (LAAGA) on  January 24th, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya, under the theme "Centering Young People as Agents of Change: Lessons from Kenya and Uganda." This event, co-organized by Brookings Center for Universal Education and LAAGA members Christine Apiot Okudi, Joyce Kinyanjui, and Dr. Mary Otieno, brought together representatives from the civil society organisations, including Jaslika, to examine the  research findings on girls’ agency in the Karamojong cluster, located alongside  the Kenya-Uganda border.

LAAGA, a community of practice comprising 23 leaders in gender equality in and through education, from 18 countries across Africa, America, Asia, and the Middle East, collaborates with the Brookings Center for Universal Education (CUE). Since May 2022, CUE with LAAGA, has been exploring what agency means for marginalised adolescent girls.

The study adopted a participatory, girls-centred qualitative design involving 34 girls in Kenya, and 63 girls in Uganda. Data collection methods included school and community mappings, focus group discussions, proverb analysis, and writing exercises.

The study highlights the numerous challenges faced by the inhabitants of  the Karamoja cluster.    Factors, such as arid conditions, poverty, and low education attainment, leading to early pregnancies and marriages, were  focussed on. To address school attendance, pregnancies and early marriages issues, researchers posed several questions. They sought to understand how girls in this community define agency, identify the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to exercise it, and examine the situations in which they feel free to do so.

Dr. Mary Otieno, the lead researcher, elaborated on various aspects of girls’ agency in the region. Girls described agency as the freedom and ability to set and pursue goals against all odds. They identified attributes such as self-confidence, decision-making skills and perseverance, as crucial for exercising agency.

Girls primarily exercised agency in personal aspects such as education, health and safety, with education being their main goal. However, the exercise of agency was found to be situational and dependent on safe spaces, along with supportive actors. Constraints to girls’ agency included poverty and harassment from boys and men. Girls described their agency support systems as encompassing safety, protection, psychological support, and guidance from various stakeholders such as mothers, teachers, and village administrators.

The research highlighted the complex interplay of factors influencing girls’ agency in the Karamojong region. By understanding these dynamics, stakeholders can develop targeted interventions to empower girls, creating an enabling environment for their development and well-being. 

The findings resonate with a groundbreaking research done by Jaslika in 2023 under the theme; "Creating Impact at the Local Level for Girls: Learning from Girls’ Education Interventions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda", disseminated at a regional convening on girls' education in April, 2024, co-hosted by Jaslika and  RELI Africa.