Girls in Control - Ethiopia

Girls in Control (GiC) aims at increasing school attendance for adolescent school girls, through improved menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in schools and facilitating access to safe, affordable and sustainable sanitary materials through a value chain business model.

In Ethiopia this multi-country project provides a comprehensive package on the provisions of appropriate, girl-friendly, WASH facilities in schools, timely information about MHM and improved access to sanitary materials to ensure girls’ enrolment in, attendance and completion of primary education (MDG 2, Target 3). This project is SNV's pilot approach to solving the problem of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) amongst schoolgirls in rural and peri-urban areas of Ethiopia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Impact & Results

• We played a key role sensitising and raising awareness of the school community and the general public around menstruation through media practitioners, community leaders, health extension workers and parent-teacher-associations as well as radio messages;

• We built the capacity of school administration in the operation and maintenance of WASH facilities and services to ensure improvements to girls’ toilets and hygienic waste disposal systems in schools;

• We addressed the institutional barriers of exclusion, through involving girls in school MHM programme design and practice and preparation of public information materials;

• We strengthened the MHM supply chain by training women entrepreneurs, girls, boys, teachers, women and Health Extension Workers (HEWs) to engage in menstrual pad production and distribution;

• We advocated for inclusion of MHM in annual WASH plans and budgets, woreda-level school supervision checklists, education plans and budgets of local and national governments;

• We played a key role in the development of a national MHM guideline.