Worth the effort? Combining sexual and reproductive health and economic empowerment programming for married adolescent girls in Amhara, Ethiopia

ABSTRACTChild marriage is an important driver of poor health outcomes at the global level, particularly for those related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Relatively few programs focus specifically on married adolescents, however, and most focus narrowly on SRH rather than broader well-being. Programming that combines SRH with economic empowerment (EE) may lead to greater well-being while enhancing the effectiveness of both programmatic components, but few evaluations have directly addressed this.This study explores the relative effectiveness of combined versus single-focus programming using data collected as a part of the evaluation of the Towards Economic and Sexual Reproductive Health Outcomes for Adolescent girls (TESFA) program in Amhara, Ethiopia. Between 2011 and 2013, linked baseline and endline data were collected from 2,272 ever-married adolescent girls aged 14–19 from three arms: the first including training on SRH only, the second integrating EE, and the third serving as a comparison g...