Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed and Nyasha Tirivayi's presentation at the Kampala Capital City Authority’s (KCCA) Urban Social Protection Research Symposium in December 2020.

1. Gender-responsive age-sensitive social protection (GRASSP): A Framework
Dr. Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed and Dr. Nyasha Tirivayi
KCCA Research Symposium
10 December 2020

2. • To ultimately contribute to gender
equality outcomes across the
lifecourse in LMICs.
• To build a robust evidence base
focused on ‘what works’, ‘how’
and ‘why’ on gender-responsive
social protection
GRASSP aims in short….
for every child, answers
A child-sensitive social protection system
Social Protection Across the Life-course
FCDO-FUNDED, FIVE YEAR (2018-2023) RESEARCH PROGRAMME
Life-course focus …
• Early childhood
• Children
• Adolescence and youth
• Adulthood and reproductive age
• Old age
Gender integration continuum

3. A CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK

4. Gender discriminatory Gender blind Gender sensitive Gender responsive Gender transformative
Intentionally or
unintentionally takes
advantage of gender
stereotypes in programme
outcomes and may reinforce
gender inequalities.
Ignores gender roles, norms
and relations, and often
assumes that the
programmes or
interventions will affect
women, girls, men and boys
equally, potentially
worsening inequalities.
Acknowledges and address
gender needs and
vulnerabilities, without
tackling the root causes that
contribute to gender
inequalities.
Acknowledges gender
dynamics and deliberately
responds to women’s, girls’,
men’s and boys’ specific
needs to achieve
positive outcomes.
Explicitly seeks to transform
unequal gender relations to
promote shared power,
control of resources,
decision-making, and
support empowerment
The Gender Integration Continuum is a diagnostic tool to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention in addressing
gender inequalities in programme design, implementation, monitoring or evaluation.
Source: UNICEF Office of Research- Innocenti (2020) ‘Gender-responsive age-sensitive social protection: A conceptual
framework’, Innocenti Working Paper, UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, Florence (2020)
WHAT IS THE GENDER INTEGRATION CONTINUUM

5. Gender discriminatory Gender blind Gender sensitive Gender responsive Gender transformative
A conditional cash transfer
that makes women only
responsible for fulfilling
conditions related to
children in order to be
eligible for and to receive the
social protection benefit.
A contributory (only) social
insurance schemes (e.g.
pensions) which does not
account for the lower
likelihood of women to work
in the formal sector.
The provision of childcare
support to mothers in public
works to reduce the
constraints associated with
their unpaid care and
domestic work.
The provision of individual
cash benefits to men and
women rather than
combining them in one
household transfer
A cash ‘plus’ intervention
that, includes a behaviour
change component
targeting men and boys to
promote shared
responsibility in unpaid care
and domestic work.
Source: UNICEF Office of Research- Innocenti (2020) ‘Gender-responsive age-sensitive social protection: A conceptual
framework’, Innocenti Working Paper, UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, Florence (2020)
SOCIAL PROTECTION EXAMPLES ACROSS
THE GENDER INTEGRATION CONTINUUM

6. GRASSP In Practice

7. Objectives
• Unpack the independent and complementary effects of
aspects of design and implementation at different points
across the gender-integration continuum (i.e. gender
neutral to gender transformative) across the life-course
on gender equality and primary outcomes of social
protection programmes.
• Investigate the moderating effects of key gender-specific
contextual factors and gender norms on gender-
responsive and age-sensitive/life-course appropriate
social protection programming.
• Advance understanding and evidence around gender-
responsive policy and programming in crisis contexts, and
programmes’ cost-effectiveness.
Research Questions
• What design and implementation features of a social
protection programme can be shown to have a positive
impact on gender equality outcomes?
• What are the key gender-relevant moderating and
mediating factors for social protection programmes in
achieving gender equality outcomes – including
contextual factors (e.g. crisis contexts and social and
gender norms)?
• What evidence is there on cost-effectiveness of gender-
responsive and life-course social protection
programmes?
UNPACKING DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION FEATURES

8. COUNTRY CASE STUDIES
Gender
integration
continuum
Life-course
focus
Gender-
neutral
Quasi-experimental
Burkina Faso
Cash plus
Nutrition for PLWs
WASH for schools
Adulthood, adolescence and
childhood
Gender-
sensitive
Process Evaluation
Ethiopia
Productive Safety
Net Programme
(PSNP)
Adulthood
Gender-
sensitive
RCT (Additional
wave)
Tanzania
Adolescent cash
plus programme
Adolescence

9. EXAMPLE FROM THE TANZANIA STUDY
Alignment with the GRASSP Conceptual Framework
Adolescent
cash plus
(PSSN)
Tanzania
programme
Change
pathways
Gender-
integration
continuum
Life-course
focus
Gender
equality
outcomes
Adolescents and
their households
Gender-neutral (with potential to
be gender transformative)
Outcomes for Tanzania study
• Improved health (HIV and
SRH knowledge, testing and
treatment; health seeking)
• Bodily integrity and
mobility (violence
experiences)
• Enhanced voice and agency
+ Improved psychosocial
wellbeing (gender equitable
attitudes, self-esteem and
entrepreneurial attitudes)
Core change pathways study focuses on
• Encouraging investments in households’ human
development (intergenerational well-being) via
mentoring, livelihood and SRH-HIV life skills training
and linkages with health services/facilities
• Increasing voice and agency beyond the household
through mentoring, SRH-HIV life skills training and
linkages and productive grant
• Changing social and gender norms and attitudes
which can have lasting impacts on future
relationships, making them more gender equitable
and reducing the risk of future IPV.
Focus of Tanzania study:
• Gendered impacts of
Irregular cash transfers and
Coping strategies
• Longer-term impacts of plus-
component and its
implementation on gender
equality outcomes
Evaluation Design:
Quantitative Cluster
randomised control trial (cRCT)

10. Dr. Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed
Gender & Development Manager (Research)
znesbitt-ahmed@unicef.org
Dr. Nyasha Tirivayi
Social Policy Manager
jtirivayi@unicef.org

11. Thank you