Efforts to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls have long been hindered by a lack of data about the barriers they face. Surveys and other needs assessments are often conducted with heads of household — usually men.
A growing movement of organizations is now seeking to fill in the data gender gap. One of them is Girl Effect, a social enterprise that developed the Technology Enabled Girl Ambassadors program. TEGA trains and deploys girls in their own communities to gather data from their peers.
TEGA ambassadors are trained over a period of three months and then equipped with tools that allow them to collect information and record video. The data from their interviews is immediately uploaded through an internet-enabled mobile device linked to a content hub, where the Girl Effect team or a partner NGO can access the information.
About the author
Jennifer Piettedisgeneration
Jennifer Ehidiamen is a Nigerian writer who is passionate about communications and journalism. She has worked as a reporter and communications consultant for different organizations in Nigeria and overseas. She has an undergraduate degree in mass communication from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, and M.A. in business and economics from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York. In 2014, she founded Rural Reporters (www.ruralreporters.com) with the goal of amplifying underreported news and issues affecting rural communities.