This research examined the impacts of BRAC’s life skills education training and livelihoods training in Kabul and Parwan provinces in Afghanistan. BRAC implemented the training as part of its Girls’ Education Project (GEP) between 2007 and 2011, with financial support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The project established adolescent reading centres (ARCs) for females aged 15-20 years and who had primary-level education but could not continue.

The research set out to establish the extent to which provision of life skills education training and livelihoods training to young women enabled them to engage in the labour market and earn an income. It also examined whether the intervention generated other effects, more specifically if it promoted empowerment as well as affecting social relations and interaction with authorities.

The objective was to assess not only the effects of BRAC’s intervention but also its effectiveness in promoting ‘transformative’ outcomes. The study was guided by the social exclusion framework, which emphasises the importance of assessing impacts of interventions on various dimensions of wellbeing and the extent they tackle drivers of poverty and vulnerability. The research thus hoped to understand whether the livelihoods training in particular was able to challenge the societal structures and processes restricting women’s access to the labour market.