Agence Française de Développement (AFD), together with KOIS, BNP-Paribas, CARE, and Pro Pride, is embarking on an innovative results-based financing mechanism – a Development Impact Bond (DIB) – to improve menstrual hygiene and health (MHH) for adolescent girls and women in Adama, Ethiopia. MHH contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals and more widely to realising gender equality and human rights. Itad with JaRco and Stats4SD have brought together a consortium including Julie Hennegan from the Burnet Institute to undertake the impact evaluation and third-party verification of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure and MHH products.

The combination of impact evaluation and verification aims to fulfil two purposes: (i) it provides robust data to verify that pre-defined social outcomes have been achieved (five outcome metrics) to enable AFD to repay social investors; and (ii) through collecting additional relevant data, the impact evaluation will make a substantial contribution to the evolving knowledge base on MHH in Ethiopia and globally.

In addition, evidence from the impact evaluation will assist CARE in implementation, with data from the midline MHH survey being valuable for adjustment and course correction.

JaRco is responsible for data collection and contributing to the analysis of the impact evaluation component, while fully responsible for the implementation of third-party verification of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure and MHH products.