Qualitative evaluation of an edutainment intervention to prevent age-disparate transactional sex in Tanzania: Changes in educational aspirations and gender equitable attitudes towards work.

Age-disparate transactional sex is a major contributor to the disproportionate rates of HIV experienced by adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa, and a key driver of unintended adolescent pregnancy. This paper comprises one element of the impact evaluation of the Learning Initiative on Norms, Exploitation and Abuse (LINEA) radio drama intervention to prevent age-disparate transactional sex. It provides new insights into the radio drama's influence on distal drivers of age-disparate transactional sex identified in formative research: girls' own educational aspirations, and gendered attitudes towards work.

A mixed-methods, exploratory, quasi-experimental evaluation of a radio drama intervention to prevent age-disparate transactional sex in Tanzania.

Introduction: Age-disparate transactional sex (ADTS) is associated with HIV, unintended pregnancy, school dropout and violence, yet few interventions have successfully prevented it, and none have set ADTS prevention as their primary outcome. This exploratory evaluation aimed to assess indications of change after exposure to the Learning Initiative on Norms, Exploitation and Abuse (LINEA) intervention, a mass-media, gender-transformative social norms intervention aimed at preventing ADTS in Tanzania.

Methods: In a condensed implementation 331 participants were instructed to listen to the LINEA radio drama over seven weeks, and 60 were randomly allocated to household discussion sessions about content.