Dr. Brenda Oulo: What does it mean to have agency?
Agency is a vital construct that empowers girls to effect change in their own lives and communities. It’s a key outcome of empowerment yet finding a standard measure has proven to be a challenge.
AMPLIFY Girls, in collaboration with Dr. Aubryn Sidle and Dr. Brenda Oulo, is poised to expand our efforts in promoting agency for girls through data-driven promising practices through the Girls' Agency Lab (GAL).
GAL focuses on the broad testing of the AMPLIFY Girls Agency Survey in five countries with hundreds of adolescent girls to strengthen and refine this cutting-edge measurement tool. In the podcast, Brenda speaks about how to measure and achieve agency among adolescent girls in East and Southern Africa.
But, what is agency?
In this Hey Changemaker! episode, Brenda explores the importance of agency, its impact on girls’ lives, and the quest to measure it. She shares personal stories of her journey of empowerment and her relationship with agency.
This conversation is a journey into the heart of change – where it all begins. Dr. Brenda Oulo helps us to begin to uncover the pathways to enhancing the agency of adolescent girls, and the agency in our own lives.
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Co-Director of the Girls Agency Lab (GAL)
Dr. Brenda Oulo is a research professional whose experience spans clinical trials, epidemiological, public health, and social science studies both locally in Kenya and internationally. Brenda’s interests are in adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights research, she is the recipient of the 2018 International AIDS Vaccine Initiative fellowship grant on adolescent-focused research. She holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.