II

Ethics and Safeguarding for Access and Learning Study

No ethical board approvals were required to conduct research in schools in either Kenya or Nepal. However, additional ethical clearance was sought from the REAL Centre at the University of Cambridge in advance of data collection taking place in Kenya and Nepal. This involved submitting documentation to acknowledge that provisions were in place to address the following ethical considerations:

• Relevance and necessity of data being gathered to fulfil the study aims and objectives;

• Clear timelines associated with the use and retention of data gathered through the study; Protocols for securely storing and restricting access to data gathered through the data;

• Protection of participant identifiers and personal information;

• Information shared with participants on expected participation and explicit focus of research;

• Clear timelines, procedures, ethics and protocols for consent and consent withdrawal; and

• Clarity of intended benefits to research participants and how findings will be shared.

Ethical clearance was granted on 5th February 2021.

Research Permissions Ethical Board Approvals

In addition to ethical clearance, research permissions were also obtained from relevant government departments in Kenya and Nepal prior to data collection taking place.

Specific research permissions processes for each country are detailed below.

Kenya

To complete this study, we required research permission at three levels: from the National Commission for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NACOSTI); from the Ministry of Education; and from county commissioners.

As a national government-approved organisation, permission from NACOSTI granted Research PLUS the ability to collect data across Kenya. Furthermore, because the study involved visiting schools, the team needed support letters from the education ministry, including from the County Directors of Education in all eight counties included in the study: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Tana River, Samburu, Marsabit and Turkana. Finally, permission from County Commissioners in all the areas visited was obtained prior to the commencement of fieldwork and received in December 2020. Permission had also been sought from Kilifi county commissioner in December but this had been rejected on the grounds of wishing to minimise contact with students/ schools as a way of curbing the spread of Covid-19. As such, Kilifi county was removed from the sample and fieldwork did not take place there.

Nepal

In Nepal, we required research permission at three levels: local government, district education offices, and school principals or management councils. To obtain permission to work in schools, the Nepali team submitted letters of request to local government and district education offices With the aid of the local implementing partner, the team then approached the Principal or School Management Committee (SMC) for each school included in the research sample with a letter of intent and request to conduct research.

Ethical Challenges or Safeguarding Incidents During Fieldwork and Mitigations

Table 1 below provides an overview of the ethical challenges or safeguarding incidents faced by research teams throughout the research, by location.

Table 1: Ethical issues or safeguarding incidents during fieldwork in Kenya and Nepal

Country Institution(s) Issue Details

Nepal Dhangadi HSS Concerning fragile mental state reported by a respondent

During quantitative data collection one of the supervisors was informed by the enumerator collecting data about a girl who was visibly depressed with answers regarding the questionnaire and hinting at surrendering her life.

Effect on data collection

Mitigation steps taken Lessons learned (if applicable)

No delay Tetra Tech was immediately informed and a safeguarding incident report was completed and sent to FCDO in line with due process. BASE Nepal and Mercy Corps were also informed about the incident and steps were taken to ensure the safety of the girl. Tetra Tech also suspended further IDIs with outof-school girls given the diminishing returns of conducting further interviews against the relative risk of harm.

Basudevi and Fulbari SS

Refusal from students to take the survey and assessment

Students had just completed their examination and the prospect of another assessment which was similar to examination was too daunting for many students

Minimal delay Reduced sample selection was done to accommodate for nonconsent refusals

Should not have led defining assessment as assessment rather would have pushed more for anonymity of their performance in the said assessment

Kenya General issue Exam fatigue experienced by the girls included in the study

Tetra Tech, November 2021| 3

Exam fatigue experienced by the girls included in the study

None The teams worked closely with schools to time assessments during non-exam period