# Addressing Economic Empowerment to Reduce HIV Risk among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Kenya

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2024 · $173,671

## Abstract

Project Summary
Poverty increases HIV risk for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Africa. AGYW experiencing
poverty are more likely to engage in age disparate, transactional, and condomless sex, which increases their
risk of HIV acquisition. The HIV incidence of AGYW is a public health concern in Kenya where AGYW (ages
15-24) account for 28% of new HIV diagnoses and nearly half of AGYW across the nation are living in poverty.
To address the linkages between poverty and HIV risk, economic empowerment may be an essential strategy
to reducing HIV incidence in this population. However, there remains gaps in how economic empowerment is
measured and addressed in HIV prevention interventions for AGYW. Without valid and reliable tools to
measure economic empowerment, there will remain a gap in how to design and assess the impact of economic
empowerment HIV prevention interventions for AGYW in high burden settings. The goal of this Mentored
Research Scientist Development Award (K01) application for Principal Investigator Dr. Margaret W. Gichane,
PhD, MSPH is to improve measurement of economic empowerment to inform the adaptation of a combination
cash transfer intervention for AGYW in Kenya. To achieve career and research goals, Dr. Gichane has
assembled a multidisciplinary mentoring team with expertise in qualitative research, scale development,
intervention adaptation, and economic empowerment. Her training aims are to: 1) Acquire foundational
knowledge and skills in grounded theory to expand conceptualizations of economic empowerment; 2) Develop
methodological expertise in scale development and validation; and 3) Cultivate expertise in participatory
intervention development. Specific aims of the proposal are to: 1) characterize economic empowerment among
AGYW; 2) develop and validate an economic empowerment scale for AGYW; and 3) adapt and pilot test a
cash transfer intervention and measure the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary impact on economic
empowerment and HIV risk behaviors. The proposed mentoring, training, and research plan in this K01
application will prepare Dr. Gichane for an independent research career focused on identifying and addressing
economic determinants of HIV transmission among AGYW globally.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10923934
- **Project number:** 5K01MH134775-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Margaret Gichane
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $173,671
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-10 → 2028-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10923934

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10923934, Addressing Economic Empowerment to Reduce HIV Risk among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Kenya (5K01MH134775-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10923934. Licensed CC0.

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