Population Council Research that makes a difference

GOAL is a Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) community initiative that uses sports and education to empower young women—on and off the court—by delivering a dynamic program that provides critical health information, skills-building activities, and a safe place for girls to play, learn, and grow. Currently GOAL works with adolescent girls and young women in urban areas in India; the program is implemented by the Naz Foundation (India) Trust and is run in partnership with local grassroots NGOs in Delhi and Mumbai. GOAL has the potential to have a transformative effect on girls’ lives.

Given the Population Council’s expertise in research, girls’ sports, and evidenced-based programming for adolescent girls, SCB engaged the Population Council as its key content and measurement partner to strengthen the content, design, and measurement framework for the GOAL program. The Council developed a state-of-the-art quantitative survey instrument for GOAL, and in May 2009 Standard Chartered Bank employee volunteers in Delhi were trained by Council senior associate K.G. Santhya on basic principles of data collection, research ethics, and interviewing techniques.