2.1. Reaching Married Adolescents program and study

To address high fertility and low FP method use in Niger, the RMA program was developed and implemented to increase FP method use, create an enabling environment for FP, and improve gender equity among adolescent wives and their husbands in the Dosso region of Niger. The program included gender-segregated household visits by local community health workers to provide knowledge and encourage support for FP, and gender-segregated small group discussions to encourage conversations and social cohesion around SRH topics. To assess the effectiveness of the program in promoting FP method uptake, the RMA study includes a four-arm cluster randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT03226730","term_id":"NCT03226730"}}NCT03226730) comparing the effects of household visits, small group discussions, and a combination of the two interventions against a control condition.

Across the Dosso, Doutchi, and Loga districts of the Dosso region, 16 villages per district (48 total) were randomly selected with 12 randomly assigned to treatment condition and 4 to control within each district. Eligible men were married to an adolescent wife between the ages of 13–19. Baseline data were collected in 2016 and follow-up data were collected in 2018. Data were collected by gender-matched research assistants who obtained men's verbal consent and administered the survey orally in a private location of the participants' choice using pre-programmed tablets. Surveys took 45–60 min to complete in either Hausa or Zarma, depending on the participant's preference. More details on the intervention, study design, and data collection protocol can be found in Challa et al. (2019).