AGILE life skills component: refining life skills programme content in line with the evidence

This 46 session life skills curriculum, designed to be delivered in safe spaces to girls in Nigeria, covers topics of education, empowerment, health, reproductive health, gender based violence and climate change.

Published by the Centre for Girls' Education, this manual sets out the life skills component of the AGILE programme, delivered through safe spaces mentoring sessions for in-school girls in Nigeria. It is organised into six modules, each with structured 80 minute sessions built around participatory activities, role play, storytelling and case studies rather than lecture style teaching. Each session includes clear objectives, a facilitator script, and notes for adapting content to local language and context.

The six modules cover education (including the right to education and staying in school), empowerment (self-esteem, goal setting, communication, decision making, assertiveness and livelihood skills), health and nutrition, reproductive health (puberty, menstruation and related topics), gender based violence (definitions, safety mapping, negotiation and referral pathways), and climate change (causes, vulnerabilities and gendered impacts). The inclusion of a dedicated climate change module, alongside more familiar life skills content, reflects an explicit intent to refine the curriculum in line with emerging evidence on the risks adolescent girls face.

Sessions are designed for direct use by mentors with modest resources, relying on materials such as flipchart paper, coloured markers and locally available food samples rather than specialist equipment.

This resource is from the Centre for Girls' Education, an organisation working to keep adolescent girls in school in Nigeria and build their life skills through mentored safe space programmes.

Key messages

• The manual is structured around six modules delivered as 46 sessions of roughly 80 minutes each: education, empowerment, health and nutrition, reproductive health, gender based violence, and climate change.
• Sessions incorporate participatory methods including role play, storytelling, case studies and small group work.
• Sessions are designed to be delivered with minimal resources, such as flipchart paper and locally available food samples, making the model realistic for low resource settings.