The three sets of research questions on which GAGE focuses stem from our conceptual framework and include:

1. How do different groups of adolescents in different low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience the transition from childhood to adulthood?

• How do adolescents’ experiences differ by age, gender, disability and geographic location?
• How do girls and boys experience their worlds as gendered?
• How do they negotiate the gendered norms and expectations that shape their daily lives?
• What role do parents, families, communities, service providers and media play in shaping these experiences?
• What do adolescents think about the services and systems (e.g. schools, health care, justice, etc.) with which they interact?
• How do institutions, policy and legal frameworks shape adolescents’ lives and trajectories?

2. How are adolescents impacted by programming and policies?

• How do programmes support adolescent capabilities in the short and longer term?
• How do programmes impact family, peer and community attitudes, behaviours and norms?
• How does adolescent-centred programming interact with broader services and systems (e.g. schools, health care, justice, etc.)?

3. What programme characteristics create the largest and most durable impacts on adolescent capabilities?

• Are interventions focusing on a single capability or level at a time more or less effective than multifaceted programmes reaching across capabilities and change strategies?
• How should multifaceted and bundled interventions be sequenced?
• What interventions and which components have the most impact on adolescents of different ages?
• How often should programme interventions take place and for how long?
• How important are programme resources (including budget, human resources, infrastructure) to achieve impact?
• Does programme design affect whether a programme can be scaled up to reach more adolescents?