The aim of the meeting was to share the overall progress of the project, as well as to have detailed discussions on the progress of the work packages (WPs). These included an overview of the findings from the realist synthesis and formative work (WP2), the results from the adaptation work (WP4), and the next steps on adolescent engagement (WP6). More focus was given to the intervention development work package (WP3). Here, the discussion centred around the results from the nimble evaluation, the development of the manuals, and their cultural adaptations with a country-specific overview.

Prior to this meeting, the project implemented a nimble evaluation (rapid, low-cost randomised control trial) in the three countries. This evaluation was designed with 8 weekly assessment points across three periods: 2 measurement points pre-intervention, 4 measurements during the intervention, and 2 measurements post-intervention. The results and lessons learned from this nimble evaluation shaped the discussion around the overall intervention development. Key insights were related to manual development and the length of the sessions in the economic, self-regulation, and combined interventions.

On the final day, the main agenda was to establish the next steps of the project, update the timeline based on the discussions from the previous days, and update the capacity-building plans. Special attention was given to the transition from the cross-sectional survey to the pilot RCT, and the systems around monitoring the data. Moreover, the three PhD students from ALIVE had an opportunity to share their progress in their research and received constructive feedback from the consortium. 

After the annual meeting, the training of trainers (ToT) workshop took place. The ALIVE intervention is using a cascade training model, where the master trainers for each intervention will need to train 2 trainers for each intervention from each country. These trainers would then train the facilitators that will deliver the economic, self-regulation and combined sessions. This was a week-long workshop with trainers from Colombia, Nepal, and South Africa. The trainings for the economic, self-regulation and combined interventions happened in parallel, and participants where able to delve into the content for each of the planned sessions, use role-techniques to familiarise themselves with the delivery, and other activities. This cascade model is vital for the ALIVE project since it fosters capacity-building in each of the sites.  

In summary, the ALIVE annual meeting 2024 in Cape Town allowed the consortium to
have in-depth discussions on the progress of each of the work packages and the implementation issues for the economic, self-regulation, and combined interventions. The consortium discussed the challenges and the best way forward for the full implementation of the pilot RCT in the three countries: Colombia, Nepal, and South Africa. The next annual meeting will be held in 2025.