Accelerating Action to End Child Marriage in Bangladesh

The Population Council is partnering with UNFPA and Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) Government of Bangladesh (GOB) to delay marriage. The project aims at empowering girls with life-skills, livelihood and gender awareness trainings, and engaging communities to address normative drivers of child marriage. The project intends to reach more than 13,000 girls aged 10-19, who may be in or out of school and married or unmarried. In addition, groups of adult men and women aged 25-35, who are identified as supportive allies by the adolescent girls, are engaged in separate group meetings as part of community outreach. The project recruited 36 young women known as Gender Promoters who conduct sessions and carry out community outreach activities. The project is being implemented in Bogura and Jamalpur district that are among the 21 districts identified by the United Nations partner agencies as vulnerable. 96 randomly selected unions of Bogura and Jamalpur districts are the project area. The intervention approaches are evaluated in a four-arm cluster randomized control study with 72 intervention villages allocated to three arms and 24 control villages. The design intends to assess the impact of skills, as well as the added contribution of community engagement activities involving women and men. Skill building training activities for girls takes place in 72 Kishori Resource Centres (located in primary schools) of 72 Unions. Each center is equipped with laptops, internet modem, and associated reading materials to run the sessions for 2 adolescent groups.