Youth Empowered: Preventing Child, Early, and Forced Marriage in Bangladesh

This project contributes to the prevention of Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) in Bangladesh’s districts of Bagerhat and Sathkira in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This project aims to empower adolescents and youth, particularly girls, to exert greater control over their sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) decision-making and address the factors that drive CEFM with the support of their families and communities, including faith leaders. This project also empowers girls and young women to protect themselves from COVID-19 and its social and economic impacts.

Project activities include:

(1) strengthening health systems’ capacity to provide gender-responsive, COVID-19 and adolescent-friendly SRHR and psychosocial support services, including for CEFM, for unmarried and married adolescents girls; (2) improving sexual education for adolescent girls in and out of school, focusing on building decision-making, communication and risk reduction related to SRHR, sexual and gender-based violence, and CEFM; (3) enhancing adolescent girls and young women’s leadership capacity to challenge harmful gender norms and practices that impact SRHR; (4) empowering women’s organizations, men’s groups, faith/traditional leaders, and child protection influencers to address gender roles, cultural barriers and negative CEFM consequences; and (5) supporting families and communities to be COVID-19 responsive, while building the community’s capacity and the health care system to provide gender-responsive and adolescent-friendly information and services on COVID-19 prevention. The project expects to directly benefit over 200,000 adolescent boys and girls (of which 110,000 girls/women) and indirectly benefit more than 1,400,000 people.