Profile of the adolescent girls: findings from the baseline survey for Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents (SoFEA) program

Abstract

Women’s empowerment is one of BRAC’s core objectives. Ensuring the strong development of the adolescent female population is a fundamental component to ensure long-term empowerment of women. BRAC initiated the ‘Adolescent Development Programme’ (ADP) and the ‘Employment and Livelihood for Adolescents’ (ELA) programme in 1993 and 2000, respectively. To further this objective, BRAC has launched a new programme called the ‘Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents’ or SoFEA, which combines successful features of ADP and ELA as well as promising new initiatives. SoFEA targets rural adolescent girls aged 11-21 years. SoFEA includes six basic components: safe space called ‘Adolescent Club’ for girls to socialize, life-skills training, livelihood training, financial literacy, savings and credit facilities and community participation. The complementary nature of these components enables the programme to provide the adolescent girls with a comprehensive support structure.