What we do - empowering adolescents
BRAC is a development success story. Founded in Bangladesh, we are by most measures the largest non-governmental
organisation in the world: an innovator in poverty eradication and an outstanding social enterprise. Best known for our communitybased approach and the scale of our programmes, we have created opportunities for 138 million people - mostly women - to set
in motion lasting change.
Adolescent girls are one of the most powerful agents for change in the world. BRAC empowers adolescent girls and breaks
the cycle of poverty, unlocking their economic potential through education, lifeskills and livelihood opportunities. Empowered
adolescent girls are able to fight child marriage, protect themselves from teenage pregnancy and build healthier futures.
Credit: Shehzad Noorani
‘‘It looks to me that
putting money into a
program like this...is a
darn good investment for
girls during the critical
transition from childhood
to adulthood’’
Marcus Goldstein
The World Bank
Caption: Najjemba Jackline (17) runs a small fruit shop by the main highway leading to Kampala in Uganda
Our model
Girls are at tremendous risk across the developing world and the costs of not
protecting them are high. Securing the appropriate conditions for girls’ futures is not
only the right thing to do but has positive implications for national economies. Our
BRAC programme which originated in Bangladesh as an adolescent development
programme for boys and girls is now operational in Tanzania, Liberia, Uganda, South
Sudan and Sierra Leone working mostly with girls and is called Empowerment and
Livelihoods for Adolescents (ELA).
BRAC creates and continues to provide safe spaces for girls aged 13-21 years old,
especially those who have dropped out of school and might be at risk of getting
pregnant at a young age. Local girls’ clubs in borrowed and rented buildings in
marginalised communities offer a space where girls can sing, dance, play games
and socialise with their friends within walking distance of their homes and away from
the pressures of family life.
Some girls are trained as mentors, and through them the other girls receive training
in health and nutrition, life skills, sexual health, financial literacy and livelihood
skills. BRAC offer girls the opportunity to receive small scale business training
and microloans to start their own enterprises and in doing so they can gain
financial independence. Central to this programme is the understanding that social
empowerment goes hand in hand with economic empowerment. The importance of
safe spaces where girls can be girls is plain to see, they share ideas, learn new skills
and develop in to their independence safely.
BRAC ELA CAPABILITY STATEMENT
In the news
Sex and Survival: reducing fertility rates
among adolescent girls
“To succeed, family planning programmes must
empower girls’’.
(The Guardian, August 2013)
The Nike Foundation on Unleashing the ‘Girl
Effect’
“BRAC Bangladesh’s innovative economic
empowerment programs show girls are as creditworthy as any other market segment, if not more
so: 70 percent of girls (usually older girls) took
loans ranging from $7 to $440 with a 98 percent
recovery rate.” Rahim Kanani
(The Huffington Post, April 2011)
w w w.bracuk.net
Credit: Jake Lyell
BRAC is the world’s largest implementer of the Girl Effect, the
Nike Foundation-led movement to harness the potential of
adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.
We are working with the Girl Effect in Sierra Leone, Uganda
and Tanzania.
Caption: BRAC ELA Swaswa club, Dodoma, Tanzania
Rehma, Tanzania
Rehma was 14 years old and preparing for secondary school when
she discovered she was pregnant. Rehma’s father ran away and her
mother threw her out of the house. With nowhere to go, and baby
girl to look after, she ended up on the streets.
Luckily, she found her way to a BRAC Girls Club which provides girls
like Rehma with a safe space where they are protected from abuse,
can express themselves, build friendships and learn key skills like
money management, child care and family planning.
Rehma attended job skills training with BRAC and was given a small
loan of £50 to start a business that makes and sells Maandazi, an
African treat a bit like a doughnut. Rehma’s mother later welcomed
her back home and now her business supports the family and
provides enough for them to save for the future. At BRAC we
believe that microfinance opportunities offered at times of crisis and
supported with training are instrumental in supporting people like
Rehma to work their own way out of poverty.
When we met Rehma she said to us, “I really like my club because
it gave my life direction when I had none. When I joined the club
I learnt how to protect myself from bad men and HIV.”
Credit: Rob Beechey
At BRAC clubs girls’ gain knowledge and confidence through peerto-peer learning. This is an important process that leads to further
opportunities as they grow to become respected members and
leaders in their communities.
Caption: Rehma at her BRAC club in Dar es Salaam
Impact of ELA programmes: a ‘reproductive revolution’
•
contraceptive use in Bangladesh has risen from 12.7 per cent in 1980 to 61.2 per cent in 2011
According to a series of random control trails conducted by the LSE in Uganda;
•
•
•
•
self reported condom usage rose by 12.6 per cent among sexually active participants
two years after entering the programme, village fertility rates were 28.6 per cent lower than in the control samples
participants reported having sex unwillingly decreased by 83 per cent from the baseline during a one-year period
15 per cent of the 53,000 club members are now taking microloans to help them start their own businesses
* Figures taken from ‘Empowering Adolescent Girls: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Uganda’ 2012 Bandiera et al
BRAC ELA STATEMENT
w w w.bracuk.net
BRAC’s past performance examples
Country
Project
Partner
Amount
Description
Tanzania
Girls Education
Challenge
DFID
£1,783,288
Helping the world’s poorest girls attend
school and ensuring they receive a quality
education and can transform their future
Tanzania
South Sudan
ELA
NoVo
Foundation
£2,200,000
This five-year partnership supports
education and empowerment of adolescent
girls in multiple countries
Sierra Leone
Emergency Ebola
Novo Foundation
The Girl Effect
Malala Foundation
UNICEF
£900,000
To meet the needs of Ebola affected girls
and provide recovery support
Uganda
Building Young
Futures
UNICEF and
Barclays
£1,010,000
Provides young people with practical skills
and capital to start their own businesses
Uganda
ELA
Barr Foundation
£468,000
To support the Empowerment and
Livelihood for Adolescents programme in
Uganda, serving girls ages 13 to 21
Uganda
Grant to engage men
and boys
The Girl Effect
£32,550
Together we are trying to magnify the impact
of programmes for girls by reaching out to
men and boys and engaging them in gender
issues
Bangladesh
SOFEA Grant
The Girl Effect
£1,946,430
BRAC’s Social and Financial
Empowerment of Adolescents (SoFEA)
programme provides girls aged 11 to 21
with safe spaces and training and works to
sensitize the community on the importance
of girls’ education
Innovation lies at the heart of what we do.
Credit: Shehzad Noorani
Recently we’ve started a drive to encourage women
in Bangladesh to get involved in bKash digital money
initiatives. Our pilot programme - with funding from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation - is breaking new ground by
introducing digitilized school fees and youth savings for
adolescents in our clubs.
Caption: Rumi Begum, an ELA group member, stitches a suit for her neighbour
BRAC ELA CAPABILITY STATEMENT
w w w.bracuk.net
BRAC ELA at a glance
Country
No of clubs
Members in clubs
No of branch offices
Bangladesh
9,000
254,873
-
Tanzania
180
8,295
18
Uganda
1,385
73,124
94
South Sudan
100
3,000
6
Sierra Leone
210
6,749
6
Liberia
15
475
2
Total
10,863
346,516
126
Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this information, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific interest and report
any discrepancies to [email protected]. This document was updated on the 30th November 2015 and will be revised annually.
Key donors for BRAC in ELA
What’s next?
In September 2014, BRAC committed to
a massive scale-up of our education and
empowerment programmes, pledging to
invest hundreds of millions to reach 2.7
million additional girls and train 75,000
teachers by 2019.
“Young people may present a higher
financial risk, but the social returns are
also higher” said the director of BRAC’s
microfinance programme, Shameran
Abed. “Young people with opportunities
are less likely to get married young and
more likely to plan for stable livelihoods in
the future”.
Contact us
19 Wootton Street
London SE1 8TG UK
[email protected]
+44(0) 203 434 3072
Credit: Rob Beechey
In 2014 we launched a pilot programme
to empower adolescent girls in Liberia.
We are always working to improve the
microfinance products for young people.
Caption: Girls from an ELA club learn hairdressing skills in Dar es Salaam
FOLLOW US:
w w w.bracuk.net