White paper: Enhancing adolescent financial capabilities through financial education in Bangladesh

Abstract

Department for International Development (DfID) aims to improve the lives of adolescents, women and the poor people of the developing nations including Bangladesh. Financial literacy programs are one of the avenues to bring such changes. We are grateful to the DfID Bangladesh for sponsoring the pilot study and endeavor to write a white paper to set the discourse and futures of the financial literacy programs for Bangladesh. Barbara Payne, Senior Education Advisor, and Fazle Rabbani, Advisor, DfID, played key role in initiating the study. The Council began the financial literacy discourse through a consultative workshop on

Can economic assets increase girls' risk of sexual harassment? Evaluation results from a social, health and economic asset-building intervention for vulnerable adolescent girls in Uganda

“…A study on cash transfers to adolescent girls in Malawi showed that girls who received the cash transfer had a decline in early marriage, teenage pregnancy and self-reported sexual activity (Baird, Chirwa, Mcintosh & Ozler, 2010). A study with adolescent girls in Bangladesh showed that adding a financial education component to life-skills resulted in significantly greater positive impact in changing sexual behaviors (Amin et al, 2010).…”

Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya: Baseline report

“…The baseline report includes frequencies of selected indicators and cross-tabulations by age using STATA. For categorical variables, significance tests comparing younger girls (ages [11][12] and older girls (ages [13][14] were estimated using Pearson's Chi Square. For continuous variables, linear regression models were estimated using options for obtaining robust standard errors in the Kibera dataset and adjusting for clustering by village in the Wajir dataset.…”

“…Evidence from two recent studies indicates that savings and financial education are effective methods of economic strengthening for adolescent girls -especially considering the young age of the girls and the approach of building direct assets for the girls themselves, as opposed to strengthening the household economic status and looking for a trickle-down effect to the girls. 13,14 Research Methodology…”

“…In Wajir, out of 4,152 eligible girls, 2,923 were selected for the baseline survey. Selection was determined by the number of eligible girls (11)(12)(13)(14) in each cluster/village. For villages with less than 40 households that have an eligible girl, all households were selected for the baseline sample, and all eligible girls within those households were interviewed.…”

Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP): Health

“…Social isolation, economic vulnerability, and lack of access to health care and education prevent healthy transitions from childhood to adulthood, especially for adolescent girls in developing countries. [1][2][3][4][5] In Zambia, poor girls are often at higher risk of gender-based violence and HIV than their male age-mates. 6 Many girls drop out of school, are unable to find employment, lack the ability to make independent decisions, and are not being reached by existing programs for young people.…”