Girls' Advocacy Alliance Bangladesh SUMMARY 
The GAA Bangladesh program forms part of a broader initiative by Plan International Netherlands, Defence for Children–ECPAT Netherlands and Terre des Hommes Netherlands to promote equal rights and opportunities for girls and young women, reduce poverty and stimulate inclusive economic growth. In Bangladesh it is implemented by Plan International Bangladesh and Terre des Hommes Bangladesh. It started in January 2016 and runs for 5 years. The implementation areas are Dhaka, Rangpur, Bagherhat, Patuakhali, Rajshahi, Barisal and Satkhira districts and the national level of Bangladesh. The program works together with local partners such as INCIDIN Bangladesh, CPD, ASK, ACD, AVAS, BSCAN, Change Associates, We Can, RDRS and NGFAF. Thematic areas are combatting child trafficking, online sexual abuse and exploitations, child marriage and sexual harassment at the workplace using the intervention strategies lobby, advocacy, campaigning, capacity building, linkage and networking and research. Violence against girls and young women and the denial of their economic rights stand in the way of achieving meaningful gender equality. Serious violations of these human rights are affecting millions of girls and young women. Societies pay a high price for not tackling these issues. 

Despite being one of the major work forces in Bangladesh women are deprived from their right to equal pay. Survey of the ready-made garment industry indicate that most female workers are unaware of their legal rights, 42% of the female workers are paid less than the minimum wage and do not claim labour rights. In rural areas, 83% of the employed women aged 15 years and over are engaged as unpaid helpers. Socio-cultural norms support women staying at home, rather than pursuing a career. 

Rates of Child Marriage and adolescent motherhood are among the highest in the world. Despite the fact that according to the CM Act 1929, the legal marriage is 18 for girls, 75% of the women aged 20-29 were married before the age of18. Eve teasing, which is sexual harassment in public places, is one of the major causes of adolescent girl’s marriage and dropout from school. Research has shown that 91% of the women are victim of eve teasing; out of these 87% incidents in the ag level of 10 to 18 years. Approximately 2 million women and children have bee trafficked o the Middle East, about 20.000 women and girls from Bangladesh are trafficked to Pakistan each year, mainly for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The Theory of Change for the Girls Advocacy Programme in Plan Bangladesh follows four interrelated paths. 

Three of these lead to legislation, understanding, adherence and monitoring of public and private policies and practices regarding violence against girls and young women and their economic empowerment. Each focuses on a specific type of actor: (1) government officials at national, state, province, district and community level, and representatives of customary systems; (2) private sector actors; and (3) girls’ and women’s organisations and other CSOs and CSO networks with enhanced organisational and advocacy capacity. 

The fourth path leads to the abandonment of social norms and practices that discriminate against gender and to the change of deeply rooted and widely upheld beliefs that negatively affect policy makers, local government officials, local courts and/or service providers’ willingness to adopt and implement gender equality policies. The main actors are community, traditional and religious leaders and other key opinion leaders. 

Each of the paths will entail three levels of change: agenda setting, policy setting and, ultimately, changes in practices. The Girls Advocacy Programme builds on the outcomes realised, lessons learned and relationships built up by the three alliance organisations during various programmes. An example in Bangladesh is the Girl Power Programme that was implemented from 2011 till 2015 by an alliance of six Dutch NGOs, including lead organisations Plan Nederland and Defence for Children – ECPAT Nederland.  

The Girl Power Programme focused on the political and economic empowerment of girls and young women, making them better protected against sexual and other forms of gender-based violence and improving their access to secondary education. The Girls Advocacy Programme will build on the thematic and strategic expertise and experience that was gained during the Girl Power Programme, including partnering, networking and lobbying and advocacy. 

In Bangladesh moreover, the Girls Advocacy Programme will build directly on results of Girl Power projects and the processes of change to which that programme contributed. Examples of these include the adoption of the Sexual Offences Act. The end beneficiaries of the Girls Advocacy Programme of Plan in Bangladesh will be girls and young women (up to the age of 24) in a yet to be selected number of  districts. In April 2016 the inception workshop takes place which includes the participation of the Alliance partners, Plan Bangladesh and Terre des Hommes Bangladesh, the shortlisted implementation partners, government officials and officials from the Dutch Embassy in Dhaka and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. Objectives of the inception workshop will be to fine tune the Theory of Change and to develop the Country Action Plan for the first 1.5 years.

In May 2016 the assessment and contracting of the implementing partners will be finalised.

The programme focuses on four strategic goals.
1.	Public support for the elimination of gender-based violence and the economic exclusion of girls and young women, will be increased.
2.	The influence of civil society organisations and networks (particularly girls’ and young women’s organisations) on governmental and corporate/private-sector actors to eliminate gender-based violence and the economic exclusion of girls and young women, will be increased. 
3.	The policies and practices of corporate/private-sector actors that support the elimination of gender-based violence and economic exclusion, will be improved.
4.	Legislation and public policies, as well as improved practices of governmental actors, that support the prevention of gender-based violence and economic exclusion, will be effectively implemented.

The programme embraces two main strategies. 
The first of these involves strengthening CSOs and networks (particularly girls’ and young women’s organisations). This will make them better able to influence government and private-sector actors to eliminate gender-based violence and the economic exclusion of girls and young women.
 
The second of these strategies entails policy influencing for increased public support, improved policies and practices of private-sector actors, as well as for the effective implementation of legislation and public policies and the improvement of practices of governmental actors that support the prevention and elimination of gender-based violence and economic exclusion. Specific strategies for policy influencing are lobby, advocacy (including media campaigns and ICT), research and linking & networking. The changes that will be instigated by the Girls Advocacy Programme in Bangladesh will be sustainable. The main strategies of the programme, which are capacity development and policy influencing, will both underscore sustainability. Institutional sustainability will be ensured by the programme’s focus on capacity strengthening of all local partner organisations. This will be based on carrying out assessments of individual organisational capacity and then annual assessments of the progress on custom developed capacity-strengthening plans. The financial sustainability of the programme’s outcomes and, more notably, the processes of change it will initiate, will depend on the financial and organisational sustainability of local partner organisations after the life of the programme. These aspects will receive plenty of attention during the capacity-strengthening trajectories that will be developed and rolled out with all local partner organisations. Inclusivity is an important principle of the programme and this will also be embedded in the capacity-development activities.