Enabling Girls to Advance Gender Equity (ENGAGE)

In the Southern remote rural regions of Malawi, the rates of child marriage average 44%, with girls being married off as early as 10 years old. The ENGAGE initiative (Enabling Girls to Advance Gender Equity) aims to reduce the prevalence of child marriage in Southern Malawi by increasing girls’ empowerment and the advocacy impacts of civil society leaders and organizations in the Phalombe and Thyolo Districts, beginning in 2017. ENGAGE’s overall goal is to improve outcomes for girls and young women in the areas of gender equity, education, sexual and reproductive health and family planning. ENGAGE will employ a multi-pronged approach to empower vulnerable adolescent girls to increase their autonomy and decision-making agency, advance more gender equitable social norms, and build CSO capacity to hold duty-bearers accountable for ending child marriage. This approach includes the following core strategies in the Phalombe and Thyolo Districts: Girl Empowerment Intervention, Civil Society Engagement Intervention, SMS and Radio Intervention, Independent Evaluation.