Project IMAGINE

Inspiring Married Adolescent Girls to Imagine New Empowered Futures (IMAGINE)

Each year around the world, almost 13 million girls under the age of 20 give birth, nearly 1 million of whom are younger than 15 (1). Child marriage is a strong indicator of early birth; 90% of adolescent pregnancies in the developing world are to girls who are already married; and married adolescents are more likely to experience frequent and early pregnancies than their unmarried peers (2, 3). Adolescent girls who undergo early marriage (often defined as prior to age 18) and subsequent rapid birth are more likely to experience a host of negative physical, mental and economic outcomes, including complications during pregnancy and delivery, higher rates of maternal mortality, and poor educational and economic outcomes for both themselves and their children (2-5). Read More...

IMAGINE Baseline Analysis Report

CARE has partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement IMAGINE, a project that examines how to support married adolescent girls and their families. The project aims at helping young women in Niger and Bangladesh to delay their first birth and to envision, value, and pursue alternative life trajectories. IMAGINE’s goal is two-fold: to identify, design, and test interventions that hold promise for delaying the timing of first birth among married adolescents and to document and share learning from this initiative with the wider development community to inform others working to address the issue of adolescent childbearing. IMAGINE is multifaceted, with components that enable married adolescent girls to delay first birth and to afford greater choice in pursuing an alternative life course. Read More...

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