AGALI Launches Pilot Project on Economic Empowerment

With generous support from the Summit Foundation, AGALI has launched a pilot study to assess the economic empowerment needs of indigenous adolescent girls and to map existing economic development programs targeting girls. Working with AGALI alumni in the Western Highlands of Guatemala and in southern Mexico, AGALI is investigating best practices to design evidence-based economic interventions for indigenous girls. The results of this pilot project will be published later in the year, and will serve as the foundation for new models to improve the economic security of marginalized adolescent girls in the region.

New Fellow Recruitment in Guatemala and Honduras

AGALI is currently recruiting new Fellows from Guatemala and Honduras to form the 2013 AGALI cohort. AGALI Program Manager Emily Teitsworth will travel to Central America in April to interview candidates for the program and conduct site visits with AGALI grantees. If you know an inspiring advocate in Guatemala or Honduras who would make a great AGALI Fellow, please send them the selection criteria and application form, which are available on our website.

Traditional Authority Chitera signs by-laws as GENET's Joyce Mkandawire looks on (GENET)

In late 2012, the AGALI-affiliated Adolescent Girls' Advocacy Network (AGANET) in Malawi successfully advocated for the reintroduction of the Marriage Bill to the national Parliament, which would raise the legal age of marriage in Malawi to 18 years. Pro-polygamy activists successfully delayed a vote on the bill until 2013, which makes AGANET's advocacy on this important issue more critical than ever. To learn more about the Network's efforts to end child marriage in Malawi, please visit the dedicated webpage on the AGALI website.

AGANET member organization and AGALI grantee, the Girls Advocacy Network (GENET) has been working at the grassroots level to end the practice of child marriage and mobilize support for the passage of the Marriage Bill. In late February, GENET launched "I Will Marry When I Want," a publication featuring stories and photos from girls in Malawi affected by child marriage. Since the beginning of the year, GENET's pioneering work has also been spotlighted by Girls Not Brides and has received coverage from the Voice of America.

"The True Beneficiary is the Organization that Listens" by Denise Dunning

During the fifty-seventh session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York, the UN Foundation published blogs by Denise and by AGALI Malawi 2011 Fellow Faith Phiri to spotlight AGALI's work to improve girls' lives in Malawi. Denise's blog, entitled "Making Child Marriage a Priority," and  Faith's, entitled "Changing Norms, Ending Child Marriage," are both available on the UN Foundation's blog.