Social Network and Financial Literacy among Rural Adolescent Girls: Qualitative Assessment of BRAC’s SoFEA Programme

BRAC’s innovative initiative ‘Social and Financial Empowerment of Adolescents’ (SoFEA) launched in 2009 works to empower adolescent girls both socially and financially through creating “social network” among its members. Apart from providing social interaction opportunities, the clubs also provide the members with social and legal awareness lessons, as well as trainings on life-skills, livelihoods and financial literacy. This qualitative exploration attempts to gauge two important issues:to what extent the social networks of the girls are transformed due to the intervention, and effect of the financial literacy training on participant girls’ lives, especially in the forms of knowledge retention, implementation and planning for the future. It also aims to identify the extent to which these girls have formed networks within the community, and finally analyses the members’ institutional network and involvement with income generating activities through using the financial literacy training