Tipping Point

Project Highlights

Tipping Point

Where: Nepal, Bangladesh, Mali, Niger, Jordan, Egypt

When: 2013-2023

Donors: The Kendeda Fund

Partners:

CARE relies on local solutions to respond to needs of the communities where we work for a sustainable end to child marriage. In Phase 1 and Phase 2, Tipping Point worked with partners who bring years of experience in Tipping Point communities to our collaborative effort.

Siddhartha Samuyadayik Samaj (Nepal)

Dalit Social Development Center (Nepal)

Jaintia Shinnomul Songstha (Bangladesh)

Gram Bikash Kendra (Bangladesh)

Association of Slum Dwellers (Bangladesh)

In Phase 3, Tipping Point is shifting its partnership model to connect girl activists with social movements, women’s rights and girls’ rights organizations and coalitions that seek to expand the voices, choices and agency of girls. This diverse set of actors in each context is instrumental to driving girl-centered change.

The project also seeks to influence the way policymakers, donors, researchers, and civil society approach the issue of child marriage, specifically to steer the global discourse beyond short-term solutions.

Background

Tipping Point is a multi-country initiative addressing child marriage by focusing on its root causes. We see child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) as an act of violence, so we enable girls to assert their rights, help families and communities to support them, and influence policy to sustain change.

Intervention

Phase 1 (2013-2017)

Phase 1 (2013-2017) of this three-phase project used complementary approaches with groups of girls, boys, and parents—who regularly participated in meetings—as well as advocacy events to raise public awareness and promote equal social norms. The project also engaged allies and potential champions for girls’ rights, including government and civil society, to help drive social change and direct more resources toward girls’ empowerment in project communities. Key to this advocacy was a focus on acknowledging fear and control of adolescent girls’ sexuality as a driver of CEFM.

Phase 2 (2017-2020)

For Phase 2 (2017-2020), Tipping Point has used the findings from Phase 1 to develop and test a holistic and replicable implementation package. Tipping Point engages different participant groups (girls, boys, parents, community leaders, etc.) around key programmatic topics, and creates public spaces for all community members to be part of the dialogue. Tipping Point’s approach is rooted in challenging social expectations and repressive norms and promoting movements and activism that are led by girls. These components are designed to help adolescent girls find places where they can reflect on and tackle inequality, and then take collective action on those issues.

Phase 3 (2020-2023)

In Phase 3, Tipping Point will use information gathered from successful approaches to addressing CEFM to advocate for girls’ increased visibility and meaningful participation in movements that seek to expand their voice, choice, agency, and rights. Additionally, Tipping Point is campaigning for governments and donors to recognize and be held accountable to implement and fund evidence-based policies and strategies that address the root causes of CEFM. Lastly, Phase 3 will seek to make CARE’s programming more accountable to our commitment to girls’ rights by investing in social norms and advancing social equality approaches for adolescent girls across sectors.

Program achievements

Phase 1

Key social norms that restrict girls’ opportunities and autonomy loosened slightly: Girls showed increased mobility and visibility, parent-adolescent relationships improved, and parents were less concerned with family honor.
Girls gained psychosocial skills, knowledge of their rights, social capital, and increased confidence.
Strong allies for girls emerged in project villages.
Project staff transformed their assumptions about men, women, work, and how to lead change.
Parents demonstrated a greater commitment to their daughters’ education and defended girls’ rights to be active citizens.
Girls demonstrated growth in their communication and negotiation skills, personal aspirations, and practical knowledge.
Boys grew into better brothers for their sisters and started to think critically about their place in a family.

Phase 2

Facilitated girl-led collective actions with a demonstrated increase in girls’ sense of agency.
Endline results expected to show a significant impact of the Tipping Point implementation on agency, relations, structures, and social norms perpetuating CEFM.

The importance of Tipping Point

Tipping Point is unique in its thorough integration of a social norms approach, including a focus on the control of adolescent sexuality as a root cause of CEFM, the integrated implementation package, and rigorous measurement of the change in norms that occurs. Tipping Point’s “root cause” approach combines a focus on girls’ agency, the supportive relationships around them, and the structures that set the rules for their lives, so girls and their allies can assert their rights through girl-led collective action.

Violence Against Women and Girls

The Tipping Point initiative identifies the root causes of child, early, and forced marriage and facilitates innovative strategies to create alternative paths for adolescent girls.