Building power together: a girl-led research project

Designed and carried out by teams in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the UK, this research provides an opportunity to shift power back to girls and express their power to make change.

Executive summary

All around the world, adolescent girls living in poverty face unequal power dynamics that affect their everyday lives. This impacts their capacity to get the support they need, and to make their own decisions about various aspects of their lives.

These structural inequalities shape their ability to claim their rights, such as a right to be listened to, to access quality education and information, support services, and community spaces, to make decisions about their own bodies or to live free from violence.

Girl-led research aims to provide an opportunity to shift power back to girls – building a sense of self-confidence, providing opportunities to connect with peers, mentors and supporters, and to take action to share research results and express their power to make change. 

This project is a collaboration between ActionAid Bangladesh, ActionAid Ethiopia, ActionAid UK and ActionAid Yappika (Indonesia). Girl-led research teams in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Indonesia designed this research and carried out both the data collection and analysis.