March 2024 – October 2024 (finished)

FCDO had commissioned STAAR to scope what support is needed to translate global evidence into good practice on the ground for using social assistance to tackle child marriage in Zambia and Nepal.

The STAAR team identified key actors and coalitions and worked closely with them to explore what needed to change for social protection systems to begin fulfilling their potential in addressing child marriage. This process drew on global literature as well as rich, context-specific knowledge surfaced through a dedicated workshop or roundtable. It also included an analysis of both the enablers and barriers influencing progress in each context.

Based on these insights, the team co-created a flexible roadmap for each country. These roadmaps outlined suggested activities to stimulate change, proposed a rough timeframe and sequence, and identified the actors best positioned to take ownership of each component.

January 2022 – December 2023 (finished) 

UNICEF, in collaboration with the Institute of Human Development-New Delhi, has requested STAAR’s support in a multi-state review on the national flagship Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) programme to provide the national/state governments with two design policy options.

The purpose was to understand what works well and what does not in these schemes and propose policy tweaks, informed by international and regional good practices for supporting the adaptation and scale-up of the national schemes and state-specific schemes.

The specific scope of TA entailed providing technical and quality assurance support through inputs on the development of assessment tools, review methodologies, and analytical framework for the study.

October 2022 – December 2023 (finished)

STAAR was contracted to provide the provincial government (Ministry of Social Development) of Madhesh Pradesh, with the design and delivery of the Beti Padhau-Beti Bachao” (BPBB) flagship programme, informed by the challenges and recommendations which are set out in the ODI-UNICEF 2021 review.

The BPBB aims to empower girls by reducing early marriage and promoting their education. The programme was initiated in 2019 prioritising girls from Muslim and Dalit families and progressively expanded to cover new-born girls from all communities.

The assignment team worked the provincial government and in consultation with different stakeholders to provide research and recommendations on improving the design and delivery of BPBB.