The Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence (GAGE) programme, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the University of Chittagong are partnering this week to advance evidence-informed policy and programmes aiming at improving the wellbeing of adolescent and young people in Bangladesh.
The week-long event series includes an International Academic Conference in Chittagong, community feedback sessions with Rohingya adolescents and youth in Cox’s Bazar, and United Nations briefings focused on strengthening adolescent-responsive policy and practice.
The GAGE research programme is supported by the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and implemented by a global consortium.
Bangladesh is home to approximately 36 million adolescents aged 10–19, representing nearly a quarter of the country’s population.
Adolescence is a critical stage of life where targeted investments can generate long-term benefits across their life-courses, especially in their future transitions into adulthood and the next generation.
Despite significant social and educational progress in recent decades, challenges surrounding adolescents and youth remain, including school dropout among both adolescent girls and boys, persistently high child marriage rates, and stigma surrounding sexual and reproductive health.
Bangladesh also houses around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees, and many of them are young people, who struggle to sustain meaningful pathways to adulthood amid this protracted displacement.
A recent two-day international conference on Adolescent and Young People’s Wellbeing in Bangladesh co-hosted by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chittagong, the GAGE programme and UNFPA brought together over 300 national and international scholars, students, and development practitioners.
The conference, held on May 11-12 last, presented new empirical research, strengthened research capacity, and fostered dialogue on adolescent wellbeing.
The conference focused on interconnected domains of education and employment; health and sexual and reproductive health; and psychosocial wellbeing and bodily autonomy, as well as cross-cutting themes including climate resilience, digital access and humanitarian crises.
Panels highlighted the importance of placing young people at the centre of national development priorities and humanitarian action.
“Let us harness the insights of researchers, practitioners and policymakers to ensure that every adolescent in our country has the opportunity to thrive,” said Professor Dr Mohammad Al-Forkan, Vice Chancellor of the University of Chittagong.
“GAGE is the UK’s global flagship research programme generating vital evidence on what works for adolescents,” said Tahera Jabeen, Social Development Adviser at the British High Commission in Dhaka, in her opening remarks.
“Strong evidence is essential to inform effective policy and practice, and through this programme and our wider work, the UK remains committed to supporting efforts in Bangladesh and globally that enable adolescents to realise their full potential,” she added.
Masaki Watabe, Officer-in-Charge, UNFPA Bangladesh, underscored the importance of turning evidence into action and ensuring adolescent voices shape policy and programming.
“Initiatives for adolescents and young people must be created with them, not just for them. Young people understand their own lives and barriers best; their involvement must evolve from simple consultation to meaningful leadership,” said Watabe.
As part of the conference, GAGE led two capacity-building workshops for early-career researchers focused on longitudinal quantitative data analysis and participatory qualitative research methods.
The initiative aims to strengthen national research capacity and support more context-sensitive approaches to understanding adolescent experiences.
On 13 May 2026, partners held community feedback meetings with adolescent Rohingya girls and boys in Cox’s Bazar to share endline findings from mixed-methods research conducted in refugee camps. The sessions were designed to strengthen community reciprocity and ensure adolescents can engage directly with the evidence generated through their participation.
The week concludes with a briefing hosted by UNFPA in Dhaka on 14 May titled “Growing up in Bangladesh: Longitudinal Evidence on Adolescent Wellbeing and Transitions 2016–2026.”
The briefing will share mixed-methods longitudinal evidence across three thematic areas: education and economic empowerment; health, mental health and sexual and reproductive health and rights; bodily autonomy and freedom from age- and gender-based violence, said a UNFPA release on Thursday.