A quarter of the world’s population are young people, 600 million of whom are adolescent girls navigating a critical life stage of rapid physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. When girls are able to reach their full potential, it is clear that the positive ripple effects are far-reaching, with their families and communities prospering as a result. The majority of girls, however, see their worlds shrink during adolescence and are not supported to reach their full potential. Global calls to increase investment into adolescent girls’ priorities, and increase their visibility in data, programming and policy, notwithstanding, too many girls remain at risk of marginalisation. The reality is that gains made in gender equality outcomes, are moving too slowly (and sometimes reversing) for today’s girls.
Nonetheless, we do have milestones to celebrate. Today, more and more research is exploring adolescent girls’ trajectories. Rigorous evidence has pushed our understanding on what works to keep adolescent girls in school, prevent child marriage, re-mould harmful gender norms and mitigate girls’ exposure and risk of gender-based violence. What’s more, guaranteeing girls’ meaningful engagement in decisions which affect their lives (as mandated by the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child) is gaining traction. The question remains, however: why aren’t we moving fast enough?
Today, in alignment with the 2024 International Day of the Girl theme ‘Girls’ vision for the future’, we spotlight GAGE’s recent participatory consultations with girls and profile their visions. In the summer of 2024, we spoke directly to girls in conflict-affected, low resource, climate adverse communities. We asked them about the challenges they face, and what solutions they would like to see. While evidence-based programme rollouts are underway in communities and global leaders negotiate youth agendas – we asked girls what works, in their own words. Aligning with the FCDO’s International Women and Girls Strategy 2023-2030, GAGE explored the 3 inter-connected themes of Education, Empowerment and Ending Violence and leveraged its existing longitudinal participatory research networks, methods and tools. We spoke to girls aged 10-14 and 15-19 in Ethiopia, Jordan and Lebanon who are part of adolescent-relevant programming and those who are not, to girls fleeing crisis, girls with disabilities, married girls and those out of school. Here’s what we found:
- Adolescent girls greatly value education for skills building, academic progression, developing aspirations and socialisation with peers. Pressing challenges, including distance to schools and the risk of violence on their way to (and in) school, opportunity costs, and conflict-related destruction and poverty. These all prevent girls from regularly accessing quality learning environments. Girls in Tigray, Ethiopia mentioned, ‘Girls from distant villages fear to come to school because they may face rape on the way by gangs.’
- Girls’ lack of income coupled with gender norms prevent their freedom of mobility, mean they are not in control of their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and opportunities for economic empowerment. While girls noted a general increase in available SRH services, accurate knowledge and support for SRH remain patchy.
- Girls underscored the high prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) they face on a daily basis. Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains endemic, seldom reported and highly normalised – and for girls married as children, IPV risks intensify as they enter marriage unprepared and unsupported for married life and motherhood. Sexual harassment, sexual violence and lack of safety on the streets negatively impacts girls’ mobility which, when coupled with oppressive gender norms, means girls frequently stay indoors with few opportunities for access to peers and supportive non-family adults. A married adolescent girl participant in a focus group discussion in Lebanon explained, ‘A girl does not tell anyone if she faces sexual harassment… If she tells her parents, they will stop her from going to work. If someone rapes her, no one will help her… we can only tell our friends at work about these things.’
Faced with these daily challenges, girls also vocalized their priorities for the way forward. They spoke of the life-changing power of cash-transfers and financial support which increase household security and incentivise school attendance and retention, as well as allowing families to purchase adequate educational materials, and menstrual hygiene products which are all critical for them to stay in school. Girls proposed increasing the availability of community chaperone services to offset safety risks faced when travelling to school. They believe in the power of gender clubs in schools to impact girls’ voice and agency to fight against harmful gender norms (including child marriage and violence) which affect girls’ education. Girls also underscored how important safe space programming is for them to discuss violence and finally feel safe. Many girls also emphasised that SRH services should be coupled with psychosocial support because accessing contraceptives and abortion services is often challenging. And finally, girls called for economic empowerment programming with clear skills-to- (decent and safe) work transitions for married and unmarried girls, to positively impact their empowerment in both the household and wider community. The GAGE consultations reaffirm that for each challenge faced, girls were able to clearly articulate priority solutions.
The time is ripe to listen to girls and boost investment in evidence-based solutions that will accelerate progress so that every adolescent girl can fulfil her potential.
