Adolescent girls: the key to ending poverty?

Placing adolescent girls at the heart of development programmes can benefit entire communities. Eliza Anyangwe reports as experts discuss how best to implement the 'girl effect'

Eliza Anyangwe
theguardian.com, Friday 11 October 2013 07.22 EDT

70% of a woman’s salary goes back into her family. Educated, employable females are key to lifting communities out of poverty. Photograph: Getty Images/Flickr RM

The name Malala Yousafzai became known the world over after the Pakistani teenager was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban — a high price to pay for demanding the right to an education. Her courage has won the 16-year-old international recognition, but her story has also brought into sharp relief the lives of adolescent girls living in the developing world.

There are 250 million girls living in poverty today. Most, after their last immunisations, will disappear from national policy agendas and slip through the cracks of development programmes until the birth of their first child, but the Girl Declaration — a set of ambitious but achievable goals in education, health, safety, economic security and citizenship — gives these invisible girls a voice. The challenges they face were discussed by 15 decision-makers from international agencies, business, NGOs and academia at a roundtable event hosted by the Guardian, in association with The Girl Effect.

Painful transition

Once ignored, it is now recognised that adolescence is a crucial phase in the transition from childhood to adulthood. For a young girl growing up in poverty, puberty not only brings physical and psychological changes, it marks the point at which she is exposed to multiple vulnerabilities: she is often forced into early marriage, faces an increased risk of sexual violence and is denied the opportunity to continue her education. The World Health Organisation reports that the leading cause of death for girls aged 15-19 is complications in pregnancy and childbirth.

"The bottom line is that women are not valued — and this translates to girls," Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli told other participants at the roundtable. The tragedy of this patriarchal view, as all at the event were keen to point out, is that it ignores two important truths: first, that every girl has a right to reach her full potential — and it is the duty of society to ensure that she does — and, second, that investing in girls makes economic sense.

Caroline Harper, head of the social development programme at the Overseas Development Institute, explained: "An extra year of primary school increases a girl's future wages by 10-20% and an extra year of secondary by 15-25%." Reiterating the point, Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, added: "Seventy per cent of a woman's salary goes back into her family. If you want to tackle poverty, you help girls become women, get educated and employed."

For those who advocate on behalf of girls' rights, the combination of moral and economic imperatives makes for an irresistible call to action from the development community – and this dual-advocacy approach to those in power is starting to bear fruit. Speaking earlier this year about what is being referred to as 'the girl effect', the UK development minister, Justine Greening, said: "Investing in girls and women is the smart thing to do. By unleashing their potential, we see incredible returns for girls and women themselves, for their families and communities, and for their economies and countries."

With the 2015 deadline for the millennium development goals looming, 'the girl community' has a unique opportunity to get adolescent girls added to the next set of targets. "There is a significant prize out there," said Howard Taylor, managing director of the Nike Foundation. "The girl effect is all about transforming the prospects of every adolescent girl in the world, and ending intergenerational poverty." But, as with every area of development practice, how exactly to intervene is often the cause of heated debate.

Workable programmes

All participants agreed on the importance and urgency of transforming the lives of adolescent girls, but there was much debate about what the greatest barriers to change were and how best to address them. The first challenge identified was the lack of data. "Adolescent girls are vulnerable because they are not counted or accounted for," said Michelle Milford Morse, an adviser at the United Nations Foundation. "So many countries are not collecting information about girls — and as the adage goes: what gets counted gets done."

The silos that exist between organisations were also identified as barriers to change. Unleashing the girl effect depends on the ability of all stakeholders to see the bigger picture. Lakshmi Sundaram, global co-ordinator of Girls Not Brides, illustrated how interventions that were too narrowly designed were failing girls: "Programmes exist to address maternal mortality, yet they do not focus on child brides. If you don't recognise the different sets of needs, you can't tackle those needs."

Payal Dalal, who heads up the girls' programme at Standard Chartered Bank, suggested it was time that organisations working with adolescent girls prioritise relationship building, a prerequisite if they are to develop a common plan and share stories of failure.

The issues around access — getting aid to the communities that need it most — were also undeniable, but for Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, general secretary of the World YWCA, the dilemma wasn't how to get aid to girls, but how much aid was getting to girls." We know we can reach girls if there is daring leadership to do so," she said. "How much of the overseas development assistance [aid] committed will reach the girls in a significant way? I don't like [this term] 'trickling down'. We need showers of resources in our villages. We need to put communities first."

However, changing cultural norms emerged as the greatest obstacle. "Until we design programme interventions that take cultural norms into account, nothing will change," said One's director of multilateral programmes, Edith Jibunoh. "We need more role models that look like the girls, who are educated and successful, but are still part of their culture. What [communities] need is exposure, not development interventions."

Of course, to have role models, women need to be found in positions of influence — and making the decision to open up government and other institutions to them requires strong leadership. Rwanda was twice quoted as an example of such leadership, as its post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs. At 56%, Rwanda has the highest proportion of women parliamentarians in the world.

It is this good example from within developing countries — and the role of men and boys — that participants were keen should not be left out as their representative organisations take advantage of the renewed global interest in adolescent girls. Despite making international headlines after its senate failed to remove a clause in the constitution that legitimises child marriage, Nigeria is one of the few countries to have scaled up sexual health education, Chandra-Mouli pointed out. And it was Malala Yousafzai's father who encouraged her to go to school, Tanya Barron, CEO of Plan UK, added.

Creating and enforcing the conditions that empower girls and allow them to reach their full potential depends on stakeholders working together. It is vital to listen to adolescent girls, interpret their voices and then provide sufficient resources — draw up plans that start girls and their communities on a journey towards equality.

Almost 20 years after the Beijing declaration, where governments committed to ensuring "the full implementation of the human rights of women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms", there is another opportunity to turn the attention of policymakers to the plight of adolescent girls.

Campaigners are bristling with cautious optimism. So much is at stake. So much detail is still to be decided. But the Girl Declaration is an important stride forward. "It allows us all to rally around a set of goals for girls that they themselves have helped develop," said Taylor. "So it's an authentic, short-term play to embed girls in a 15-year agenda that will be negotiated and agreed in the next two years, not a long-term agenda to address everything that a girl needs."

In focus

• Girls are out of sight and out of mind: Of the world's 130 million out-of-school youth, 70% are girls, and nearly half of all sexual assaults worldwide are against girls 15 and younger.

• Investing in adolescent girls is both the smart thing to do and the right thing to do: Adolescence is a critical time. If supported during this stage, a young girl is likely to marry later, have less children and invest more money into her family and community.

• Developing countries are starting to lead the way: For the rights of adolescent girls to be recognised and respected, it is essential that change comes from within governments — and must include whole communities. Change is happening all over the world.

• It's now or never: There is an opportunity to see that adolescent girls feature in the next set of development targets. But a shared plan, led by girls themselves, is essential.

At the table

Jo Confino (Chair), executive editor, Guardian News and Media

Caroline Harper, head of the social development programme,Overseas Development Institute

Lakshmi Sundaram, global co-ordinator, Girls Not Brides

Monique Villa, chief executive officer, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Payal Dalal, head of education and girls programmes, Standard Chartered

Tony Kingsley, director of the international development assistance network, PwC

Edith Jibunoh, director for multilateral institutions, One

Mary Garvey, chief executive and secretary to the board of trustees,Brac UK

Nik Hartley, chief executive officer, Restless Development

Steve Murigi, regional communications manager, Amref

Brita Fernandez, schmidt executive director, Women for Women

Howard Taylor, managing director, Nike Foundation

Michelle Milford, morse advisor and project lead, United Nations Foundation

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, general secretary, World YWCA

Tanya Barron, chief executive officer, Plan UK

Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, scientist and expert in adolescent, sexual and reproductive health, World Health Organisation

Roundtable report commissioned and controlled by the Guardian. Discussion hosted to a brief agreed with Nike Foundation. Funded by Nike Foundation.
Contact: Steve Rackham on 020 3353 2700 (steve.rackham@guardian.co.uk).

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