Adolescent Girls: Health, Social, and Economic Assets

Commitment to Action

Adolescent Girls: Health, Social, and Economic Assets

Commitment by

The Population Council

In 2009, the Population Council committed to conducting capacity building workshops and offering technical assistance to inter-governmental, governmental, non-governmental, corporate and private partners relating to their work with girls. The purpose of these workshops is to effectively reach the poorest girls in the poorest communities and build their health, social and economic assets so they and their societies can reach their global commitments to health, justice and development. This commitment involves workshops and technical support in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sudan and Zambia, as well as special workshops for Clinton Global Initiative members.
Since 2009, the Population Council has presented a workshop entitled 'Building the Health, Social, and Economic Assets of the Poorest Girls in the Developing World' at their Headquarters in New York; many participating members are existing CGI members.
As of April 2011, the population council has hosted three capacity building workshops for over 75 participants from 60 different partners.

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Tabs

Overview

Summary

Commitment

Adolescent Girls: Health, Social, and Economic Assets

Launched

2009

Est. Duration

1 year

Estimated Total Value

$410,000

Region

Africa, Latin America & Caribbean

Countries

BURKINA FASO, ETHIOPIA, GHANA, GUATEMALA, KENYA, LIBERIA, MALAWI, NIGERIA, SUDAN, ZAMBIA

Commitment by

The Population Council

Partner(s) of the Commitment Maker(s)

Kingdom of the Netherlands, Nike Foundation, United Nations Foundation, European Parliamentary Forum, DSW Inc., Delegation Of The United Kingdom, The Summit Foundation, AIDOS, Coalition for Adolescent Girls, The Partridge Trust, The Ford Foundation, The David And Lucile Packard Foundation, United Nations, Nike, Inc., Equality Now, Republic of Liberia, World Bank Group, Save the Children

Details

In 2010, Population Council will continue and expand its series of capacity building workshops including two planned workshops in Zambia and Malawi, and the expansion of work in Liberia and Burkina Faso, and the extension of economic programming into Guatemala, Egypt, and East Africa. In addition, Judith Bruce and Population Council will extend to Clinton Global Initiative members two separate day-long training days workshops to be held in 2010, reviewing what has been learned through the Council and other partners' programs over the last ten years and providing step by step guidance on how to reach and build adolescent girls' health, social and economic assets.

Background

Intergenerational poverty, high and unwanted fertility, and poor health (including poor maternal and child health, and HIV) have common roots in the early adolescence of girls in the poorest communities. Reaching this population is an essential development and social justice strategy, and critical for the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals. Hundreds of millions of girls in poor communities in the developing world , with especially high concentrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, are socially isolated from their peers, and lack access to mentors, safe and supportive spaces, schooling opportunities, livelihoods skills and prospects for decent work. They are at significant risk of gross violations of their human rights (child marriage, female genital mutilation, exploitative work), forced sex relations, poverty-driven exchanges of sex for gifts or money, excluded from meaningful civic participation, and unable to realize their human potential. Young adolscence is a critical moment when, for many girls, vulnerability is consolidated. Existing child, maternal and reproductive health services, social development including civic participation initiatives, livelihoods, and notably, dedicated youth programs (including youth media) are failing to reach, and in some cases increasing the social exclusion of the most vulnerable girls. Based on 15 years of path-breaking analysis and the first ever comprehensive monograph on adolescent girls with the 'Unchartered Passage' on the ground programming experience in 15 countries, Population Council will extend into 2010 the commitment to identify the poorest girls in the poorest communities (in urban/periurban and rural areas) and build the capacity of private individuals, non-government organizations, governments and multilateral organizations to reach promising but disadvantaged girls from 10-19 years of age (with a special emphasis on girls 10-14) and build their health, social and economic assets. This work offers basic principles and good practices to engage adolescent girls and a first generation of programs that provide guidance on how to move ahead.

Partnership Opportunities

SEEKING: financial assistance, best practice information, media and marketing opportunities.
OFFERING: financial assistance, implementing partnership, best practice information, media and marketing assistance. Two hands-on workshops for CGI members as follow on to the 2009 meeting
meeting

Progress Reports

April 2011
- The Population Council has hosted three day long capacity building workshops, entitled 'Building the Health, Social and Economic Assets of the Poorest Girls in the Developing World,' for over 75 different participants from 60 different inter-governmental, governmental, non-governmental, corporate, and private partners.
- These partners selected one or more countries about which they would become informed regarding the status of adolescent girls in those countries and were either currently or prospectively committed to using their professional (and sometimes material) resources for the advancement of poor girls in poor communities. - Each workshop covered the global evidence in making the case for investing in girls, a description of how to use country level data to identify sub-national concentrations of poor girls as well as the 'How To' of building girls' health, social, and economic assets.
- Special attention was placed on supporting girls through the critical transition to puberty, as many programmatic frameworks benchmark their resources later than is effective.
- The contribution of these capacity building workshops was to develop skills and the attendees to better focus their material and financial resources, to learn which parts of the world have particularly extreme needs (high levels of HIV, high levels of socially isolated girls, high levels of child marriage) and to introduce them to ready-data sources that could help them focus their work. Participants particularly cited the utility of the workshop in enhancing their program efforts and also enabling them to find like-minded partners in both investment and advocacy.
March 2010
- Presented lunchtime staff presentation on building capacity of adolescent girls to CGI staff members
- Presented workshop entitled 'Building the Health, Social, and Economic Assets of the Poorest Girls in the Developing World' at Population Council Headquarters in New York; many participating members are existing CGI members