Launching UNICEF USA Every Girl

Summary

In 2024, UNICEF committed to launching Every Girl, a new financing mechanism to provide $50 million in flexible funding to support girl-centered programs in 30 countries that directly impact 20 million adolescent girls by the end of 2025. Every Girl will elevate awareness of issues facing girls and women worldwide and generate funds for the cross-cutting effort for gender-lens interventions. Health-related programs include advancing quality maternal, antenatal, and postnatal services for pregnant and parenting adolescent girls; interventions to combat HIV/AIDS; and equitable water, sanitation and hygiene systems and accessible, dignified menstrual health and hygiene. Every Girl will also focus on gender-responsive education systems including STEM and digital skills; addressing gender-based violence and promoting gender responsive parenting and care to promote positive gender norms; and gender-responsive social protection systems and family friendly policies that shift the paradigm towards paid, equitably distributed, and sufficiently valued care work.

Approach

Every Girl will provide $50 million in flexible funding to UNICEF by the end of 2025, enabling UNICEF’s gender experts to make strategic allocations needed to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. The approach sets a goal of supporting, at minimum, girl-centered programs in 30 countries that directly impact 20 million adolescent girls, with partners and policymakers in every country working to expand evidence-based, multisectoral programming at scale, with and for adolescent girls
Every Girl will elevate new and existing UNICEF USA supporters’ knowledge of the issues facing girls and women worldwide and generate funds for the cross-cutting effort for gender-lens interventions. Those gender-lens interventions include: advancing quality maternal, antenatal and postnatal services for pregnant and parenting adolescent girls; ensuring that adolescent girls benefit from interventions that fast track the elimination of HIV/AIDS; gender-responsive education systems with a focus on girls’ education, learning and skills, including STEM and digital skills; addressing gender-based violence and promoting gender responsive parenting and care to promote positive gender norms throughout the life course; equitable, water, sanitation and hygiene systems and accessible, dignified menstrual health and hygiene for adolescent girls; and gender-responsive social protection systems and family friendly policies that shift the paradigm towards paid, equitably distributed and sufficiently valued care work.
With funding from partners and donors, Every Girl also supports a shift of power and resources to adolescent girls, including to girl-led organizations, which requires deliberate support for strengthening girls’ capacities as leaders and changemakers, while simultaneously working with them and their communities to create more supportive, enabling, gender equitable environments.

Action Plan

As funding from Every Girl is being funneled into UNICEF’s Gender programming, UNICEF is working to directly impact 10 million girls in 20 countries in 2024 and increase to directly impact 20 million girls in 30 countries in 2025. Mapping against these milestones, UNICEF USA will assess funds through Every Girl on a quarterly basis (September 2024; January 2025; March 2025; June 2025; September 2025; December 2025) and track which programs, regions and program focus are supported from the funds.

Background

While remarkable progress has been made for girls in recent decades, gains have been inequitable and girls continue to face formidable barriers in a world that still largely favors boys and men.
UNICEF places the rights and wellbeing of adolescent girls at the core of its work, as girls are disproportionately affected by gender inequality and have tremendous potential to be leaders for change. To promote gender equality, UNICEF commits to undertake transformative actions that support children from before birth through adolescence.
Numerous studies prove that investing in girls’ health, wellbeing, education, and skills development can lead to higher incomes, increased productivity, and a more skilled workforce. For example, investments of $1.53 per day, per girl to achieve universal secondary school completion can help developing economies expand their GDP by an average of 10% by the year 2030. Ensuring that girls have the education, services, and opportunities enables them to become more productive members of society, which can help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, foster innovation, and drive economic progress.
Every Girl, a new UNICEF USA funding mechanism, aims to accelerate investments in UNICEF’s gender programming, advance the empowerment of women and girls and chart a path towards a more just, equitable, and gender-equal world. Adolescent girls are a major pillar of Every Girl.
With the help of Every Girl, UNICEF will be best positioned to strengthen systems that achieve gender equality and empower women and girls. Partners and donors can allocate funding specifically to gender equality outcomes, while also giving UNICEF the flexibility to allocate funds based on where the need is greatest, including critically underfunded gender priorities, and where funds will have the greatest impact.

Progress Update

Partnership Opportunities

To complete and scale the Commitment, UNICEF USA needs financial resources to cover the funding gap. With a financial commitment, UNICEF is open to best practices, implementing partners, media support, and topic expertise as well., When an organization partners with UNICEF, it’s mutually beneficial. By supporting this Commitment, organizations gain insights into best practice and topic expertise. With over 75 years of experience, UNICEF knows how resources can achieve the greatest impact for children and offers stakeholders the chance to make a difference on an incomparable scale. Where appropriate, UNICEF is open to connecting with implementing partners and UNICEF USA can offer media support.