What Will It Take to Unlock Girls’ Potential to Speak Out?
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and at the start of the 16 days of activism, Serap Altinisik, Head of Office and EU Representative of Plan International and Salomé Guibreteau, Policy and Advocacy Officer, reflect on EU actions for girls’ and young women’s agency.
Serap Altinisik
It is time to uphold girls’ right to choose
It's time for the world's governments to listen to the voices of girls at the Nairobi Summit
Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen
Lifeline for girls and women who have fled conflict
Cash transfers are helping girls, women and their families cope with the protracted effects of conflict and displacement.
Why bother investing in women and girls?
We are off-track to deliver the SDGs. Developing countries need at least an additional $2.5 trillion every year to finance them.
Unsurprisingly the poorest people in the world – and especially those living in conflicts – are the most left behind. And women and girls even more so.
We know that investing in women and girls delivers results - for women and their children, for local and national communities and for companies’ balance sheets. Women and girls have the potential to be the force multiplier to achieve the SDGs – yet the international community doesn’t invest nearly enough in them. Despite our rhetoric and commitments, a mere 4% of the $150 billion Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend is dedicated to programmes tackling gender inequality, and only 34% of ODA mainstreams gender equality.
Climate-justice and gender-justice have to go hand-in-hand
“We demand that the new European Commission secures equal rights for everyone – and that they work hard to smash the gender-gap, both inside and outside the European Union. Because the young girls living in this world should grow up having the exact same possibilities and rights as the young boys. I will fight hard to make that a reality.” Says Kira Marie Peter Hansen, a green feminist and the youngest Member of the European Parliament from Denmark.
On International Day of the Girl, we wanted to know from Kira what motivated her to run and what she plans on doing for girls and gender equality in the upcoming five years.
Connecting the Dots – Feminist Activist Leadership
Where do you get your inspiration from? Do you have a role figure?
I’m very lucky that I’ve been able to grow up surrounded by strong women. Coming from Belfast, Northern Ireland, life wasn’t easy for my community and women stepped up when times were hard – making them the backbone for local change – my granny being one of them.
Finnish Presidency: How we do gender equality!
It is very much the experience from our own development that motivates us in our efforts to strengthen the rights of women and girls worldwide. Finland used to be a poor and conflict-torn agrarian country in 1917, when we gained our independence. Now we are a world leader in happiness and innovation, and one of the most stable countries in the world. For us, the reason is that we have harnessed the potential of the whole society, not only half of it.
Finnish Presidency on Gender Equality
It is very much the experience from our own development that motivates us in our efforts to strengthen the rights of women and girls worldwide. Finland used to be a poor and conflict-torn agrarian country in 1917, when we gained our independence. Now we are a world leader in happiness and innovation, and one of the most stable countries in the world. For us, the reason is that we have harnessed the potential of the whole society, not only half of it.
How economic empowerment matters to girls
Both the gender pay gap and the fact that girls are being pushed to pursue certain career paths, doesn’t make girls’ road to economic empowerment any easier. This has implications both at the individual level - in terms of their future labour force participation and lifetime earnings - and at societal level – by hindering their productive and developmental potential. It’s due to those implications that we, as Plan International, work to support and call for a lifecycle and gender transformative approach towards economic empowerment and education. For girls in particular, education and training contribute not only to their confidence, but is essential to increase their opportunities in life.
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