“Our time is now—our rights, our future”

The main aims of International Day of the Girl are to promote girl’s empowerment and fulfilment of their human rights while also highlighting the challenges that girls all over the world face.

Investments in girls’ rights remain limited and girls continue to confront a myriad of challenges to fulfilling their potential; made worse by concurrent crises of climate change, COVID-19 and humanitarian conflict. Girls around the world continue to face unprecedented challenges to their education, their physical and mental wellbeing, and the protections needed for a life without violence. Girls with disabilities face additional barriers to accessing support and services. COVID-19 has worsened existing burdens on girls around the world and worn away important gains made over the last decade.

So many individuals and organisations across the UKFIET community are working to promote girls’ rights. Some of this work is highlighted here through a selection of blogs from our website.

Educating adolescent girls: what works?

Girls’ education might just save the planet!

It’s not girls versus boys, it’s ALL children against gender inequality

What do we know about the links between girls’ education and climate and environment change?

Breaking the textbook gender bias: Inspiring girls and young women through providing role models they can identify with

Protection is possible. How an innovative operating model strengthened safeguarding for the Girls’ Education Challenge

Gender-responsive education in emergency in Nigeria: Safeguarding girls’ presents and futures

Getting girls back into school: strategies for successfully re-enrolling girls in Ghana and Sierra Leone

Challenging assumptions: why girls with disabilities return to school

Fund Girls’ Education. Don’t Greenwash It.

Supporting vulnerable adolescent girls to continue their education should be prioritised in recovery plans for COVID-19

Where are the girls and why it matters as schools reopen?

#IDG2022 #DayoftheGirl

Graphic with facts in sections: One in five young young women are married before the age of eighteen, compared to on in 30 young Men. In China, India, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Viet Nam, Albania and Georgia a preference for sons leads to gender-based sex-selection of female foetuses leading to a missing 140 million women in the world. 15 Million adolescent girls worldwide, aged 15-19 uears, have experienced forced sex. About 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys in the United States experience child sexual abuse. In sub-Saharan Africa, six in seven new cases of HIV among adolescents (15-19) are among girls. Five in six new HIV infrections (82%) in the age group 15-19 are in females. OECD countries show universal gender gaps disfavouring girls in access to sports. In the United States, girls have 1.3million fewer opportunites to play high school sports than boys have. In Australia, 69% of boys between the ages of 11 and 17 play sports, while 55% of girls do. In the UK, 20% of 5-16 year old boys are likely to be active every day compared with 14% of girls. Girls are more likely to be trafficked than boys. Girls tend to be trafficked for sexual exploitation while boys for forced labour. Globally, girls age 5 - 14 spend 160 million more hours every day on unpaid care and domestic work than boys of the same age with the gap increasing with age. 200 million girls and women today have undergone female genital mutilation, leading to lifelong health risks, injury and psychosocial trauma. In South Asia, girls eat fewer calories than boys, especially proteins in adolescence. For every 15 boys who own a phone, 10 girls do. For every 18 boys who own a smartphone, 10 girls do. 67.5% og 15-24 year old young people who are not in employment, training or education are girls and young women. This means that while one out of seven young men are NEET, one out of three young women are NEET.

Statistics showcasing several aspects in which girls are systemically disadvantaged because of their gender which directly impacts their opportunities and resources to fully, and equally participate in education. Taken from: It’s not girls versus boys, it’s ALL children against gender inequality