Covid-19 has sparked a rise in gender-based violence, and threats to girls’ education and empowerment. It risks undermining gains and progress in meeting the gender equality commitments of Beijing+25. Investing in the protection of adolescent girls will bring individual and societal benefits — for girls today, the adults they become, and the next generation of children.
The Adolescent Girls Investment Plan (AGIP), in collaboration with CSOs, grassroots networks and girl- and youth-led organisations, has been actively engaged in Generation Equality which aims to realise women’s rights for an equal future.
To ensure the meaningful participation of adolescent girls in this global movement, there is a need for an independent and robust accountability mechanism that puts girls at the centre. This is a challenge that adolescent girls themselves have identified, alongside a lack of formal spaces to engage.
Against the backdrop of the High-level Meeting on the 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, AGIP along with FEMNET, ARROW, Care International, Breakthrough and ABAAD Resource Centre for Gender Equality as well as the Governments of Kenya, Ireland, Mexico, France, Canada and the United Kingdom with the Beijing + 25 Youth Taskforce discussed how to raise the girls’ rights agenda, and explored Generation Equality’s accountability structure and proposed concrete guiding principles.
In a girl-centred virtual event, girl advocates presented their demands and vision, and Action Coalition leaders shared practical steps to ensure girls are meaningfully engaged in decision-making processes.
