Plan Worldwide Annual Review and Combined Financial ...

Campaigns
Because I am a Girl
Globally, one in five girls around the world is denied an
education by the daily realities of poverty, violence and
discrimination. Every day, girls are taken out of school,
married far too young and subjected to violence in school
and in their communities.
Not only is this unjust, it’s also a huge waste of potential, with
serious global consequences. Millions of girls are being denied
an education right at a time when education has the power to
transform their lives and the world around them.
Because I am a Girl will work with girls, communities, traditional
leaders, governments, global institutions and the private sector
to address the barriers that prevent girls from completing their
education. The campaign is calling for girls’ education to be
prioritised by world leaders and for international development
efforts to adopt a major focus – in particular, on girls’ completion
of quality secondary education. The campaign is also calling for
an end to two of the biggest barriers to girls’ education: child
marriage and gender-based violence in and around schools.
Launching on the first International Day of the Girl Child –
11 October 2012 – Plan’s global Because I am a Girl campaign
aims to support millions of girls to get the education, skills
and support they need to transform their lives and the world
around them.
Ensuring girls are heard at the UN
The campaign continued to retain its strong presence at the
Commission on the Status of Women at the UN in New York,
where once again a delegation of girls from Plan countries
contributed their ideas and realities to high-level debates and
policy discussions that took place in and around the global
meeting. Supporters like Mariane Pearl, journalist and author;
Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive
Director UN Women and former President of Chile and
Marta Santos Pais, the UN Special Representative on
Violence against Children joined these debates with the
girls and showed their active support to the campaign.
“So, what about boys?”
The 2011 edition of the hugely successful Because I am a Girl
State of the World’s Girls series was launched in a series of events
around the world. This highly anticipated report answered the
question “So, what about boys?”, arguing that the challenge of
gender equality cannot, and should not, be tackled by girls and
women alone – but rather that ending gender discrimination
requires engaged men and boys. The report also demonstrated
that gender equality was a good thing for men and boys too,
and that the dividends of gender equality will be enjoyed by
all children and their communities.
Find out more at: plan-international.org/girls
Lobbying for the first International Day of the Girl Child
Plan was the first major organisation to call for an international
day of recognition for girls and achieving such a day was one of
the earliest goals of the Because I am a Girl campaign. Through
the campaign, Plan led the global effort to build a coalition of
support behind the International Day of the Girl Child, securing
the critical support of the Canadian government, which took our
call all the way to the UN, where the day was ultimately approved.
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