Adolescent girls in emergencies: will they fall further or fly higher?
Adolescent girls are an untapped resource in almost every country in the world. They represent hope, opportunity and change. Yet, when conflict and disaster strike, their promise and potential are often the first to be sacrificed and the last to be restored.
Consider, for example, a 12-year-old girl in Nigeria who is forced to drop out of her first year of school for fear of attacks from Boko Haram; or a 10-year-old Syrian girl who escapes the war and leaves her dreams of becoming a doctor behind in the destruction of her hometown; or a 13-year-old Somali girl living in the world’s largest refugee camp and forced by her family to marry a 40-year-old man to increase her “protection” and secure the family’s honor.
As the onset of an initial “emergency” subsides into a lifetime of uncertainty, risk of violence, exploitation and abuse, adolescent girls displaced by and living in conflict are one of the most marginalized populations within an already vulnerable group of refugees and internally displaced people.
Evidence has shown that educating and keeping girls safe is one the best investments that societies and communities can make. Girls who stay in school marry later and have fewer children, and educating more girls increases a country’s GDP And yet adolescent girls continue to be an overlooked group in most humanitarian programs. Too often girls are excluded from school due to inequality and violence such as forced marriage, harassment and other dangers.
As a humanitarian aid community we must develop, test and implement better solutions to addressing the innumerable barriers girls face when trying to access their right to education, health, income, safety, and the ability to influence the decisions that affect their lives.
We must work together to provide solutions focused on these outcomes, and to model the use of better, more targeted aid that lifts up the most marginalized girls.
This is why the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is so proud to have joined forces with the U.S. government’s Let Girls Learn initiative. During the first-ever United State of Women Summit hosted by the White House, we announced a commitment to deliver $1 million worth of new programs to adolescent girls in the most conflict-affected states in Africa and the Middle East. In these contexts, IRC along with committed partners will work to reduce the effect that violence has on girls’ learning and their ability to access education.
Our “GIRL SHINE” programming targets the hardest-to-reach adolescent girls with both in-school and out-of-school services. We engage parents, caregivers and the community to protect adolescent girls from violence — including early marriage — and keep them in school.
True to the IRC’s belief that #BetterAid is premised on interventions that achieve measurable outcomes and are based on the best available evidence, GIRL SHINE is based on proven gender-based violence and education interventions used in fragile contexts.
Our commitment to ensuring adolescent girls receive dedicated services to educate them, protect them from violence and increase their capacity to survive and even thrive during times of crisis and displacement is far from over. These investments are critical, for we know that in emergencies, girls can fall further, but they can also fly higher. Let’s set the bar high so we can see them fly higher than any of us ever imagined.
The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 countries and 26 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities.
