“Maybe one day when my siblings are a bit older I could go back to school. I would learn and pass all my subjects, and then I could have a better job and a better life. Sometimes, I dream about becoming a teacher or maybe a nurse.” Talent, 14, Zimbabwe
‘Because I am a Girl’ is an annual report published by Plan mapping the state of the world’s girls. While women and children are recognised as specific categories in policy and planning, girls’ particular needs and rights are often ignored. These reports provide the evidence, including the voices of girls themselves, as to why they need to be treated differently from boys and women. The first report was published in 2007 and the report series will continue at least to 2015, the final target year for the delivery of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For the same period, in our ‘Real Choices, Real Lives’ study, we are also following a cohort of girls in nine different countries born in the year of our first report. In 2007, we gave an overview of the global situation of girls. In 2008, we looked at girls affected by conflict: those growing up ‘In the Shadow of War’. The 2009 report focused on economic empowerment, ‘Girls in the Global Economy: Adding it all Up’. In 2010, Digital and Urban Frontiers, Girls in a Changing Landscape’ looked at adolescent girls in two of the most dynamic arenas in the world today – cities and new technologies – and examined the opportunities and the dangers that these present. In 2011 the girls’ report, ‘So, What About Boys?’ looked at the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality.
becauseiamagirl.org ISBN: 978-0-9565219-6-5
15 year-old Gifty addresses a village meeting on the importance of girls’ education. M a r k P e ng e l l y
the State of the World’s Girls 2012
The report series
Because I am a Girl
“No enduring solution to the major changes of our day – from climate change to political and economic instability to poverty – can be solved without the full participation of the world’s women and girls. This means paying real attention to the State of the World’s Girls. By providing evidence and calls to action, Plan’s series of reports, and the Because I am a Girl Global Campaign, help all of us to advance gender equality as our individual and collective responsibility.” Michelle Bachelet UN Women Executive Director
Because I am a Girl th e State o f th e Wo r ld ’ s G ir l s 2012
Learning for life