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The Girl Effect is a movement driven by girl champions around the globe.

The Girl Effect is a movement driven by girl champions around the globe. The Nike Foundation created the Girl Effect with critical financial and intellectual contributions by the NoVo Foundation and Nike Inc. and in collaboration with key partners such as the United Nations Foundation and the Coalition for Adolescent Girls.

It is devoted to the idea that the empowerment of girls is the key to significant social and economic change in developing countries. When a girl has the right tools in place, a chance to use her voice and systems set up to work for her, she will transform the lives of everyone around her. Studies show that when you improve a girl’s life, you improve the lives of her brothers, sisters, parents, and beyond.

The Girl Effect is about encouraging people around the world to use their voices, talents, and communities to help girls help themselves—and, as a result, everybody else. It’s about providing the tools and the network needed to spread the word about what girls can do.

Why Girls?

There are 250 million adolescent girls living in poverty in the developing world. That’s a quarter of a billion girls aged 10-19 living on less than $2 USD a day – and a massive amount of potential to change the world.

When girls’ lives are limited, everyone loses. Families, communities and entire economies are all stunted when half their human potential is squandered. The world is missing out on a tremendous opportunity for change.

This is where the Girl Effect comes in – the power, promise, and potential of adolescent girls as the change agents to end global poverty.

Girls are the mother of every child born into poverty, but as a HIV-free and educated mother, an active citizen and an ambitious entrepreneur or prepared employee, she can break the cycle of poverty. It’s a ripple effect. With the right resources in place, she’ll marry and have children at a later age. She’ll be better educated, healthier and safer. She’ll invest 90% of what she earns back into her family. And every single benefit that comes to her will be passed on to the next generation.

The Girl Effect is a concept; a movement. It is not about raising the profile of an organization or even raising money for a particular program. It’s about raising girls’ voices – it’s that simple.

Fast Stats

THE RIPPLE EFFECT

When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
(United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 1990.)

An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.
(George Psacharopoulos and Harry Anthony Patrinos, “Returns to Investment in Education: A
Further Update,” Policy Research Working Paper 2881[Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002].)

Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers.
(George T. Bicego and J. Ties Boerma, “Maternal Education andChild Survival: A Comparative
Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries,” Social Science and Medicine 36 (9) [May 1993]:
1207–27.)

When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.
(Chris Fortson, “Women’s Rights Vital for Developing World,” Yale News Daily 2003.)
POPULATION TRENDS

Today, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world.
(Population Reference Bureau, DataFinder database, http://www.prb.org/datafinder.aspx
[accessed December 20, 2007].)

More than one-quarter of the population in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa are girls and young women ages 10 to 24.
(United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “World Population Prospects: The
2006 Revision,” http://esa.un.org/unpp, and “World Urbanization Prospects: The 2005
Revision,” www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WUP2005/2005WUP_DataTables1.pdf.)

The total global population of girls ages 10 to 24 — already the largest in history — is expected to peak in the next decade.
(Ruth Levine et al., Girls Count: A Global Investment & Action Agenda [Washington, D.C.: Center
for Global Development, 2008].)
EDUCATIONAL GAPS

Approximately one-quarter of girls in developing countries are not in school.
(Cynthia B. Lloyd, ed., Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing
Countries [Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2005].)

Out of the world’s 130 million out-of-school youth, 70 percent are girls.
(Human Rights Watch, “Promises Broken: An Assessment of Children’s Rights on the 10th
Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/
promises/education. html [December 1999].)
CHILD MARRIAGE & EARLY CHILDBIRTH

One girl in seven in developing countries marries before age 15.
(Population Council, “Transitions to Adulthood: Child Marriage/Married Adolescents,”
www.popcouncil.org/ta/mar.html [updated May 13, 2008].)

38 percent of girls marry before age 18.
(Cynthia B. Lloyd, ed., Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing
Countries [Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2005].)

One-quarter to one-half of girls in developing countries become mothers before age 18; 14 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth in developing countries each year.
(United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 2005, www.unfpa.org/swp/2005.)

In Nicaragua, 45 percent of girls with no schooling are married before age 18 versus only 16 percent of their educated counterparts. In Mozambique, the figures are 60 percent versus 10; in Senegal, 41 percent versus 6.
(International Center for Research on Women, Too Young to Wed: Education & Action Toward
Ending Child Marriage, www.icrw.org/docs/2006_cmtoolkit/cm_all.pdf [2007].)

A survey in India found that girls who married before age 18 were twice as likely to report being beaten, slapped, or threatened by their husbands as were girls who married later.
(International Center for Research on Women, Development Initiative on Supporting Healthy
Adolescents [2005], analysis of quantitative baseline survey data collected in select sites in the
states of Bihar and Jharkhand, India [survey conducted in 2004].)
HEALTH

Medical complications from pregnancy are the leading cause of death among girls ages 15 to 19 worldwide. Compared with women ages 20 to 24, girls ages 10 to 14 are five times more likely to die from childbirth, and girls 15 to 19 are up to twice as likely, worldwide.
(United Nations Children’s Fund, Equality, Development and Peace, www.unicef.org/
publications/files/pub_equality_en.pdf [New York: UNICEF, 2000], 19.)

75 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds living with HIV in Africa are female, up from 62 percent in 2001.
(Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, Keeping the Promise: An Agenda for Action on Women
and AIDS, http://data.unaids.org/pub/Booklet/2006/20060530_FS_Keeping_Promise_
en.pdf[2006a].)

Partners

The Girl Effect is supported by hundreds of organizations and thousands of people around the world. Additionally, a number of key partners have collaborated with the Girl Effect to provide critical financial and intellectual contributions. Want to learn more about some of the partners that have helped make the Girl Effect into the powerful, life-changing movement it is today? Click on the boxes below to check out their websites!

FAQ

What is the Girl Effect mission?
The Girl Effect is a movement driven by organizations, individuals, and girl champions around the globe, harnessing the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world. It is not about raising the profile of an organization or even raising money for a particular program. It’s about raising girls’ voices – it’s that simple.
When was the Girl Effect founded?
The Girl Effect began in May of 2008, when the Nike Foundation and the Novo Foundation announced their innovative collaboration to invest in the movement. Since then, the Girl Effect has been propelled forward by partners, organizations, girl champions and individuals around the world.
What was the inspiration behind the Girl Effect?
A: Research has shown that adolescent girls in the developing world have been invisible for a long time. Out of the world’s 130million out-of-school youth, 70% are girls. One-quarter to one-half of girls in developing countries give birth before age 18. 75% of 15 to 24-year-olds living with HIV in Africa are female. The list goes on, and it was critical that someone find a way to show the world why we need to invest in girls. The Girl Effect was inspired by the need for a rallying point, something people could get behind and make their own. The Girl Effect is a movement that belongs to everyone, and the whole point of girleffect.org is to offer tools to help people drive that movement forward.
How does the Girl Effect work?
The Girl Effect is characterized by and propelled through a website, social media, and powerful videos. The most critical element of the materials is that they are truly meant to be used by everyone – at whatever level, in whatever venue – to start a conversation about girls. It is a movement that actively incites individuals, organizations, and governments alike to learn, educate others, discuss, and create innovative solutions to get girls on the global agenda and unleash the potential of adolescent girls living in poverty to change the world.
Has the Girl Effect been successful?
The Girl Effect has been organic and viral, and has taken hold with the general public, with partners and with celebrities. Not only have girl champions successfully gotten adolescent girls on the global agenda at international conferences such as the Clinton Global Initiative, TED, World Economic Forum and influenced international organizations such as the World Bank and the UN, but they are also continuing to advocate for girls in their communities, schools, businesses, organizations, and governments. The Girl Effect has seen huge success getting girls front and center at influential meetings – and people are really starting to get it.

Individuals have run the gamut as well – students have started Girl Effect clubs, bloggers have started Girl Effect blog campaigns, and teenage girls in Malaysia have organized flash mobs to help raise awareness as part of the Girl Effect. People everywhere have been inspired by the Girl Effect and are driven to learn more and do more to help raise the agenda for girls.

These are just a few examples of the ways girl champions and organizations have gotten involved. If you’d like to hear additional stories, please contact media@girleffect.org.
What are some examples of the Girl Effect in action?
It has been inspiring to watch organizations and individuals take hold of the Girl Effect. Through the movement, many organizations have received the funding needed to make a huge impact in the lives of girls in developing countries. For example, the Berhane Hewan program in rural Ethiopia opened community dialogue and used incentives like school supplies to help over 11,000 girls delay marriage and stay in school. The Binti Pamoja program in Kenya is another example, offering a safe space for girls to connect with other girls and learn about reproductive health, finances and other basic life skills – through funding, the program has grown from 40 girls to over 1,000.
How do you get involved?
It’s easy; there are a number of ways to get involved with the Girl Effect. The secret behind the Girl Effect is that it’s not one large campaign – it’s hundreds of thousands of small campaigns started by girl champions all over the world. The movement will reach its furthest through you, the communicators, artists, culture shapers, master organizers and everyday, amazing people with passion, energy and networks of your own.

The Girl Effect wants your voice. Help spread the word about the Girl Effect to everyone you know. Here’s how.

You can share the Girl Effect video. Show it to your mom, brother, teacher, or friend. Show it to everyone you know and everyone you don’t. That’s the Girl Effect’s call to action. You can check out the Girl Effect’s Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube sites for the latest updates and news. You can donate to one of the many organizations working to forward the Girl Effect by visiting Global Giving. You can download the Girl Effect toolkit on the Media Library page to learn about ways to spread the word. You can also download a ton of tools that can help, including website banners, stickers and a PowerPoint presentation with talking points. You can even get logos to create your own Girl Effect gear.

Above all, you can spread the word to friends, family, and your networks.