Worldwide Annual Review 2020 Contents This Review Covers the Period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020

Home , Girls Around the World

Plan International Worldwide Annual Review 2020 Contents This review covers the period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020. 4 where we work 5 Plan international in numbers 6 Foreword 7 Strategy 8 A year of global action for girls’ rights 12 supporting girls’ rights in a pandemic Quality, inclusive education 14 Skills and decent work 17 Young people driving change 20 Sexual and reproductive health and rights 23 Early childhood development 26 our six main areas of work Protection from violence 29 32 The power of partnerships 33 Innovation: Bold projects, big impacts for girls Cover photo: With children in East Nusa Tenggara province in Indonesia out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Plan International distributed 1,000 solar radios to deliver lessons in the children’s homes. Credit: Plan International 2020 financial overview This page: As part of the Kick-off for girls’ leadership project in Senegal, Plan International is using sport to 34 develop adolescent girls’ skills as leaders. Credit: Plan International. 4 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Our purpose building partnerships to We strive for a just world that advances children’s transform rights and equality for girls, and we motivate our people and partners to: children’s lives FOR Over 80 years • empower children, young people • work with children and communities and communities to make vital to prepare for and respond to crises, changes that tackle the root causes and to overcome adversity of discrimination against girls, Active in exclusion and vulnerability • support the safe and successful progression of children from birth to • drive change in practice and policy adulthood 75 countries at local, national and global levels through our reach, experience and knowledge of the realities children We partnered with face 36,567 organisations Where we work Africa and Middle East americas Advocacy Offices Benin Bolivia Nepal Burkina Faso Brazil Philippines Addis Ababa €910m €910m Cameroon Canada Sri Lanka* Brussels raised spent Central African Republic Colombia Thailand Geneva Egypt Dominican Republic Timor-Leste New York Ethiopia Ecuador Vietnam Ghana El Salvador regional Offices Guinea Guatemala Europe Guinea-Bissau Haiti Bangkok Kenya Honduras Belgium Dakar Jordan Nicaragua Denmark Nairobi 26,881,125 girls Lebanon Panama Finland Panama City Liberia Paraguay France and Malawi Peru Germany Global hub Mali USA Ireland Mozambique Italy 24,023,969 boys Niger Netherlands benefited from our work* Nigeria Asia Norway Rwanda Spain Bangladesh Senegal Sweden Cambodia Sierra Leone Switzerland China South Sudan UK Supporters sponsored Hong Kong, SAR of China Somalia India Sudan Indonesia Oceania Tanzania Japan Togo Australia 1.2 million children Korea Uganda Papua New Guinea Laos Zambia Solomon Islands *Total adjusted to compensate for double-counting across different programmes Myanmar Zimbabwe *Office closed in December 2019 6 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 7 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Foreword Strategy PLAN INTERNATIONAL’S GLOBAL STRATEGY TO 2022 In this third year of our global 100 Million Reasons IN THE FINAL HALF OF THE YEAR, OUR TEAMS ALL strategy, we have reached more girls than ever OVER THE WORLD STEPPED UP TO RESPOND TO A Our ambition is to transform the lives of 100 All our programmes will focus on enabling before, strengthened our gender-transformative PANDEMIC THAT THREATENS TO UNRAVEL DECADES million girls through our five-year strategy. vulnerable and excluded children to learn,lead, programming and increased our ability to influence OF PROGRESS ON GENDER EQUALITY. decide and thrive, across our six main areas of change. There is much to celebrate. But the year Our work is inspired by the United Nations’ work: also brought unprecedented challenge – the global Thanks to the hard work and versatility of our staff and Global Goals, and in particular, achieving COVID-19 pandemic with profound implications for girls’ partners in difficult circumstances and the generosity gender equality by 2030. Without equality, EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT health, rights and freedoms; and a powerful new global of our donors, we have been able to stand with girls to no other goal can be truly met. anti-racist movement that leads us to ask questions stop the setback. Millions benefited from our immediate GIRLS, BOYS AND YOUTH AS ACTIVE DRIVERS OF about our sector and how we ourselves operate. crisis response, which included public health campaigns 2020 was the strategy’s third year. Up to CHANGE and vital support for hygiene and handwashing among 2022 we will: THIS YEAR ALMOST 27 MILLION GIRLS BENEFITED vulnerable populations. We adapted programmes on INCLUSIVE, QUALITY EDUCATION • Deliver greater impact for vulnerable FROM OUR WORK GLOBALLY. child protection and gender-based violence, education and youth economic empowerment to meet spiking children, especially girls. PROTECTION FROM VIOLENCE We increased emphasis on innovative new programmes demand caused by the crisis and, in particular, improved • Influence greater change at local and that harness the power of technology to progress girls’ digital delivery, including virtual tools to maintain global levels. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS rights. Our Girls Out Loud programme was scaled up children’s education. • Transform girls’ lives. across 16 countries, creating moderated safe spaces SKILLS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH on social media for girls to express themselves, share GLOBAL CALLS FOR ACTION AGAINST RACISM HAVE EMPLOYMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP information, organise, and now support each other CHALLENGED ALL ORGANISATIONS, INCLUDING through the pandemic. OUR OWN, TO REFLECT, LEARN AND TAKE ACTION. Through close collaboration with valued partners and young activists, we have achieved unprecedented In June we launched a comprehensive Anti-Racism Action Plan, covering improvements to our programming Advances in girls’ rights influenced by Plan global impact in 2020. International Day of the Girl ** 2019 saw the launch of our Rewrite Her Story report and influencing work, our recruitment systems and International in 2020 and Girls Get Equal campaign for equal representation processes and governance, as well as support and training for staff and managers. This is an important step Progress on transforming the lives of of girls in media. Girls called for more positive role 100 million girls by 2022 models in entertainment and an end to damaging in a long process of structural and cultural change for stereotypes, and they took over positions of power, Plan International. from governments to media and digital companies. To resource our strategic ambitions, we are working 2018 18.1 MILLION New research on adolescent girls in crisis shone a to grow income, build a more financially sustainable light on the lived experiences of girls who have been organisation and become more agile, effective and 2019 119 58 stripped of their basic rights and freedoms in the lean. We will continue our work with communities and 21.6 MILLION CHANGES TO LAWS, CHANGES IN NATIONAL Sahel. As part of the Gender at the Centre Initiative, partners to ensure that girls, children and vulnerable POLICIES, REGULATIONS AND LOCAL DECISION- we won further commitments on girls’ education during groups are protected and supported through the AND PLANS AT LOCAL AND MAKERS’ ATTITUDES AND 2020 NATIONAL LEVELS BEHAVIOURS France’s presidency of the G7; and at the International COVID-19 crisis. And we enter a new year energised to 26.9 MILLION Conference on Population and Development in Nairobi, work with and for girls to create the more resilient, equal GIRLS BENEFITED FROM we built bold new alliances and secured commitments and sustainable world they demand and deserve. OUR PROJECTS* from states to act on the sexual and reproductive rights and needs of adolescent girls. Progress on putting gender n / sen karine Studi rik Nik o S en e ka equality at the heart of every k H k al er a a n J 53% il / M re r t n new programme e p e s C

e l J a r / u l t l a

i 43%

n a 42%

e 18

n 47

h I

a CHANGES TO PROCEDURES COMMITMENTS TO

a a l

P H

© © AND PRACTICES BY INVESTMENTS AND SERVICES Percentage of programmes that are GOVERNMENTS AND OTHER SUPPORTING GIRLS’ RIGHTS Anne-Birgitte Gunvor Kronman, gender transformative 2018 2019 2020 INSTITUTIONS Albrectsen, CEO Chair * Figures may include individual girls reached in more than one year, and they cannot be combined to give a total of unique girls reached. ** Based on reports from 68 Plan International offices 8 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 9 A year of global action for girls' rights

A year of global action for Credit: Plan International / Anika Büssemeier NOVEMBER 2019 DECEMBER 2019 RAISING GIRLS’ VOICES AT THE HIGHLIGHTING GIRLS’ EXPERIENCES OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON REPORTING HARASSMENT POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT In December, we released the Reporting to Authorities research detailing girls’ and young women’s experiences girls’ rights Despite increasing hostility towards young women’s of reporting street harassment to authorities. control of their lives and bodies, the Nairobi summit was a significant “pushback against the pushback” on sexual It revealed that fewer than 1 in 10 incidents across and reproductive rights. 5 global cities were reported to police, and less than OCTOBER 2019 one third of those cases were acted on. This research Plan International and allies engaged directly with reinforces the call for authorities to improve reporting GIRLS GET EQUAL CAMPAIGN TO governments and supported youth participation in outcomes for girls and young women across the globe. conversations before and during the summit. Attending #REWRITEHERSTORY the event, 20-year-old Georgina from Kenya said: “We On October 1 we launched the Rewrite Her Story report want to see all girls supported to stay in school. If the Credit: Plan International in collaboration with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender government did this... it would fight child marriage, early GLOBAL REFUGEE FORUM pregnancy, FGM.” in Media. The report analysed the 56 top grossing films At the world’s first Global Refugee Forum, which brought in 20 countries to find that the world’s most popular films The result? States reaffirmed the original goals together governments, international organisations and are sending the message to girls and young women that of the International Conference on Population refugees, Plan International advocated strongly for AUGUST 2019 leadership is mostly for men. This research was used to and Development 25 years ago, and made new attention on refugees’ specific needs based on age, demand better role models for girls on screen. commitments, including efforts to end the millions of gender and diversity. MOZAMBIQUE BANS CHILD MARRIAGE child marriages that still happen each year, to end “It’s urgent that we no longer create stories that teach The initiative led to a joint pledge on the rights of unintended teen pregnancy and child birth which is Mozambique passed a bill banning child marriage children to view women and girls as second-class women and girls from several UN member states, the leading cause of death for 15- to 19-year-old girls following a two and a half-year campaign by gender citizens – not when we’ve seen the level of sexism in our NGOs and UN agencies, committing to the protection globally, and to end female genital mutilation. equality organisations including Plan International. culture so egregiously put on display.” Geena Davis and empowerment of women and girls in forced For International Day of the Girl, the Girls Takeover saw displacement situations through comprehensive more than 1,300 girls taking over positions of power sexual and reproductive health and rights services and G7 LEADERS COMMIT TO MOVING THE across 60 countries – including senior executives protection from sexual gender-based violence. NEEDLE ON GENDER EQUALITY at YouTube, Universal Music, ABC Network and the presidents of Timor-Leste and Paraguay among others. Leaders at the G7 summit made a declaration on gender The girls were calling for radical change in the portrayal CHALKING BACK AGAINST GENDER- equality which recognised the discriminatory laws of girls and young women in films and entertainment, affecting women and girls around the world, outlined the textbooks, advertising, in video games and all forms of BASED VIOLENCE need to adopt, implement and monitor laws advancing communication. gender equality, and highlighted a need to focus on In Nairobi, Delhi and Kampala, girls and youth activists preventing and responding to sexual violence, including The campaign was supported by high-profile entertainers gathered to raise awareness and generate dialogue during conflicts. and gender equality advocates including Reese on the issue of street harassment by ‘chalking back’ – Witherspoon, Letitia Wright, Jameela Jamil and Paloma writing the bullying and sexist catcalls they’ve received Faith. in chalk on streets and pavements. The action was supported by Girls Get Equal and Catcalls of NYC. The founder of the Chalk Back TANZANIAN TOP COURT UPHOLDS CHILD and Catcalls of NYC movements, Sophie Sandberg, MARRIAGE BAN said: “Chalk Back encourages young activists to come together and raise their voices. As girls, young Tanzania’s Court of Appeal quashed a government women and LGBTIQ+ youth, we have put up with request to overturn the landmark 2016 ruling banning sexual harassment for too long. Partnering with Plan marriage for both boys and girls under the age of 18. International allows us to reach new young activists Plan International has been working closely with human around the world, hugely amplifying the efforts of our rights advocates in the legal campaign to end child grassroots activism.” Credit: Plan International marriage in Tanzania. 10 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 11 A year of global action for girls' rights

MARCH 2020 JUNE 2020 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: @liberaljane ADOLESCENT GIRLS IN CRISIS: #REWRITEHERSTORY CONTINUES VOICES FROM THE SAHEL Ahead of International Women’s Day, the Girls Get Equal campaign consulted with young people in Nepal, In June, our research from the west Africa Sahel region Togo, Philippines and Malawi to discover the worst revealed how the ongoing violence in Mali and Burkina stereotypes in entertainment and media that hold girls Faso is having a devastating impact on girls’ education, back. survival and safety, in the most in-depth study of girls’ experiences in this region. The 6 stereotypes were presented to our global digital audience who were invited to share their thoughts on Adolescent Girls in Crisis: Voices from the Sahel these lazy clichés and suggest their own, showing included insights from more than 800 adolescent girls. content creators what their audiences really think. They revealed how their lives have been turned upside down by violence and instability, and how restrictive Women as ‘sex objects’ was found to be the most norms and attitudes of their families and communities prevalent and despised stereotype, and the lack of have left them feeling trapped and powerless. representation of women in leadership was a significant concern for girls globally. “We are going to go out and then we are going to tell them [decision-makers] about our difficulties so that they Following the campaign, 15 of Plan International’s can help us.” said one girl in a focus group in Burkina partner creative agencies across Africa, Asia, Europe, Faso. Latin America and North America made a commitment to end the use of harmful gender stereotypes in all future content they produce for all their clients. AMPLIFYING GIRLS’ VOICES ON GLOBAL PLATFORMS

Credit: Plan International Marking the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – an agenda for advancing gender equality – UN Women launched Generation Equality to accelerate equality globally. It’s vital that girls are included in all the decision- making processes that affect their lives. We consulted adolescent girls across 12 countries about girls’ rights issues. Girls supported by Plan International and partners then spoke to governments, civil society, UN agencies and other activists to demand leaders of Generation Equality’s six Action Forums take girls’ voices into account. As a result of this advocacy, UN Women committed to solid steps to advance girls’ rights GIRLS SHOW RESILIENCE IN THE through the Action Coalitions. Leaders of the action coalitions also committed to COVID-19 CRISIS ensuring the engagement of girls and young women The COVID-19 pandemic impacted girls already in the Generation Equality process – supporting the disadvantaged in many aspects of their lives. School gender equality activists of the future. closures threatened to hit girls hardest, and roll back JANUARY 2020 hard won gains in education and economic progress (see page 12). Credit: Plan International / Ilvy Njiokiktjien BENDING THE CURVE TOWARDS However, through the crisis we’ve seen girls display GENDER EQUALITY unparalleled resilience. Using their positions as valued community members, girls involved in Plan International MAY 2020 A report from the Equal Measures 2030 partnership – in programmes have been helping disseminate invaluable which we are a founding partner – showed that more health and hygiene information and kits, as well as SUDAN MOVES TO CRIMINALISE than a third of countries have been moving too slowly, or providing digital mentorship, skills training and support to FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION even backwards, on gender equality over the past two their peers. After years of advocacy by Plan International, our decades. For example, In Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp, 16-year- partners and girls’ and women’s rights activists, Sudan’s The Bending the Curve Towards Gender Equality by old Rasha (pictured) not only made masks for her Council of Ministers amended the criminal law to include 2030 report assessed five key gender equality targets: community but also ran digital learning sessions to train FGM as an offence punishable by imprisonment. This access to contraception, girls’ education, political others in this potentially life-saving craft. “It gives me was a giant step forward in eradicating the practice, leadership, workplace equality laws, and safety. The great joy, not only because I am educating people but which affects over 80% of women and girls aged 15-49 data is being used to show world leaders how they can also because I’d like to believe that I am bettering the in Sudan. work globally to accelerate progress on equality. lives of women and families around me,” she said. 12 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 13 COVID-19

COVID-19 Supporting girls’

rights in a pandemic Protecting girls from violence response. This has included using social media tools Staying at home can be dangerous for the world’s such as WhatsApp in Ecuador to deliver livelihood and most vulnerable people, placing children and women financial skills training. One group of women developed experiencing domestic abuse closer to their aggressors. a business plan, then produced and sold 31,000 face At the same time, reporting mechanisms and support masks after training via WhatsApp. services have weakened or even disappeared during On March 11, the World Health Organisation declared Despite lockdown measures bringing unprecedented lockdown. COVID-19 a global pandemic. As governments around the operational challenges, including limitations on access Protecting girls sexual and reproductive world closed schools and large sectors of the economy, and and a shift to remote working, as of June 19, 2020, Worldwide, Plan International has been working to health and rights ordered communities to stay at home, it became clear the Plan International had reached a total of 49,402,480 improve awareness of gender-based violence, reporting School closures, restrictions on movement and the health crisis would also become a socio-economic crisis. people* through its COVID-19 emergency response routes, and support for survivors such as psychological diversion of healthcare resources to COVID-19 Girls, young women, people with disabilities and LGBTIQ+ programmes worldwide. Through these efforts we aim care. In Mali, we worked with ERAD, a local partner, prevention and treatment means girls in 2020 faced persons were most likely to suffer these secondary impacts not only to limit the secondary impacts of the pandemic, on a gender-transformative approach to mitigate even greater barriers to comprehensive sexuality due to their age, gender and other factors. The risks girls but to build back better. the negative impacts of COVID-19. Volunteers were education and essential services. According to UNFPA faced included increased risk of violence, exploitation, assigned households in their villages and trained to projections, a lack of access to modern contraceptives trafficking, child labour and other harmful practices such carry out COVID-19-safe visits raising awareness of the over six months of lockdown could account for up to 7 as child, early and forced marriage and female genital dangers of gender-based violence and early marriage. million unintended pregnancies worldwide . mutilation. Number of people reached* Psychosocial support was also offered to survivors, and youth clubs set up to train communities how to reduce During the pandemic, Plan International has been using Drawing on our experience from the 2014-16 West Africa remote and digital approaches to help adolescents Latin America the spread of COVID-19. Ebola outbreak, seizing opportunities to strengthen girls’ and Caribbean and young people continue to build awareness of their rights has been a central pillar of Plan International’s 3.9m Asia-Pacific sexual and reproductive health, and where to seek response. Our early focus was on: supporting education; Middle East, 12.8m Ensuring girls’ access to education support and services. In the Philippines, we have been Eastern and West and child protection; COVID-19 prevention awareness and Southern Africa Central Africa Social distancing measures resulted at one time in 91% using SMS messages to reach nearly 20,000 people community engagement; and support for sanitation and 12.3m 20.4m of the world’s student population, including 743 million with messages about menstrual hygiene management hygiene, including handwashing, among vulnerable girls, suffering disruption to their education. This has and how to report violence against women and children, populations. had a profound impact on their learning, health, nutrition alongside COVID-19 prevention; 65% of those who and physical safety. Throughout the pandemic, girls received messages say they helped to guide decisions, have been less likely than boys to participate in remote and ways of coping with the situation. lessons and return to schools when they reopen. In Peru, after school closures led to 6.6 million pupils needing to adapt to online lessons, Plan International Supporting girls’ agency and voice Peru worked with the Ministry of Education to help KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE FROM COVID-19 children in rural areas take part in our I Learn at Home Young people’s ability to organise and make their voices “I have seen Plan International’s volunteers in the initiative. Through educational radio sessions and heard has been profoundly affected by social distancing donation of loudspeakers, more than 200,000 students measures. The gender digital divide – girls and women village. They teach people how to fight the disease,” with limited internet access were able to continue their having less access to digital communications – means says Kaligueta, 15, a sponsored child from Burkina Faso. studies. this has had a disproportionate impact on girls, and their ability to participate in public debate and decision- Her region hosts many internally displaced people, making. who live in circumstances making them vulnerable We have been supporting girls and women to raise to infection. Our teams trained families in disease Strengthening girls’ economic security and their voice, and make their needs clear during the social protection pandemic. In Indonesia, women, children and people prevention and constructing simple handwashing Economic turbulence has had a marked effect on with disabilities were involved in the design and delivery devices. “Now families know how women and girls’ financial security, who typically earn of campaigns to prevent COVID-19 transmission and it is transmitted and how to protect less, hold more insecure jobs and work in unpaid labour promote social distancing and handwashing with soap. more frequently than their male counterparts, putting Existing community-led total sanitation teams were themselves. As my father is a tailor, we them at greater risk of violence or exploitation. trained in gender-balanced COVID-19 interventions, encouraging women to lead the campaigns. Our asked him to sew masks for the whole Identifying and developing employment skills for women inclusive approach also led to a project helping people family,” she says. and youth, advocating for the right to decent and equal with hearing impairments and those around them employment and improving access to information to make transparent face masks – enabling them to and communication technologies has therefore been communicate more easily. a key component of Plan International’s COVID-19

*Figures include TV, radio and social media awareness campaign reach numbers for some countries. 14 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Education Quality, inclusive education our main areas of work

We want vulnerable and excluded children, particularly girls, to have the education they need to succeed in life. This means promoting quality education that is accessible to all.

THE WORLD TODAY WORK IN 2020 Ensuring that every child – especially every girl – Plan International’s focus on girls’ education – access gets a quality education is now a global focus. Yet and quality – continued to shape this year’s work. as 2020 began, more than 258 million children and As existing inequalities worsened due to COVID-19, youth were not in school. Gender discrimination, programmes swiftly adapted to provide continued poverty, disability, disasters and low government access to quality education for the most marginalised, spending all block access to education for children. especially adolescent girls. We worked with COVID-19 and resulting school closures created a governments, teachers and parents to support distance global education emergency, with girls and the most learning, with new national strategies and reopening marginalised children hit worst. Up to 11 million guidelines. Our ongoing work on school water and girls may now never return to school. sanitation facilities took on increasing importance.

6,108,737 EDUCATION IN EMERGENCIES GIRLS €108 MILLION PROGRAMMES IN WITH BETTER ACCESS INVESTED IN EDUCATION 45 COUNTRIES TO EDUCATION 15 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Education

Meet 11-year-old Taem. She lives in a remote village in northern Laos where families rely on rainfall to cultivate rice – their main source of food and income. But climate change is leading to poor harvests. Parents cannot afford to pay for education and many children end up dropping out. Since 2014, Plan International and the District Education Bureau

have been working with communities to identify the our main areas of work most vulnerable children who would benefit from a school scholarship – one of them was Taem. “This scholarship has increased my confidence with new clothes, new books and pens which allow me to continue my education,” she says.

Credit: Plan International

Transforming teaching and learning in schools We began to support vulnerable local children and Venezuelan migrant children to access Peru’s public We work at local, regional and national levels to make education system. To support children during COVID-19 teaching and learning more inclusive and to improve quarantines in Latin America, we developed The quality – often at scale. Adventures of Zuri, a self-learning package with cartoon In Uganda, our capacity-building with primary teachers characters, that offers a gender equality perspective and on psychosocial support and how to encourage emotional support for children and caregivers. gender equality through teaching is benefiting 12,973 In Zimbabwe, we helped to enrol 5,341 out-of-school local and refugee children. A programme in Ethiopia adolescent girls in 88 community-based learning hubs on safe, inclusive primary education for refugee and under the Supporting Adolescent Girls programme. In local children, reached 99,126 students (44,638 girls) partnership with Cambodia’s government and a local including children with disabilities. NGO, we ran activities at 63 primary schools, reaching Our work in Ecuador with the Ministry of Education 2,444 children (1,136 girls), including 642 out-of-school enabled module-based training on psychosocial risks children (231 girls), ethnic minority children, and those and family communication in more than 3,300 education at risk of dropping out. Activities included accelerated institutions nationally, reaching almost 1.5 million learning, bilingual education, transport support, families. scholarships, and community events for caregivers and school management. We also supported outreach activities, such as girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering and Improving safety, governance and management maths (STEM). In India these included dedicated STEM practices in schools camps, workshops, knowledge festivals and the supply of low-cost science labs. In China, these involved coding Our interventions promote effective and inclusive school and robotics for 800 girls and 400 boys. governance to improve the quality of education, address barriers to access and bring about good learning Support for out-of-school children outcomes. Conflict and crisis-affected populations, pregnant girls We trained parents, teachers and local leaders on and young mothers are among those targeted in our improved school governance in Tanzania, Uganda and work to get children into or back into education. South Sudan. To encourage children’s participation and leadership skills, we worked to set up children’s Our Talents Unlimited programme in Jordan helped to parliaments in India and Bolivia, and held motivational get 2,000 older out-of-school children – many of them talks by women role models in Malawi. refugees – into official education. We also worked to strengthen national policies and reporting mechanisms In Togo, we trained 50 people (25 women) to help set up for out-of-school children. children’s governments – resulting in 48 governments 16 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Education

being established to help manage school water and Influencing government spending and policies sanitation facilities. In Guinea Bissau, student-run school our main areas of work The Gender at the Centre Initiative, supported by governments developed awareness campaigns on Plan International and partners, assists ministries of gender-based violence, marriage and early pregnancy. education to advance gender equality in education A safe schools programme in Liberia to build resilience through sector planning and monitoring. It was adopted to disasters covered 30 schools and more than by the G7 Ministers of Education and Development 12,000 students. The programme also trained parent- in July 2019 after we jointly lobbied the France G7 teacher associations and management committees on presidency. Eight sub-Saharan African countries improving access to education for girls and children with engaged in the initiative initially. disabilities. Other influencing activities on policy contributed to the enactment of Zimbabwe’s Education Amendment Education in emergencies Bill, addressing the safe return of girls to school after In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our work pregnancy and the abolition of corporal punishment. has adapted to ensure that children’s education can Guinea Bissau’s Ministry of Education, influenced by our continue, often in contexts where another form of evidence, adopted our Accelerated Education Strategy emergency was already unfolding. for out-of-school students. Our advocacy activities prompted Sierra Leone’s Teaching Service Commission To address COVID-19 school closures, the Make to include professional development modules on Ghanaian Girls Great! project in Ghana supported inclusive methodologies and gender responsive distance learning by designing, recording and teaching. broadcasting lessons on the Ghana Learning TV channel. Where children lack access to the internet, We helped to influence curriculum change at a national lessons via radio ensured education continued during level in Nigeria, to develop a certified accelerated the pandemic in many countries. In Peru, 750 teachers basic education curriculum, with EU funding. With El received USBs with two batches of 80 lesson scripts Salvador’s Ministry of Education, we developed 28 to support distance learning via radio broadcasts. In modules with a focus on gender that are now part of Rwanda, 2,000 families received solar powered radios, the official curriculum. We worked with governments that also provide lessons from memory sticks. We in Indonesia, Benin, Burkina Faso and Cameroon on supported television lessons and live Facebook classes COVID-19 response plans for education. Our inputs in Bangladesh, in collaboration with the Directorate of ensured inclusion and gender were integrated into the Secondary and Higher Education and UNICEF. plans and helped develop distance learning and school reopening strategies. We distributed learning kits to 5,199 ethnic minority children in Vietnam to maintain learning at home and school, and gave funding support to 151 schools to sanitise classrooms prior to reopening.

Our project in Rakhine State, Myanmar, funded by UNICEF, helped 3,163 Rohingya children affected by the crisis there to get a formal primary education and gave life skills training to more than 600 out-of-school adolescents. 17 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Skills and work Skills and decent work our main areas of work

We want vulnerable and excluded young people, especially young women, to be resilient, gain knowledge and skills, access opportunities and engage actively in decent work of their choosing.

THE WORLD TODAY WORK IN 2020 Young people and women are more likely to be in It is vital for young people, especially women, to informal or insecure work, particularly in low-income have the skills and opportunities to work, earn and countries. They been disproportionately affected by have control over money. The COVID-19 crisis has COVID-19 as the pandemic has ravaged economies, confirmed the relevance of many of our approaches to with the equivalent of 495 million full-time jobs lost economic empowerment – the need for partnerships in the second quarter of 2020. Worldwide, female with businesses, increased digital delivery of training, unemployment has risen faster than for males, and influence in sectors like tourism and textiles to and one in six young people are no longer working improve prospects for young women. Spearheading since the outbreak. Many countries are so far change at scale, we signed up to the International failing to consider young women’s and girls’ Labour Organization’s Decent Jobs for Youth global specific vulnerabilities to economic insecurity. drive to skill up 1.5 million young people. Our teams also continued vital humanitarian work on the economic impacts of forced displacement and other ongoing crises.

€41 MILLION 1,190,504 INVESTED IN SKILLS AND WORK GIRLS WITH IMPROVED SKILLS AND WORK OPPORTUNITIES 18 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Skills and work

Meet 19-year-old Ann from Kenya. She is the second child of a family of seven. Her parents could not afford for her to go to college and she was expected to take care of her younger siblings once she completed secondary school. But she found a scholarship opportunity through Plan International in an education and training our main areas of work project funded by the German government. Its aim is to provide technical training for vulnerable youth, especially young women. Ann chose a six-month training course in welding, not a typical career option for women. “I wanted to learn a skill that is mostly associated with men, to show the world that women can do it too,” she says.

Credit: Plan International

Building skills for life and work development via renewable energies in Mali, Niger and Our activities develop life, vocational and Senegal. The regional programme, A Working Future, entrepreneurial skills by supporting young people, and has scaled up to meet the employment needs of 24,000 involving communities, government and businesses. youth (60 per cent female) in Uganda through business In China, Nepal, Guatemala and Nicaragua, gender opportunities in agriculture, and will train gender training is now part of basic life skills and employability equality champions. skills activities. We support communities to challenge In Paraguay our partnership with the Fundación Saraki gender norms – as in Peru, where our project with enabled youth with disabilities to undertake technical women mentors left the majority of young women and life skills training. participants “feeling more valued at home”. Many programmes develop young people’s digital skills Creating opportunities with the private sector – a need starkly underlined by COVID-19. The SMART We partner with private sector businesses to enhance UP Factory programme in Ethiopia and Uganda offered skills training, create local and large-scale opportunities, computer-programming skills, while entrepreneurship and contribute to making workplaces more gender activities in Zimbabwe covered digital marketing. In responsive. Vietnam, an IT training programme with a focus on Our Wired4Work partnership with Accenture in hiring requirements partnered with IT businesses to Indonesia and the Philippines uses digital solutions to provide vocational training including on web coding and provide skills and job opportunities for youth, especially graphic design to almost 200 disadvantaged youth. girls. Tools provided include online courses, a job- Entrepreneurial training included honey production matching platform and a social media chatbot that helps in Bolivia and Ecuador, and agricultural projects in build CVs and prepare for interviews. This collaboration Guatemala and Zambia. The Dominican Republic’s also provides us with innovative digital solutions which Sowing My Dreams programme led to young people support customisation of training and replicating being certified in organic agriculture and the country’s successful approaches. first social entrepreneurship fair. The Saksham project in India partnered with Our support for savings groups helped to underpin self- AkzoNobel, National Postcode Lottery, Deutsche Bank, employment, as in programmes for women’s economic AXA, Bank of America and other major donors to 19 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Skills and work

support young people’s opportunities. More than 2,500 Influencing spending and policy on youth girls gained job placements with employers and were employment encouraged to be role models for others. We aim to influence decision makers to prioritise skills-

In Myanmar, a three-year partnership with mobile building and decent work opportunities for young people our main areas of work telecom giant Telenor entered its second year. Mobile that are gender transformative. communications and digital technology are used in joint In Vietnam, we worked with the Ministry of Training and projects to reduce inequalities and provide digital access Education to design new careers packages for senior and skills, with a focus on equality for girls. schools that are gender sensitive and market-oriented. We’re working regionally with private sector and Thirty schools in areas where we work will pilot the government partners across the world on gender packages. sensitive regulations for workplaces. For example, in We are working with Jordan’s Ministry of Digital Nepal, our gender equality and labour law training with Economy and Entrepreneurship to create more social employers is contributing to improved, gender sensitive enterprises. Often women-led, these enterprises help workplaces, especially in tourism. In Indonesia and the to integrate marginalised people, especially youth and Philippines, we backed research with the private sector women, into the formal economy. In Egypt we engaged on gender equality and tackling stereotypes at work. with government bodies to influence gender sensitive regulations including tackling violence against women in Economic empowerment in emergencies the workplace. In disasters and crises, our support to vulnerable In China, we work with the Ministry of Education through families is multi-pronged: responding to immediate local education bureaux to create more gender friendly financial needs and boosting prospects for longer-term education opportunities in science and technology for economic security. We gave cash assistance to more girls and boys from marginalised rural areas. We are than 30,000 vulnerable internally displaced people also collaborating with employers, vocational training affected by COVID-19 restrictions in Somalia to help institutions and government bodies to influence youth them buy food and basic supplies. In Kenya, we gave employment policies and create more decent work similar support to the families of more than 5,000 opportunities for marginalised young women and men in vulnerable children badly affected by lockdowns. China. With the UN World Food Programme, we supported 100,000 people affected by extreme poverty in Malawi with a five-month cash transfer to meet basic needs. Longer-term support in Malawi included the EU-funded KULIMA project to build young people’s business skills. In the Central African Republic, we helped 420 young people (including 209 girls) who were removed from armed forces and groups over the past year with vocational training and support to create income- generating activities. Working across development and humanitarian fields, we helped Syrian refugees in Egypt, Venezuelan migrants, and Somali and Eritrean refugees to access enterprise opportunities.

We want girls, boys and young people to have the power to take action on issues that matter to them. We want them to shape the decisions that affect their lives by leading change within their own communities and influencing decisions at higher levels.

THE WORLD TODAY WORK IN 2020 Young people raised their voices and united in several Our work to support youth collective action and defining causes this year – climate change, widening build young people’s leadership and influencing democracy, fairer economies, and the Black Lives skills encompassed agenda-setting and innovative Matter movement. Numbering 1.2 billion, today’s 15- to approaches this year. From being recognised for our 24-year-olds are the best-educated generation ever. best practice partnering with youth organisations in Yet attacks on civic space and core freedoms are Latin America to running the Africa Youth Festival; curbing their potential to bring positive change. The from involving young people in peacebuilding efforts to lockdowns to counter COVID-19 and subsequent enabling youth-led responses to COVID-19 – we have economic hardships have also left young people with put young people’s initiatives for gender equality and less time, money and opportunity to engage more human rights at the centre of our work. widely for gender equality and human rights. Many have turned to participating through online spaces – but there they face challenges around safety and access.

€93 MILLION 2,986,609 INVESTED IN SUPPORTING GIRLS YOUNG PEOPLE TO DRIVE CHANGE SUPPORTED TO BE ACTIVE CITIZENS 21 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Young people driving change

Meet 14-year-old Vishnupriya from a rural area in south India. She is a member of an Eco Club that is part of Plan International’s climate action programme. The project places girls at the heart of the response our main areas of work to climate change in the region, encouraging them to discuss ways to take action and engage their communities in saving their local environment. “We have done rallies in our community, installed garbage bins and spoken to elders about the harmful effects of climate change and environmental pollution,” she says. About 1,200 children have been trained as change Credit: Plan International / Vivek Singh agents across 40 communities.

Nurturing collective action by young people, collaborative clubs in 19 senior schools for training on especially girls soft skills, gender and leadership. Several girls have The bedrock of our work is empowering young people become club leaders and class captains, confounding – especially girls – to drive change. We support youth previous expectations. organisations’ leadership and networks, both at scale International-level partnerships included our strategic and locally. role in With and For Girls, and its 2019 Awards Week Our readiness to act boldly, directly supporting a broad which recognised a new cohort of girl-led groups. We range of youth organisations in El Salvador, Guatemala, also co-founded the Global Resilience Fund to provide Nicaragua, Colombia, Bolivia and Honduras, prompted flexible grants to girl and young feminist groups during the International Civil Society Centre to praise our work COVID-19, with 129 groups already benefiting. as a “best practice” partner. We are also funding youth collective action in an increasing number of countries, Supporting youth voices in media including Togo, Burkina Faso and Guinea Bissau. With our backing, young people’s organisations In India, we enabled more than 900,000 young people campaign both to be heard on different media and – almost two-thirds of them girls and young women – to to change the way that girls and young women are engage with media and authorities to champion child portrayed. rights and gender equality, while inspiring 1.4 million of In Egypt, with the National Council for Women, we their peers to act. ran a workshop on enhancing girls’ and women’s In a new initiative, our regional teams in the Middle representation for 35 media workers from different East, Eastern and Southern Africa brought together 50 platforms. Young Leaders camps for girls included work youth activists at the Africa Youth Festival in Kenya, to on improving their social media advocacy skills. We collectively problem-solve and build networks, in order also held a community dialogue on the role of women in to have greater impact when advocating on gender the arts with leading film director Hani Khalifa. equality issues. As part of our Girls Get Equal campaign, we launched Our Indigenous Leadership School project continued #RewriteHerStory, a global call for equal representation to empower indigenous girls and young women in of girls and young women in the media and Guatemala to influence decisions that affect them. entertainment. The October 2019 launch showcased Adolescents there also helped to develop agendas the Rewrite Her Story research report and saw more and action plans in nine municipalities. In Laos, the than 1,300 girls step into the shoes of leaders around Girls Leadership and Development project set up safe, the world during #GirlsTakeover action (see page 8 for more). 22 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW2020 Young peopledrivingchange Colombia, includingidentifyingrisksofconflictand Young peopleledandjoinedpeacebuildingefforts in people reached100,000people. Three digitalcampaignsproducedbychildrenandyoung of 22childandyouthorganisationstofightthevirus. reaching 23,974people.We alsofinancedtheactivities webinar ontheimpactsofCOVID-19children, With UNICEFin Togo, weco-organisedaFacebook them participatethisway. Peru andGuineawithdevicescreditfordatatohelp participation inParaguay, andequippedyoungpeoplein in Uganda’s response,providedtrainingondigital facilitated girls’ inclusionindecision-makingspaces about howtheyareaffected bythepandemic. We COVID-19 intheircommunitiesandtoraisevoices We supportedyoungpeopletoraiseawarenessabout needs –especiallygirls’ needs–aremet. in responsetocrises,notleastensurethattheirown We involveyoungpeopleinactingfortheircommunities humanitarian resilience actionandcommunity Strengthening young people’s roles in via theinternetandradio. as theriseofgender-basedviolenceduringquarantine, communicated healthmessagesandsafetyissues,such of thepandemiconthem. The youthreportersalso reporter projectstoproducestoriesabouttheimpact the Philippinessupportedyoungpeopleintheiryouth In responsetotheCOVID-19emergency, Nepaland advertisers, filmmakers,writersandartists. on equalrepresentationwith25mediaprofessionals, International Philippinesalsohostedapaneldiscussion for expanded,meaningfulspacesgirls’ voices.Plan radio, socialmedia,schoolsandlocalgovernmenttocall 12 to25,inthePhilippines,whotookupkeyroles Among themwere119 girlsandyoungwomen,aged resulting insubstantialbudgetincreases. increase socialprotectionforvulnerablechildren, where youngpeoplehaveurgedthegovernmentto supported NationalChildren Task Forcecommittees, In highlymarginalisedareasofBangladesh,we debate. girls, andestablishedanofficialplatformforongoing gender discriminationandharmfulpracticesaffecting officials and69youngpeopletoreflectoncausesof united traditionalauthorities,civilsociety, government In Cameroon,ayouth-ledintergenerationaldialogue Policy. Mojomayas tocontributeGuatemala’s National Youth participation atitsheart.We supportouryouthpartner helped tocreateayouthstrategywithyoungpeople’s influencing andthecontributionsof1,400youngpeople as abasisforyouthparticipation.InLima,Peru,our We helptoreviewandimplementnationalyouthpolicies participation. laws thatguaranteetheexistenceofthesechannels national committeesandyouthcouncils,thankstolocal take partmoreactivelyinmunicipal,departmentaland Children andyoungpeopleinruralpartsofBolivianow embed youthparticipationinofficialprocesses. young people,especiallygirls,indecision-makingandto We influencegovernmentstoensurethattheyinvolve people’s civilrightsandpoliticalempowerment Influencing governmentstosupportyoung university curriculum. supporting theintegrationofpeacebuildinginto trained studentsaspeaceambassadorsandisnow University Youth Peace Ambassador ProjectinMyanmar influencing localplanningtoaddressitscauses. The

our main areas of work © Plan International 23 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Sexual and reproductive health and rights our main areas of work

We want vulnerable and excluded children, particularly girls, to have control over their lives and bodies. We want them to be able to make informed choices about sexuality and relationships, and if and when to have children.

THE WORLD TODAY WORK IN 2020 Governments have made strong commitments in We met the challenges facing sexual and reproductive support of sexual and reproductive health and rights health and rights with more funding and a sharper and eliminating harmful practices, most notably at focus. Our work helped to end harmful practices for the International Conference on Population and many girls, to change minds and laws, and to promote Development (ICPD25) in Nairobi. The summit was positive sexuality education in and out of schools. Our convened by UNFPA and the governments of Denmark COVID-19 Health Task Force helped programmes and Kenya. to mitigate the devastating impacts on access to vital sexual and reproductive health services – as Yet populist and conservative governments are still highlighted in our needs assessment in Jordan with seeking to overturn hard-won rights and undermine UNFPA. We expanded activities in humanitarian further progress on health and rights. COVID-19 settings, winning wider recognition of the sexual and is worsening this, as millions more unintended reproductive health needs of millions of girls, women pregnancies, child marriages, cases of FGM and and young people during crises. gender-based violence are forecast to occur than were previously expected.

IMPROVING SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH FOR €68 MILLION 5,501,362 INVESTED IN SEXUAL AND GIRLS REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS 24 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Meet 18-year-old Illuminée from Rwanda. When she joined one of our youth clubs, aged 15, she lacked vital knowledge about her own body and rights. “I couldn’t express my feelings and needs and didn’t have the courage to ask our main areas of work people I knew about all the things I wondered about,” she says. In the youth clubs, young people learn life skills and pass on their knowledge to others. Developing awareness of reproductive health and rights plays an important role in reducing unintended teen pregnancy, a growing problem where Illuminée lives. “I have no fears any longer when it comes to asking questions or expressing myself.” she says. “My wish is that all children, Credit: Plan International especially girls, know about their rights and know how to protect themselves.”

Sexuality education for youth and families We continued to push for comprehensive sexuality We support comprehensive sexuality education and education to be integrated into national curricula, by dialogue, and engage caregivers and communities – engaging governments, as in Burkina Faso and Timor- often in innovative ways. Leste, and partners like UNFPA. Youth drama groups used theatre to explore health Strengthening sexual and reproductive health and rights issues in Zambia, and in India more than services for adolescents 50,000 adolescent girls and young women became peer educators on safe menstrual health and hygiene. We strengthen the capacity of staff and systems to Almost 14,000 parents and caregivers in Zimbabwe provide quality, inclusive services. In Paraguay, we joined parent-child communication and positive trained over 400 health professionals and worked with parenting sessions about positive sexuality and harmful government on standards for adolescent healthcare. practices. In Zimbabwe, we trained more than 300 care workers in sign language and disability, leading to marked Nicaragua is using our youth-led Champions of Change improvements in services for adolescents with approach to build a peer support network among the disabilities. indigenous Miskito community, which has very high unintended adolescent pregnancy rates. We also We partnered with AstraZeneca and government continued a football-based project, La League, to reach in Brazil on the Young Health Programme to pilot out-of-school adolescents. The same project engaged scorecard assessments of services by young people. fathers in Brazil to challenge gender stereotypes, and to These assessments are used to improve the provision help stop unintended early pregnancy. of youth-friendly health services. Adapting to COVID-19 restrictions, we developed and We also make services affordable and accessible. In increased the use of digital tools to inform young people Malawi we trained 98 youth agents to ensure young on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Laos people get health services and contraceptives, even created the popular “Merlin Pha Hoo” learning tool, in remote areas, and are able to make decisions which may be included in national education curricula. about if and when they have children. Demand for Bangladesh, Peru, Indonesia and Zimbabwe were also contraceptives among young people there more than among places to adapt projects to deliver health and doubled in 12 months. rights messages and education digitally. 25 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

We supported 27 sexual and reproductive health camp As part of the Girls’ Advocacy Alliance in Kenya, services in distant parts of Uganda, reaching more than we championed a unified tracking system to count 6,000 young people with HIV testing and treatment, how many girls return to school after leaving due to

post-abortion care and cervical cancer screening. pregnancy. We helped the most vulnerable adolescents our main areas of work in poor parts of the Philippines to make informed As part of building family and community support, choices, in collaboration with the government and programmes backed by the Honduras government Family Planning Organization. enabled 30,951 young women and 35,086 young men to access youth-friendly clinics and learn about adolescent We stepped up work for adolescents in humanitarian pregnancy prevention. settings. In Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi, we worked in partnership with the Ministry of Health to train youth Eliminating harmful practices educators, who helped to inform more than 4,500 young We work to change the attitudes, behaviours and laws people about sexual and reproductive health services. that enable harmful practices like child marriage and Thanks to menstrual health kits and sessions held in FGM. Sudan and Tanzania, some of the most vulnerable girls in host and refugee communities reported improved Our multi-level approach in Burkina Faso showed how personal hygiene. harmful practices are linked to issues like early and unintended pregnancy. We worked with government Influencing laws, policies and budgets and national coalitions; with traditional and religious Our advocacy helped to strengthen global commitments leaders to underline their roles as local change makers; from governments at the International Conference on with schools; with men and boys; and through peer Population and Development in Nairobi. As a result, the education. official “Nairobi Statement” was considerably stronger Our engagement with religious and traditional leaders and clearer on the rights and needs of adolescent girls, in Uganda enabled girls to escape child marriages including younger girls, and on the agency of young and be integrated back into their families. More than people. 50 Ghanaian communities we worked with took action Our sustained influencing work also led to notable to stop child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, and successes towards strengthening laws on harmful recorded no child marriages for the year. In Bangladesh, practices and to more youth-responsive policy we trained 90,000 informal officials, and 7,200 registrars approaches. Such work included a huge campaign in to use an app to stop child marriage. Egypt against FGM – reaching almost 14 million people With local partners, we influenced by-laws to end child on TV and online. This prompted commitments to marriage in Tanzania. Nepal’s Girls’ Advocacy Alliance address critical loopholes in the law criminalising FGM, project advocated for better implementation of existing and a national study to gauge the status of the practice. laws on gender-based violence and child marriage. A two-year campaign in Mozambique against child Building support for girls and young women marriage resulted in a new law setting the minimum age most at risk to marry at 18. Girls and young women who are mothers, pregnant or In Indonesia, we formed a coalition of NGOs that in crisis situations are among those considered most at successfully influenced policy makers and mobilised risk. They are often excluded from education and need public pressure to tighten the law to prevent child specific support. marriage. Evidence-gathering among communities fed directly into shaping national policy. 26 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Early childhood Early childhood development our main areas of work

We want vulnerable and excluded young children, particularly girls, to grow up well cared for and equally valued.

THE WORLD TODAY WORK IN 2020 Early childhood is the most important development We support early childhood development by promoting phase in life. In low-income countries, more than two- all aspects of nurturing care with parents, caregivers, thirds of young children face poor development due communities, service providers and partners. Our to poverty, lack of nurturing care, ill health and poor programmes covered early learning, maternal and nutrition. This jeopardises their chances of entering young children’s health and nutrition, sanitation, and and completing school, learning essential skills and positive parenting – including in emergencies. We becoming healthy, capable adults. COVID-19 has forged new strategic partnerships, as with the Sesame magnified the situation and disproportionately hits the Foundation and the LEGO Foundation, and worked with youngest, most vulnerable children. Global actors have longstanding partners such as Promundo. In response intensified action on early childhood development, to COVID-19, we delivered multi-language parenting particularly on nurturing care, parenting and early support materials alongside food assistance and education. support for play-based learning at home.

€90 MILLION A BETTER START IN LIFE FOR SPENT ON EARLY 4,002,243 CHILDHOOD PROGRAMMES GIRLS 27 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Early childhood

Meet seven-year-old Fadi. In 2016, her family took refuge in a camp in Cameroon to escape Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria. Educating girls is not traditionally seen as important in her community, but her parents were encouraged to send Fadi

to our early childhood care and development our main areas of work centre. Fadi was withdrawn and unhappy. “But one morning, during a colouring lesson, I heard a voice happily singing,” recalls her mother. “When I raised my head, I discovered it was Fadi.” Fadi now attends primary school. Her teacher says, “She is a smart and very sociable child; this shows that she had a good foundation at the centre before coming to us.”

Credit: Plan International

Supporting nurturing care free from gender Globally, we produced the Coping with COVID package bias of support sessions in Spanish, French and English for All our early childhood development work is guided by at-risk adolescents and their parents/caregivers, and the Nurturing Care Framework, launched by the World helped multiple countries to use this resource. Health Organization, UNICEF and other partners in 2018. Protecting the health of mothers and children In Cambodia, we ran comprehensive parenting We work to ensure that young children survive and programmes – covering play and early learning, thrive, even in adversity, by protecting maternal, protection, nutrition and health – that reached 9,000 newborn and child health and nutrition. parents and caregivers (7,743 women) and set up 27 Our flagship SHOW project continued in Bangladesh, village fathers’ groups. Haiti, Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana. This project aims to We actively promoted getting men involved in nurturing strengthen health systems to provide gender responsive care in more than two-thirds of countries where we care; promote women’s empowerment and demand work, including Guatemala, Jordan, Nepal, Paraguay for services; and mobilise men’s positive involvement. and Rwanda. In Ecuador, we used radio, video and Trained health staff in several countries now use gender social media to campaign nationally for behaviour responsive, adolescent-friendly checklists and referral change among men regarding care work, decision- mechanisms. making and non-violence. In Bolivia, we conducted needs assessments in 50 When COVID-19 struck in China, we switched to an health centres to plan adolescent-friendly, gender online parenting course to spread prevention messages responsive services. Our technical support to health and indoor play ideas, reaching 50,000 people. In authorities helped them to keep vital mother and child Bangladesh, we developed videos with Sesame health services going during the pandemic. Workshop for children and families – these were viewed Our work on maternal, infant and young child nutrition digitally 2.7 million times. We supported more than for populations in acute need included a food-for-assets 4,000 families in Vietnam with cash assistance, hygiene programme in South Sudan and on farming high- kits, parenting support meetings, cooking demos and nutrient crops in Benin. We also trained young mothers toy-making sessions. in Peru in “agri-preneurship”. 28 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Early childhood

The Scaling Up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance, which protective equipment, including hygiene kits for families, we host in Laos, reached more than 1 million people behaviour change campaigns, installing hand-washing

via online platforms with guidance on breastfeeding devices, and sharing supplies for schools, health our main areas of work and nutrition related to COVID-19 prevention. We facilities and community spaces, among other actions. also provided food assistance in the pandemic in 11 In many countries, we integrated awareness campaigns countries. on hygiene and infection prevention into early learning activities. In Sudan, where cholera occurs, we helped Improving early learning and stimulation 130 community hygiene promoters to visit 157,628 Our play-based early learning programmes aim to refugee and internally displaced children and their provide safe, stimulating environments for all young families to raise awareness on hygiene. children, laying the foundations for their future education We began a rural project in Ghana with our German and wellbeing. office to reduce morbidity and mortality in children under We trained 1,200 educators in Colombia from public and five, through equitable access to safe water and better private pre-schools, reaching more than 36,000 children. sanitation and hygiene. We ran 161 full-day pre-schools with a local partner in In Venezuela, we rehabilitated water supply and storage India, and 288 community pre-schools in Cambodia. systems for early learning and elementary schools. We Through our support, children with disabilities attended helped to build play spaces in early childhood centres in 27 community-based early childhood centres in Uganda with gender responsive, inclusive latrines and Mozambique and parents of children with disabilities in hand-washing facilities. Nicaragua received local training. We provided early learning for refugee and internally Influencing early childhood policies and displaced children in Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, practice Guinea, Jordan and Nigeria. In Uganda, we supported We build on our strong reputation for early childhood quality, low-cost services in 92 centres, helping more development programming in many countries to than 25,500 Ugandan and South Sudanese refugee influence relevant laws and policies, locally and children. nationally. As pre-schools closed due to COVID-19, we created We contributed to ensuring that Ecuador’s government home-based, play-based materials in several countries included nurturing care and positive parenting in their including Egypt, Indonesia, the Philippines and national bill for early childhood development. As a Cambodia. We adapted a digital learning platform, run member of the Philippine Coalition of Advocates for in partnership with Viamo and World Vision, to support Nutrition Security, we contributed to the passing of the young children’s learning at home in Zimbabwe. First One Thousand Days law in the Philippines – and We led work with Jordan’s government on its remote- later influenced municipal decision makers to implement delivery programme for school readiness – an area that law. where we have expertise through our Accelerated Our influencing led to improved government standards Learning Programmes. and use of tools on child protection in health and education in Bolivia; state-level action on the right Community hygiene and sanitation to play without sexism in Brazil; and early learning We work in communities to promote access to basic standards that will underpin a national early childhood hygiene and sanitation facilities, recognising how these programme in El Salvador. are fundamental for children’s health and nutrition. In Rwanda, where we have long worked to influence the Over 50 country teams ran programmes on water, national early childhood development programme, our sanitation and hygiene. Most targeted the pandemic parenting manual (adapted from Kenya and Uganda) is – through distribution of emergency hygiene and to be used as a national reference guide.

We want vulnerable and excluded children, particularly girls, to grow up free from violence, fear or discrimination and we work with families, communities and governments to end all forms of violence against children.

THE WORLD TODAY WORK IN 2020 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – which We have increased investment and widened marked 30 years in 2019 – enshrines children’s right to programmes to end violence against children, be free from violence. Yet every year at least 1 billion especially girls and children with disabilities. We children still endure violence of some kind – whether in strengthen family and community environments that homes, schools, communities or crises. Girls, children protect children, and change views that see violence with disabilities and those from disadvantaged groups against children as acceptable. We help to improve are disproportionately affected. services for those who have experienced violence, Weakly enforced laws and policies, lack of resources, working in effective partnerships and in humanitarian patchy services and gaps in data are all barriers to settings, and we involve children in protecting ending violence against children. COVID-19 has both themselves. This is especially relevant given the exacerbated and revealed the extent of children’s exponential rise in cases of abuse reported by young vulnerability to abuse, especially at home and online. people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

GENDER-SENSITIVE CHILD PROTECTION IN €101 MILLION CHILD PROTECTION FOR EMERGENCIES PROGRAMMES IN SPENT ON CHILD PROTECTION 5,716,214 GIRLS 54 COUNTRIES 30 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Protection from violence our main areas of work

Meet Kendry, Andris and Roberto from the Dominican Republic. They are involved in the Down to Zero project, which aims to eradicate child sexual exploitation by educating at-risk children to demand change in their communities. These three boys are among 6,000 girls and boys who have been trained to advocate for girls’ rights, raising the subject among their peers and reporting cases to the authorities. “We are a fundamental part of the fight against child sexual exploitation,” says Roberto. “We should get involved and work together with girls to make this a thing of the past.” Credit: Plan International / Fran Afonso

Working with children, youth and families to Strengthening protection services reduce violence at home and in communities We worked throughout the year to strengthen the We involve children and young people directly so capacities and quality of protection services for children they know their rights and how to protect themselves and to improve mechanisms for reporting violence – a while also helping families to build positive, protective need underlined by the impacts of COVID-19. environments. For the second year running, we organised the Cyber The Impact-Elle project in Benin trained girls to Talino Summit in the Philippines on training and participate in their own protection. The issues covered awareness-raising about online threats, uniting young include child marriage, sexual abuse and economic people, teachers and technology giants like Facebook, exploitation. In Egypt, children, including those with Google and Microsoft, reinforced by a webinar series. disabilities, learned through games and art about the We supported official piloting of Myanmar’s first digital values of care and respect, which had positive ripple platform to allow children to directly report cases of effects in their communities. abuse. We invested in developing more child-friendly The Cambalhotas project in Brazil used workshops to reporting mechanisms in India, following programme teach 877 children about preventing different forms of work with street children and those in conflict with the violence, especially gender-based. It also targeted more law. than 600 parents and caregivers to promote protective Increased reporting of abuse during COVID-19 meant environments within families. that we intensified existing work with partners – as in In China, we began piloting the Digital School Bullying Cambodia and Uganda – to set up or strengthen online Prevention project among 4,432 girls and 4,572 boys counselling and toll-free helplines for children to report in 20 project schools in Yunnan province. With school- abuse or to ask for information about the virus. In based violence affecting many children, the project aims Cambodia, Facebook was used for online counselling to improve peer relations and make schools safer. and sharing of psychosocial support messages, as well as sharing a video cartoon to raise awareness of the We oversaw positive discipline training for parents and helpline among children. caregivers in Guatemala to increase acceptance of violence-free child discipline. Participants also learned To strengthen child protection structures, we ran about active parenting, to help distribute household training on skills and global standards in Niger to tasks equitably and involve men in child-raising. ensure providers offer quality psychosocial support 31 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 Protection from violence our main areas of work

services for children, and we collaborated with UNICEF Advancing gender sensitive child protection in and government partners in Sierra Leone on refresher emergencies training for social workers, at national and district levels. We’re investing funds and resources to tailor and improve gender-sensitive child protection services Working with others to end violence against in emergencies through multi-sector and partnership children working. Collaboration at all levels – from grassroots leaders to In Myanmar’s conflict-affected Kachin state, we government and law enforcement officials – helps us to expanded life-saving support services to 34 camps strengthen child protection mechanisms and services. for internally displaced people. Through our activities, A foundation of this is strengthening community-based children can access psychosocial support, age- protection – as in Ghana where a group of progressive appropriate case management and referral services, traditional and religious leaders advocated to end and learn positive coping mechanisms, while caregivers practices like child marriage, after working with us. They and communities gain vital protection skills. then convinced senior local leaders to publicly condemn Some 1,340 young people aged 6 to 17 in Jordan’s child marriage, with the effect of influencing others. Azraq camp have had increased access to protection Dedicated efforts in Indonesia have led to a partnership and psychosocial services, including on gender-based with the House of Grace Foundation for the social violence, thanks to our partnership with the EU’s ECHO rehabilitation and reintegration of young people affected to create a safer environment for vulnerable children. by commercial sexual exploitation. Some small and Our intervention in the Central African Republic provided medium enterprises also campaigned with us to prevent psychosocial support through child-friendly spaces, and and outlaw child sexual exploitation. case management for unaccompanied and separated We worked widely to build police capacity on child children, children in armed groups, and those affected protection risks. In India, police and counsellors by gender-based violence. were trained on child- and gender-friendly reporting, To overcome challenges created by COVID-19, our protection from sexual offences, and improving teams worked with ingenuity and energy to provide understanding of sexual abuse. remote case management, keep children protected Advocacy work included winning the backing of via online sessions, conference calls and child-friendly Cambodia’s prime minister for a national policy on child materials, build capacity of staff and partners through protection systems, helping Vietnam’s government to online platforms, and reach key audiences in distant integrate modules on sexual and gender-based violence regions with radio broadcasts. into its education system, and municipal-level activities to draft and enforce laws on violence against women and children in Bolivia.

We work with partners We partnered with across the world to over over advance children’s rights and equality for girls. 27,600 3,400 934 community non-governmental corporate and private organisations organisations sector institutions

Credit: Griff Tapper Credit: Plan International

The power of learning through play The power of joined-up campaigning Gender inequalities are compounded by crisis An innovative partnership with mineral water supplier Agua – refugee girls have less time to play and enrol Buena is helping Plan International Dominican Republic less frequently in primary education. Along with challenge child marriage and unintended teen pregnancy. a consortium of partners led by the International A joint campaign using branded trucks and billboards Rescue Committee, we joined PlayMatters, a with the message ‘No girl pregnant or married before $100 million dollar project funded by the LEGO 18’, is generating public debate about solutions. “The Foundation bringing learning through play communication campaign helped to create awareness to refugee children in Ethiopia, Uganda and about the issue and recognition for Plan International as Tanzania. “Investing in play-based learning the go-to organisation for girls’ rights among the population interventions is key to addressing toxic stress and and the leader against child marriage and teen pregnancy trauma for young children in refugee settings, as in the country,” said Virginia Saiz, Plan International Country learning through play helps to develop social and Director. emotional skills, builds resilience, and strengthens brain connections,” said John Goodwin, CEO of the LEGO Foundation. Some 800,000 refugee The power of a coalition children will benefit from inclusive education The Adolescent Girls Investment Plan (AGIP) is a partnership opportunities. of civil society organisations, research institutions and foundations, co-chaired by Plan International and Girls Not Brides. It is working with governments to strengthen social, political and financial investment in adolescent girls’ lives. Within the UN’s Generation Equality process, for example, AGIP has convened meetings between leaders and adolescent girls, helping secure a commitment to actions focused on adolescent girls. One young participant in the meetings, said: “Girl and youth-led organisations should support grassroots girls’ and women’s activism because it’s where the true community mobilisation and social change happens and they know the local and national needs of the specific communities.”

Interested in partnering with Plan International? Visit plan-international.org/working-partnership Innovation: bold projects, 23projects big impacts for girls in 14countries Using experimentation and risk to develop new approaches, products and services.

Social media groups supporting girl leaders go global Girls Out Loud supports girls to safely use social media, discuss issues they face and become leaders. From an initial pilot in Colombia, the project, which is easily adapted to local contexts, has been scaled up and is now running in 16 countries, supporting over 5,000 girls. It has been particularly successful during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local lockdowns have restricted girls’ ability to meet in person, but the groups have allowed them to share their experiences and access reliable information. “I learned more about myself, my rights and the things I can do for our community,” said a girl from the Philippines.

Digital platform boosts young activists Setting standards in our push for equality Young women are driving change globally yet under To ensure we achieve our mission to advance 1% of international development funding to support equality for girls we need to develop the ways gender equality goes to women’s organisations. That’s we monitor our impact. To measure the gender why we worked alongside young women to create equality outcomes of our programmes and Equality Accelerator, a digital platform that connects influencing, we’ve launched the Gender Marker. It young activists with flexible funding opportunities, helps us design programmes and identify where technical knowledge and support from their peers. improvements can be made to existing projects. We consulted with young activists to discover where Plan International Germany’s Kirstin Bostelmann they need the most support. Through this research we used the Gender Marker to improve a project identified the areas of greatest need, such as for those on urban safety for girls. She says, “Although campaigning on issues like racial equality, LGBTIQ+ the project was rated highly, the Gender Marker rights and violence against girls and women. An online enabled us to identify that it was not focused tool was designed to target these critical needs and enough on diversity, so we did specific research after first piloting in Brazil and Guatemala it will be and learned from a local organisation experienced rolled out to a wider range of countries. in working with LGBTIQ+ youth.”

Want to learn more about innovation at Plan International? Visit plan-international.org/innovation 34 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020 35 WORLDWIDE ANNUAL REVIEW 2020

2020 financial overview 2020 PROGRAMME EXPENDITURE BY AREA ANNUAL INCOME & ANNUAL SPEND

1,000 €895M €910M uai inusie 900 €850M euaion €833M €361M €810M €368M €910M oun eoe riin ane €358M €869M 800 €352M €363M €838M €806M €800M 700 emerenies

kis an een work 600 eua an roeion rerouie from ioene ea an ris €549M 500 €527M €492M €480M 400 €447M ar ioo eeomen

300 eeomen euaion an sonsorsi ommuniaions 200

100

0 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 total income total spending sponsorship including foreign exchange gains and losses grants & FOR EVERY €1 INVESTED FROM other sources SPONSORSHIP INCOME...

...WE INVEST AN ADDITIONAL €2.08 77 cents FROM GRANTS AND OTHER SOURCES Life-changing programmes for children, FOR EVERY €1 their families and communities WE RECEIVED IN 2020, 13 cents OUR GLOBAL INVESTMENT IN CHILDREN WE SPENT*... on raising funds and attracting new supporters AND THEIR COMMUNITIES 10 cents on activities such as HR, finance and IT systems to make our programme work as efficient and effective as possible. * excluding foreign exchange gains and losses

To see the full financial statements go to: plan-international.org/annualreview To see the full financial statements go to: plan-international.org/annualreview

* excluding foreign exchange gains and losses About Plan International Our global partners We strive to advance children’s rights and equality for girls all over the world. We in 2020 included... recognise the power and potential of every single child. But this is often suppressed • Accenture Tuberculosis and Malaria by poverty, violence, exclusion and • Adecco Group Foundation • Global Partnership for discrimination. And it’s girls who are most • Education Adolescent Girls Investment affected. As an independent development • Plan International Civil Society and humanitarian organisation, we work • AkzoNobel Centre alongside children, young people, our • • Asia Development Bank JPMorgan Chase Foundation supporters and partners to tackle the • • AstraZeneca Kimberly Clark root causes of the challenges facing girls • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation • Latter Day Saints charities and all vulnerable children. We support • Chelsea FC • Lego Foundation children’s rights from birth until they reach • Citi • Microsoft adulthood, and enable children to prepare • Coca-Cola • Mira que Te Miro for and respond to crises and adversity. • Credit Suisse • Monki We drive changes in practice and policy at • Daiichi Sankyo Company • Procter & Gamble local, national and global levels using our Limited • Scotiabank reach, experience and knowledge. For over • ECMIA Continental Network • Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate 80 years we have been building powerful of Indigenous women of the Violence against Women and partnerships for children, and we are active Americas Girls in 75 countries. • Education Cannot Wait • Tui Care Foundation • EQUALS • UN Women • Equal Measures 2030 • UNESCO Plan International • Fondation Botnar • UNFPA Global Hub • Fondation Chanel • UNHCR Dukes Court, Duke Street, Woking, • Geena Davis Institute on • UNICEF Surrey GU21 5BH, United Kingdom • Gender in Media Viacom Tel: +44 (0) 1483 755155 • • Generation Unlimited Women Deliver Fax: +44 (0) 1483 756505 • Girls not Brides • World Food Programme E-mail: [email protected] • The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, plan-international.org

Plan International has obtained permission and the necessary consent to publish the photos contained herein.

facebook.com/planinternational twitter.com/planglobal instagram.com/planinternational linkedin.com/company/plan-international youtube.com/user/planinternationaltv