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Because I Am a Girl: in the Shadow Of

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Because I Am a Girl: in the Shadow Of “…to discriminate against girls is not only morally indefensible, it is also a Girl I am Because economically, politically and socially unsupportable. Nowhere is this more crucial than in societies that are unstable or in countries that are emerging from conflict, where to ignore a substantial proportion of the population makes little sense. This report, the second in a series of nine on girls’ rights, makes an important contribution to the calls for increased global momentum around the world’s commitment to halve world poverty through the Millennium Development Goals. Without gender equality, these goals simply cannot be met. In addition, the report gives voice to the millions of girls who live every day in the shadow of war. I therefore welcome Plan’s urgent call for the world to take girls and young women into account.” Graça Machel President of the Foundation for Community Development THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S GIRLS 2008 Chair of the GAVI Fund Board “I believe that securing the future for our girls is critical to achieving national development. The popular saying, “when you educate a man you feed his family but when you educate a girl, you educate a nation” is profound. Making a positive change to the state of the world’s girls through educational and economic opportunities will lead to a decline in poverty around the world. Post-conflict environments present opportunities for change but also consist of all of the variables that fuel the cycle of extreme poverty. The key is taking action NOW to make a difference to the lives of millions of girls around the world.” Ellen Johnson Sirleaf President, Liberia Because I am a Girl THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S GIRLS 2008 ISBN: 978-0-9550479-4-7 Special Focus: In the Shadow of War FRONT COVER PHOTOGRAPH: REUTERS / JOSE MIGUEL GOMEZ, courtesy www.alertnet.org Because I am a Girl THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S GIRLS 2008 Special Focus: In the Shadow of War Because I am a Girl a am I Because Special Focus: In the Shadow of War of Shadow the In Focus: Special THE STATE OF THE WORLD’ THE OF STATE THE S GIRL S 2008 MAIN PHOTO: DAVid RosE/ Panos PICTURES ABOVE, FIRST ROW: JENNY MATTHEWS; ALF BErg; REUTErs/ StringER (SRI LANKA), courtesy www.alertnet.org; ADAM HINTON; REUTErs/ RadU SighEti, courtesy www.alertnet.org ABOVE, SECOND ROW: ANNIE HESLOP; ALF BERG; REUTErs/ RadU SighEti, courtesy www.alertnet.org; Tim A. HEthErington/ Panos PICTURES Acknowledgements The report was made possible with the advice and contributions of many people and organisations. Advisory Panel Christine Allison – Plan (UK) Lesley Bulman-Lever – formerly of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Dr Steve Commins – UCLA, USA Professor Elisabeth Croll, SOAS, University of London, UK Nazneen Damji – UNIFEM Sir Richard Jolly – Institute of Development Studies. University of Sussex, UK Dr Jackie Kirk – McGill University, Canada Professor Pauline Otti – University of Jos, Nigeria (retired) and consultant to the UN Professor Lucero Quiroga – Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), Dominican Republic Caroline Moser – Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK Rekha Rajkumar – previously with Plan India Gita Sahgal – Amnesty International Marie Staunton – Plan (UK) Dr Anja Stuckert – Plan (Germany) Dr Abiola Tilley-Gyado – Plan (Strategic Framework for Africa) Ann-Kristin Vervik – Plan (Norway) Input was also received from: Judy El-Bushra (International Alert), Erica Hall (Children’s Legal Centre at University of Essex), Professor Geraldine Van Bueren, Laura Hammond (SOAS), Beth Woroniuk (Gender and Peacebuilding Working Group of the Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee/Independent Consultant), Save the Children, World Vision and World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Thank you to UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR and UNAIDS for use of data in Section 2. Steering Group – Plan Jennifer Adams; Amarech Ashenafi; Stefanie Conrad; Josef de Cosas; Sharon Goulds; Deepali Khanna; Tiina-Maria Levamo; Rob MacGillivray; Rosemary McCarney; Raul Rodriguez; Amanda Sussman; Hellen Tombo; Hoa-Phuong Tran; Alasdair Unwin; Gary Walker; Afroze Zinnat Plan offices who contributed were: Plan Benin, Plan Brazil, Plan Cambodia, Plan Dominican Republic, Plan El Salvador, Plan Haiti, Plan Liberia, Plan Pakistan, Plan Philippines, Plan Sierra Leone, Plan Timor-Leste, Plan Togo, Plan Uganda, and Plan Vietnam. Principal Writer Nikki van der Gaag Team Project Manager: Feyi Rodway Senior Manager, Plan: Sharon Goulds Gender Adviser: Sarah Hendriks Global Research: Keshet Bachan, Amy Joyce, Caroline McCarthy-Garcia Country Profiles: Louisa Waugh Picture Research: Simone Schneider Front cover photo: A girl displaced by Colombian violence stands during a sunset in her neighbourhood in Barranquilla, seen in this picture taken on May 11, 2005. Reuters/ Jose Miguel Gomez, courtesy www.alertnet.org Special thanks to the girls and young women from across the world who took part in the focus group discussions and to the families who have agreed to be part of the cohort study. Printed by Amadeus, Italy on recycled paper ISBN: 978-0-9550479-4-7 Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is accurate at the time of going to press, Plan cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies. The commentary and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the official policy of Plan UK or of Plan. Parts of this publication may be copied for use in research, advocacy and education, providing the source is acknowledged. This publication may not be reproduced for other purposes without the prior permission of Plan UK. Unless otherwise indicated, names have been changed in case studies to protect identities. “The change will start with myself…to be united I have to start with my friends……we have to work together.” Maram (17), West Bank “I think girls should launch a revolution to obtain the real changes they have been expecting. Lawmakers should contribute accordingly.” Amédée (19), Haiti OP L S E H E ANNI REUTErs/ StringER (SRI LANKA), courtesy www.alertnet.org camp in Sri A family from arefugee L anka. This report is dedicated to the 200 million girls and young women living in the shadow of war and published in memory of two people who inspired the State of the World’s Girls reports - Professor Elisabeth Croll, Chair of the United Nations University Council, Vice Principal School of Oriental and African Studies, and pioneering anthropologist who shaped the focus of the report series, and Lord Deedes, journalist, politician, soldier, and feminist whose belief that investing in girls and empowering women is necessary for countries to recover from war, build prosperity and prevent further conflict inspired this volume. Contents Section 1 Section 2 Preface by Graça Machel. 8 Chapter 1 An Agenda for Action: In peace as in war: the Because I am a Girl Campaign 145 Foreword by President price of instability for girls. 26 Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia. 10 Voices from the Update: Recent National Frontline: Haiti. 37 Legislation on Girls’ Rights. 146 Introduction . .12 Chapter 2 Update: Because We are Caught in the crossfire: Girls – Cohort Study. 150 conflict . .42 Voices from the Table 1: Basic Indicators Frontline: Liberia . 70 on Gender. 154 Chapter 3 Table 2: Basic Indicators War is not over with on Girls’ Education. .164 the last bullet. 76 Voices from the Table 3: Maternal Mortality Frontline: Timor-Leste. 107 in Selected Countries. .174 Chapter 4 Table 4: HIV Infection Rates Working hand in hand: in Selected Countries. .176 conclusion and recommendations. 112 Table 5: Refugee Girls. 177 Policy Recommendations. 120 Legal Opinion: The legal Glossary . 178 system for protecting girls affected by armed conflict. .123 For further information Convention on the on girls’ rights. .180 Rights of the Child. 128 Plan International Offices . 183 References . 134 Preface The public images of war focus almost missing out on school and growing up exclusively on young men – armed forces, with limited opportunities. It is also the suicide bombers, young men throwing story of displacement, loss of childhood, stones at soldiers. The fact that girls early marriage and giving birth without remain invisible casts a long shadow on access to medical care. Once war is over, their involvement in war, particularly as the potential of girls and young women the changing nature of war and conflict to help rebuild their broken communities means that increasingly, civilians are and societies is, more often than not, affected as war is played out closer overlooked. to people’s homes. The numbers of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 civilians killed or injured in war has risen is one of a number of human rights astronomically in the last century. There instruments aimed at protecting and are now more than 200 million girls living promoting the rights of women and of in countries that are either at risk of, in the children. It calls for the rights of women midst of or emerging from armed conflict and girls in armed conflict to be protected but rarely do we hear stories of how they and for their active participation in conflict experience war. prevention, peace processes and post- Girls and young women have unique conflict reconstruction. Sadly, this is often experiences of armed conflict because of not the reality experienced by girls and their age and overwhelmingly because of young women in conflict. As I highlighted their gender. a year ago, to discriminate against girls The story of girls and conflict is not is not only morally indefensible, it is also limited to the horrific sexual violence and economically, politically and socially exploitation they can be exposed to in times unsupportable. Nowhere is this more of insecurity. It is a story of girls taking crucial than in societies that are unstable on responsibility for whole households, or in countries that are emerging from 8 THE state OF the woRld’S GIRls society, governments, and the international community must utilise the opportunities presented during post-conflict renewal to develop policies and programmes that address the experience of girls and young conflict, where to ignore a substantial women affected by conflict.
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