Every 10 minutes, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence. Pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death and illness for adolescent girls. 65 million girls are out of school. Almost 1,000 young women are newly infected with HIV every day. And more than 13 million girls will become child brides this year alone, according to unicef.org.
This month, UNICEF launches the Girls’ Empowerment Initiative, a platform that mobilizes our extensive partnerships, communications, and advocacy efforts to transform the risks and deprivations adolescent girls face into pathways towards a better life.
UNICEF is proud to have Gucci as a founding partner of the initiative. UNICEF’s Girls’ Empowerment Initiative builds on innovation as a driving force of change for girls, a key principle that underwrites UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan.
Innovation to empower girls, designed with girls in mind. UNICEF is committed to finding, developing, and escalating innovative solutions in the forms of new technologies, models, and ways of thinking towards empowering girls. One of these innovations is U-Report, a social messaging tool that currently has over 1,300,000 female users — called U-Reporters — in 35 countries. The platform is a place for girls to voice their opinions, questions, and concerns, and to engage in conversations on issues that matter to them.
Another innovative program UNICEF supports looks toward quality girls’ education and future employability is the joint UN IT Girls initiative in Bosnia & Herzegovina. IT Girls teaches young girls and women to code so they have the skills and confidence to pursue careers in the high-paying ICT sector.
The Girls’ Empowerment Initiative will expand these and other successes and invest in new, innovative platforms and ideas, including through the 2017 Innovation Gender Challenge which calls for proposals across 190 UNICEF Country Offices.
Empowering adolescent girls and giving them the opportunities they deserve leads to healthier families, strengthened economies, and more equitable societies. It’s not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do as we strive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).