The
United Nations Foundation works
to reorient the global development
agenda to prioritize adolescent
girls, particularly the most marginalized
and vulnerable, in low- and middle-income
countries of the world through campaigns,
partnerships, and advocacy.
In particular, the UN Foundation
focuses on the following:
1. Increasing resources
and political commitment
to addressing the needs of adolescent
girls, particularly the most marginalized
and vulnerable, from governments,
UN agencies, and other private donors;
2. Increasing Global South
government actions to address
the particular disadvantages affecting
adolescent girls in their countries;
3. Enhancing international
legal and policy protections
for adolescent girls; and
4. Engaging youth,
particularly young women in higher
income countries, on the urgent
need to improve the lives and health
of adolescent girls.
Seven issues are of critical importance
in our advocacy work on adolescent
girls:
• Reproductive and sexual
health, including HIV, fistula and
FGM/C;
• Child marriage;
• Economic opportunities;
• Education;
• Rape and coerced sexual
contact; and
• Status in the family.
The UN Foundation has to date invested
more than $42 million in programs
devoted to advancing the needs of
adolescent girls, working with key
UN agencies – the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA), the Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), and the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in
particular – to build the
UN’s institutional capacity
and priority for advancing the interests
of adolescent girls. Working together,
some key progress has been achieved:
• UNICEF has broadened its
program beyond infants and young
children and established an adolescent
unit. In addition, every UNICEF
country office now has a plan for
addressing adolescent issues;
• Every UNFPA country office
in Sub-Saharan Africa now has a
youth program, many of which are
closely linked to HIV/AIDS prevention;
• A new UN Inter-Agency Task
Force on Adolescent Girls has been
created to help ensure that there
are comprehensive program guidelines
for adolescent girls in all country
development plans.
Established in 2006, the Coalition
for Adolescent Girls is a public-private
partnership between UNF, Nike Foundation,
and over 30 leading international
organizations, including six UN
agencies, that advocates for elevating
adolescent girls to the top of the
international development agenda.
UNF’s participation in the
Coalition for Adolescent Girls is
an important piece of its global
advocacy strategy aimed at elevating
adolescent girls on the global development
agenda through campaigns, partnerships,
and advocacy.
Based on an empirical evidence base
and investment prospectus developed
specifically for the Coalition,
the Coalition works to promote investment
of governments, civil society, and
the private sector in girls’
education, economic opportunity,
health and protection, and ending
child marriage as a way to end poverty.
On January
14, 2007, the Center for Global
Development released Girls Count:
A Global Investment & Action
Agenda which resulted from a collaboration
involving numerous CAG partners,
including CGD, the International
Center for Research on Women (ICRW),
the Population Council, the Nike
Foundation and UNF.
