Report: Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2014 – Pathways to Power: Creating Sustainable Change for Adolescent Girls
Plan International
October 2014 ::: 202 pages
Full report pdf: http://plan-international.org/files/global/publications/campaigns/biaag-full-report-2014-english.pdf

This is the eighth in the annual ‘Because I am a Girl’ report series, published by Plan, which assesses the current state of the world’s girls. While women and children are recognised in policy and planning, girls’ needs and rights are often ignored. The reports provide evidence, including the voices of girls themselves, as to why they need to be treated differently from boys and adult women. They also use information from primary research, in particular a small study set up in 2006 following 142 girls from nine countries. Past reports have covered education, conflict, economic empowerment, cities and technology, adolescent girls and
disasters and how boys and young men can support gender equality.

[Excerpt]
Girls’ lives – a brief review in numbers p.18
Changes for the better
:: More girls are going to primary school – In 2000 there were only 92 girls in school for every 100 boys; by 2011, this had increased to 97 girls for every 100 boys.21,22

:: 51 per cent of women above the age of 15 are participating in the labour force (in comparison to 77 per cent of men). This varies considerably from country to country – from as low as 22 per cent in the Middle East and North Africa to roughly 65 per cent in East Asia and the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa.23

:: 125 countries currently have constitutional, electoral or political party quotas to improve women’s participation (as of March 2014).24

:: A raft of legislation is in place to support women’s rights at both international and national levels. For example, the number of states with specific legislation to combat domestic violence increased to 76 by 2014.25

:: In Africa and the Middle East, 25 countries have prohibited Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by law or constitutional decree.26 In 29 developing countries with a history of practising FGM – including Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone – 25 now have laws or decrees aimed at targeting those who perpetrate the practice.

What still needs to change
:: While the Millennium Development Goals have been successful in getting more girls into primary education, many countries will still not have reached gender parity. It is projected that 75 per cent of countries will have achieved parity in primary education by 2015, but only 56 per cent in lower secondary education.27 There are 65 million girls out of school, nearly one in five adolescent girls.28, 29

:: There is no country in the world where women and men have equal opportunities, equal pay or equal distribution of assets.30

:: Globally, women make up only 21.9 per cent of parliamentarians.31 In February 2014, there were 19 female world leaders in power.32

:: On average, women hold only 15 per cent of land titles; 86 out of 121 countries still have discriminatory inheritance laws or practices.33, 34

:: Across the world, over a third of women will experience gender-based violence from an intimate partner.35

:: Son preference continues to prevail. In many countries, more boys than girls are born and more survive. In China, figures published by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that in 2011, there were 118 boys born for every 100 girls – one of the highest imbalances ever recorded in a country.36

:: One in five women still has an unmet need for family planning.37

:: Domestic work remains largely the provenance of women and girls, often on top of full-time paid work.38

:: One in three girls in the developing world will be married by her 18th birthday.39 If nothing is done to stop current trends, more than 140 million girls will be married as children by 2020. That is 14 million every year or nearly 39,000 girls married every day.40

:: Complications in pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of mortality for girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries.41 Infant deaths are 50 per cent higher among babies born to mothers under 20 than among those born to women in their twenties.42