The Girl Effect

The World Bank has shown that countries that invest in promoting the social and economic status of women tend to have lower poverty rates. Today, October 4th 2011, I am joining bloggers around the world blogging about the Girl Effect

The Girl Effect is a movement of people who believe in the unique and indisputable potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.

I know I’m “preaching to the choir” here on WorldPulse but here’s some statistics that every change maker should know.

When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.
(Chris Fortson, “Women’s Rights Vital for Developing World,” Yale News Daily 2003.)

Out of the world’s 130 million out-of-school youth, 70 percent are girls.
(Human Rights Watch, “Promises Broken: An Assessment of Children’s Rights on the 10th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/promises/education.html [December 1999]

Approximately one-quarter of girls in developing countries are not in school.
(Cynthia B. Lloyd, ed., Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries [Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2005].)

One-quarter to one-half of girls in developing countries become mothers before age 18; 14 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth in developing countries each year.
(United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 2005, www.unfpa.org/swp/2005.)

If you haven’t already seen it, you must watch the Girl Effect video.

Follow @girleffect on twitter or find them on facebook http://www.facebook.com/girleffect

Share this with the world and give girls and women the chance to lift themselves out of poverty.