Adolescent Girls - Time for Partnership and Joint Action

“Extremely important,” “groundbreaking,” and “inspirational” – those are the comments made most often by participants in the 5th Annual International Conference organized by The New School’s Graduate Program in International Affairs (GPIA) and UNICEF.  This year’s program: Adolescent Girls - Cornerstone of Society: Building Evidence and Policies for Inclusive Societies brought together 400 scholars, researchers, and practitioners from more than 30 countries around the world, whose common goal is raising awareness for equality and empowerment of adolescent girls.  The three-day event, held April 26-28, 2010 on The New School campus in Greenwich Village, raised hopes for the outcomes of strengthened partnerships and joint action toward social transformation.  The conference emphasized improving the lives of adolescent girls and creating opportunities for them to fully participate as equal members of society.

During the conference, we came together as individuals and shared something strong and meaningful. For three days, we talked and worked and discussed the themes as a team. We walked out of the conference and went our separate ways again.  But we did so with a greater sense of the power of ideas and networking that help us move forward the policy agenda for adolescent girls around the world.

Conference participants included experts from UNICEF, CARE International, Population Council and the UN Foundation as well as experts on CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women) and the CRC  (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child).

 Key topics included the discrimination and exclusion of adolescent girls.  Elizabeth Gibbons, Deputy Director of Policy and Practice at UNICEF, explained that adolescent girls face inequality and marginalization that renders them neglected and invisible. Many girls are exposed to gender discrimination within their families and schools, she reported.  They are excluded often from education and sometimes face inadequate protection in their own households.  

Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, opened the conference by emphasizing that issues of dignity and rights are more interconnected in the case of adolescent girls than for any other group.

Other practitioners such as Richard Olson from UNICEF’s East and Southern Africa Regional Office in Johannesburg spoke about the risks and vulnerability of adolescent girls living in countries with a high prevalence of HIV.  Even girls who are educated and live in wealthy homes – not just those who are marginalized – may be at risk of contracting HIV.  Carol Gilligan, University Professor of New York University, addressed safe spaces for girls.  Marginalized adolescent girls lack the opportunities to express their voices, she explained, and they need safe space where they can live without fear of violence and harassment.  

Conference members brought up the importance of access to technological innovations in order to empower adolescent girls.  Olena Sakovych, Development Officer at the UNICEF office in Ukraine, explained that mobile phones provided to adolescent sex workers serve as an important communication and consultation tool.  They also create opportunities for social networking.

Several panelists provided examples of gender inequality and asserted that continuous research and debate are required in order to successfully build a society of rights for adolescent girls.  Attendees advocated a stronger body of evidence and data.  

Keynote speaker Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist and author of “Half the Sky: Turning oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” with his wife Sheryl WuDunn, spoke dedicatedly about his knowledge of adolescent girls around the world who face discrimination and harassment.  He emphasized that it is our moral obligation to support and invest in advocacy for the empowerment of girls.   

In final remarks, Richard Morgan, Director of Division of Policy and Practice at UNICEF, said: “Our hope for this conference really was to come out inspired to deepen our advocacy, design policy, and programs based on evidence rather than assumptions, and to stimulate research that puts girls at the center of the agenda.  We in UNICEF look forward to a continuing dialogue with you after we leave The New School today, so that adolescent girls truly do become the cornerstone of society.”
All the conference papers and presentations, as well as videos of interviews and the keynote speeches, are published on www.equityforchildren.org.