UNICEF and the Graduate Program in International Affairs (GPIA) at The New School will host an international conference on adolescent girls in April 2010. With an emphasis on reviewing existing evidence and policies, the conference will focus on the role and potential agency of adolescent girls in meeting emerging global challenges.
The conference, to be held in New York April 26 through 28 2010 will create a space for engaging debates and peer consultation among UNICEF and UN staff, New School faculty and students, academic and research institutions from across the globe, NGO practitioners, and other external experts and partners from a number of perspectives and disciplines.
Overview
Today there are 1.5 billion young people aged 12-24 in the world; within that cohort 600 million are adolescent girls. However, many of these girls remain invisible to policy makers and in programme development. Their full potential has yet to be seen. The opportunities they have in the coming years will shape their lives, families, and nations. If educated, skilled, and empowered, they play a key role in building healthy families, communities, governments and economies in those countries.
Recent years have seen a growing interest and recognition of adolescent girls as a strategic group in addressing poverty alleviation and gender equality. The promotion of their rights is critical in supporting social justice and building inclusive societies. While the experiences gained, through programmes in promoting protective environments in schools, working to eliminate harmful traditional practices, and addressing sexual abuse have changed the lives of millions of girls, and provided valuable insights, there has not yet been sufficient empirical evidence or knowledge generated to drive effective and innovative policies, in particular around emerging development issues. Even as these remain critical concerns, there is a need for a broader conceptual framework that will expand beyond issues related to reproductive health.
General Conference Objectives
Positioning adolescent girls at the center of the research and policy agenda, the general objectives of the conference will be to:
Consider the gendered impact of the following four major development challenges: demographic trends, the global economic crises, the impact of climate change, and the use of new information and communication technology (ICT); and explore both the risks and opportunities they represent to adolescent girls;
Review existing policies affecting adolescent girls, with the aim of identifying effective approaches;
Showcase lessons learned as well as opportunities for addressing knowledge gaps;
Provide a platform for mobilizing partnerships towards advocacy efforts around the gender and human rights agenda.
Guiding Considerations for Papers
The conference organizers welcome papers with new theoretical insights and empirical evidence related but not limited to the following themes. Papers should focus on upstream policy work in a national, regional or international context, rather than small-scale projects.
1. Building Evidence: Adolescent Girls Facing Personal Changes and Global Stresses
How can rigorous systems for monitoring adolescent girls’ rights and social inclusion be developed? In particular, how are existing data collection mechanisms such as MICS, DHS and other national surveys capturing adolescent girls’ issues? What important information is missing in these surveys?
How can participatory and quantitative research methodologies be combined to effectively increase our understanding of discrimination and social exclusion as experienced by adolescent girls? How can such research inform social and fiscal policies aimed at addressing these inequalities?
What evidence is available to demonstrate the extent to which climate change, economic crisis or use of technology further exacerbates the marginalization of adolescent girls (this could include the impact of migration, economic insecurity, challenges to health and wellbeing, gendered access and use of ICT, etc)?
What are gender socialization trends in adolescence, and how do dynamics of families, societies and institutions create and perpetuate discrimination against adolescent girls?
2. Promoting Effective Policies: Empowerment and Rights Realization of Adolescent Girls
Based on past crises, what models can be constructed to predict and anticipate the impact of economic or climate change-related shocks, urbanization and migration on adolescent girls? How can such models take into account changing experiences of girls based on life stage? How can they be used to develop interventions that reduce risks for adolescent girls?
How do national development processes and policies include or exclude adolescent girls?
What budgetary and policy guidelines are needed to ensure that national development strategies are genuinely inclusive and supportive of adolescent girls?
How can the interpretation and application of national and international legal institutional frameworks (i.e. the CRC, CEDAW, the MDGs) be strengthened and supported to address the issues that affect adolescent girls, including harmful practices?
What opportunities do ICT technologies and projects provide for adolescent girls? How do they experience ICT access and use?
How can men and boys contribute to empowering adolescent girls?
Process and Timeline
Abstract Submission: Abstracts (max 500 words, in English) and a brief CV should be submitted to the selection committee by February 7th, 2010. Submissions should be sent to Louise Moreira Daniels, Conference Coordinator, at adolescentgirlsconference2010@yahoo.com Abstracts should contain a title, paper description, author name and affiliation, and specify which of the topical areas listed above the paper will most directly address Papers from a variety of disciplinary and/or interdisciplinary perspectives are appropriate.
Request for Full Papers: An advisory panel composed of members of UNICEF, GPIA, and external recognized experts will review submitted abstracts and request full papers from approximately 20 authors. Applicants will be notified by March 1st, 2010 whether their submission was accepted Final papers should be submitted by April 9, 2010; these should be a maximum of 25 pages in length (double-spaced, Georgia 12pt)
Only a limited amount of resources will be available for travel for some authors of selected paper. It is expected that participants will be funded by their own organizations.
Structure of the Conference
The 2010 conference will be held on a period of two and half days. Based on the areas of focus mentioned above, the following contributions will drive the discussion:
Presentation of selected papers from this international call for papers
Expert discussants and commentators
Panels
Contacts
Alberto Minujin,
Conference Director, The New School, minujina@newschool.edu
Louise Moreira Daniels
Conference Coordinator, The New School, adolescentgirlsconference2010@yahoo.com
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