250 MILLION ADOLESCENT GIRLS LIVE IN POVERTYTHEY ARE THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE FOR CHANGE ON THE PLANET

Girls can play a crucial role in solving the most persistent development problems we face in the world today.

When we include girls in education, health and economic investment we have a better chance of preventing issues such as child marriage, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and breaking the inter-generational cycle of poverty. But girls can't do it alone; they need the world to listen to them and invest in their potential.

What exactly is the girl effect?

The girl effect is a movement. It's about leveraging the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves, their families, their communities, their countries and the world. It's about making girls visible and changing their social and economic dynamics by providing them with specific, powerful and relevant resources.

Created by the Nike Foundation in collaboration with the NoVo Foundation, United Nations Foundation and Coalition for Adolescent Girls, the girl effect is fuelled by hundreds of thousands of girl champions who recognise the untapped potential of adolescent girls living in poverty.

How does the girl effect address poverty?

In India, adolescent pregnancy results in nearly $10billion in lost potential income per year.
In Uganda, 85 per cent of girls leave school early, resulting in $10billion in lost potential earnings.
By delaying child marriage and early birth for one million girls in Bangladesh, the country could potentially add $69billion to the national income over these girls' lifetimes.

It's an investment we cannot afford to overlook.

Sounds great - what can I do?

Make the case for girls. We need more people to get the word out, and we need more advocates for change in government, business, healthcare, education and at grassroots level. This is where you come in.

This is your site

This is how you can use it

Here on girleffect.org you'll find the information and tools you need to unleash the girl effect. You'll discover case studies that show the girl effect in action, plus toolkits, images, videos and insights documents to download and use in your own work. And this is just the start.  Take our content. Use it. Share it. Join the movement. Change the world.

Q. WHAT IS THE GIRL EFFECT?: A. The girl effect is a movement. It’s about the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world. It’s about getting girls on to the global development stage and driving massive resources to them.

The girl effect launched in 2008 accompanied by a film that caught the imagination of people the world over. The message of these films remains the same. Watch them and get the simple case for supporting girls here.

Girleffect.org exists to help development practitioners and the wider girl effect community continue to make a powerful case for supporting girls, and to equip them to do the best work with and for girls. Explore the site and you’ll find a whole range of tools and resources ready for you to use.
Q. WHO IS BEHIND THE GIRL EFFECT?: A. Created by the Nike Foundation, in collaboration with the NoVo Foundation, United Nations Foundation and Coalition for Adolescent Girls, the girl effect is driven by hundreds of thousands of supporters who believe in the potential of 250 million adolescent girls living in poverty.

Girleffect.org is managed by the Nike Foundation.

Here you’ll find plenty of data you need to support the case for investing in, and developing programmes for, girls. You’ll discover case studies to show the girl effect in action, toolkits, images, videos and insights to download and use in your own programmes.

More information on the Nike Foundation
Q. WHAT IS GIRL HUB?: A. Girl Hub is a strategic collaboration between the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and Nike Foundation. We work in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Rwanda to create programmes for girls, with girls.

Find out more about Girl Hub here.
Q. WHY GIRLS? WHY NOT BOYS TOO?: A. The girl effect exists to help everyone, and everyone includes boys. Better lives for girls mean better lives for everyone in their communities - their brothers, fathers, future husbands and sons. When you improve a girl’s life through education, health, safety and opportunity, these changes have a positive ripple effect. As an educated mother, an active, productive citizen and a prepared employee, she is the most influential force in her community to break the cycle of poverty.

It has been shown that an educated girl will reinvest 90 per cent of her future income in her family, compared with 35 per cent for a boy. And yet 250 million adolescent girls live in poverty and are more likely than boys to be uneducated, to be married at a young age, and to be exposed to HIV/AIDS. Today, less than two cents of every international development dollar goes to girls – the very people who could do the most to end poverty. As long as girls remain invisible, the world misses out on a tremendous opportunity for change.
Q. I’M ON BOARD. WHAT SHOULD I DO?: A. Hundreds of thousands of amazing people and organisations across the globe are getting involved to put girls on the global development agenda.  

Adolescent girls have the unique potential to stop poverty before it starts – but they need your help. They need information, healthcare and education. They need laws to change, money in their pockets and their communities and governments to realise their true value.

  To keep girls on the global agenda and ensure massive resources get to them, we need your help, passion and energy to spread the word.   

If you’re a policy player: we ask that you recognise the potential of adolescent girls and help to make girls a priority on the global development agenda. You’re not on your own – we’re here to help you do it. Need the economic facts? Check out the girl effect factsheet. Need case studies to prove the point? Take a tour – we’ve got them. Need to know the current state of girl data? Take a look at the gaps on the global data maps.

If you’re an NGO: bring girls to the centre of your programming. We’re giving you toolkits, insights and contacts to make it easier for you to involve girls in programmes every step of the way. And if what you need isn’t here – let us know. We’ll go after the information.

If you’re a teacher: bring the girl effect to the classroom with videos, presentations and our factsheet. Inspire a new generation of supporters for the girl effect.

  If you have money: donate to a project that’s unleashing the girl effect through the Girl Effect Fund on GlobalGiving.org.

If you have a month: start a girl effect movement of your own. Throw a gala, host a basketball game, assemble a community group or plan a film festival. Set a goal – whether it’s raising $10K or demanding your local government begins supporting the rights of girls globally – and start working towards it. Then pick the project your hard work will support from a list of organisations championed by Girl Effect Fund via GlobalGiving.org.

  If you have a day: volunteer with an organisation that supports girls in your local community.

  If you have a minute: tell one person about the power of investing in adolescent girls and dare them to do the same. Share something you’ve seen on the site. Get people talking.

 If you’re a social networker: use your network to create momentum and connect with other girl effect supporters. See the share icons on everything on the site? Use them. Get people talking about the girl effect. Got a way with words? Write a blog post. We’ll give you plenty to talk about. Follow the Girl Effect on Facebook or join our conversation on Twitter for the latest news. The opportunities to connect and spread the word are endless, and you never know the impact it could make.
Q. I LOVE THIS WEBSITE. WHO CREATED IT?: A. Girleffect.org was created by Nike Foundation in collaboration with Public Zone.

Content is created with partners from the girl effect community representing a range of sectors; these include international development agencies, grass-roots organisations, and experts in the technology, data and creative industries.
Q. I WANT TO GET SOMETHING FEATURED ON GIRLEFFECT.ORG. HOW DO I DO THAT?: A. We want to hear from you. The girleffect.org can only grow in collaboration with you, so if you have suggestions for content, examples of case studies that show the girl effect in action or you know where there’s a gap that the development industry needs to address to deliver for girls, email us and let us know. You can contact the Editor at info@girleffect.org.
Q. I LOVE YOUR CONTENT. CAN I USE IT?: A. YES. We want you to. In fact we NEED you to. We’ve created it for you to take, share and use. All the assets on the site can be downloaded directly, saved to your personal folder, or shared to your colleagues and friends. There’s one ‘but’: content can only be used in non-commercial activities. This means you can share the video at a conference you’re hosting, print off and use our toolkits, stick a logo or photo on a T-shirt, put an info-graphic in a PowerPoint, or use the factsheet in a handout – but only if you’re not charging a fee and not making money from it. (See our Terms of Use for additional details.) Please reference girleffect.org when you use our content.

The Consolée video was made by Betsy Works.
Q. I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS. WHO MADE THEM?: A. The Nike Foundation created them with the help of some amazing contributors:

The girl effect video was produced by Wieden+Kennedy Portland and directed by man vs. magnet in association with the production company Curious Pictures. The music in the video is by Elias Arts.

The girl effect: The Clock is Ticking video was also produced by Wieden+Kennedy Portland and scored by Elias Arts in association with the animation company Nexus Productions.

The Consolée video was made by Betsy Works.
Q. I WANT TO DONATE, BUT WHERE DOES MY MONEY GO?: A. Donations to the girl effect are collected through the GlobalGiving Foundation and distributed to a select number of innovative programmes working to empower teenage girls living in poverty.

Online donations to the girl effect can be made by giving directly to the Girl Effect Fund, which will distribute your donation equally among a select group of girl-focused projects that are actively unleashing the girl effect around the globe. Or you could choose to donate to one specific project.

Current projects include a girls’ school in Kenya, a soccer programme in Nicaragua, job training in Sri Lanka and health services for girls in Afghanistan.

There’s also the option of donating to the Girl Effect Fund by cheque. Cheques should be made payable to The GlobalGiving Foundation and the project ID should be written in the memo field. The project ID for the Girl Effect Fund is 2150.

Mail all cheques to:
ADDRESS TO APPEAR ON INDIVIDUAL LINES The GlobalGiving Foundation
1023 15th Street, NW, 12th Floor
Washington, DC 20005.

After making a donation, GlobalGiving will keep you up to date with how your donation has been used, as well as progress on the projects, so you can see the real-life impact of your money.

If you still have questions, GlobalGiving is happy to provide you with more information about how funding is used. Or, if you opt to donate to a specific organisation, you can get in touch with them directly through the contact listed on their GlobalGiving page.
Q. THIS IS MY DREAM. HOW CAN I APPLY FOR A JOB WITH THE GIRL EFFECT?: A. The girl effect is a movement, so we don’t have any employees. You can contact one of the many organisations working directly with girls that do.
Q. EVERYTHING IS IN ENGLISH – WILL YOU HAVE TRANSLATIONS AVAILABLE? CAN I TRANSLATE THE CONTENT TO SHARE WITH MY PEERS?: A. We’re considering the best ways to refine our tools in the future, including translations. Two of our videos, The Girl Effect and The Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking, are currently available in 10 languages (subtitled) and we’re looking to add language options to our other assets. If you need help finding the films, drop us a line.

In the meantime, you are welcome to translate girl effect material, as long as it is for non-commercial use and does not violate our Terms of Use.

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