1
Abuja Conference
April 2008
Margaret Greene, Laura Cardinal,
Eve Goldstein-Siegel, Saranga Jain
Karin Ringheim, Alison Gold
Girls’ Aspirations:
What Are They and How Can They
Inform Programs and Policies for Girls?
2
Girls Count report
A GLOBAL INVESTMENT AND ACTION AGENDA
Ruth Levine, Center for Global Development
Cynthia Lloyd, Population Council
Margaret Greene, International Center for Research on Women
Caren Grown, American University
Too many girls are……
uneducated
unhealthy
BBC
HOW ARE WE FAILING GIRLS?
invisible
3
Where do we go from here to help
every girl count in development?
Why Should We Care
About Girls’ Aspirations?
We the children are experts on being 8, 12, or 17 years old
in the societies of today…To consult us would make your
work more effective and give better results for children. My
proposal is that you make us part of your team.
- Heidi Grande, 17 years old, Norway
• Girls’ aspirations have formally been
recognized as important
• Commitment to participation should apply to
girls, too.
• Understanding girls’ aspirations
likely to improve programs
4
How have girls’ aspirations
been documented?
Poorly.
• Not prioritized as a research topic
• Some qualitative data; Need more
quantitative data
• Existing research not well integrated
with program design
Methodology
• Review of published and unpublished surveys,
anthropological studies, peer-reviewed articles
and programmatic reports.
• In-depth qualitative interviews and FGDs with
girls, boys and their parents, collected mostly by
ICRW and its research partners in South Asia, by
AGI in Sub-Saharan Africa, and by others in East
Asia and the Pacific.
We know that…
5
Girls want…
Education
If only I can get educated I will surely be the president.
-18 year old girl, Malawi
I would like to have a good future, go to the University and get a
good job.
-17 year old girl, Uganda
I myself have studied up to 9th standard and then
discontinued. There is no high school in my village and I was
not allowed to go out of the village to s