Daily TribuneOn a global scale, the report revealed that 95 percent of surveyed girl advocates found campaigning to have a positive impact on their lives, fostering pride, empowerment and a sense of capability
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Cathy Seco, Plan International Pilipinas’ program director, sets the context behind the experiences of Filipino girls and young women in advocacy and campaigning, the challenges they face and experiences in engaging with the government. (PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF PLAN INTERNATIONAL PILIPINAS)
Transformative outcomes have been achieved by girls in their campaign for change, but they continue to face persistent barriers and challenges in their pursuit of a more equitable world.
This finding comes from a new global study conducted by child and girls' rights organization Plan International, which looks into the experiences of girls and young women leaders and advocates who campaign on a range of various interconnected issues ranging from social protection to climate justice.
Titled "Turning the World Around: Girls and Young Women Activists Leading the Fight for Equality," the study is part of the organization's State of the World's Girls Report series. It is based on a large-scale survey of 1,100 girls and young women leaders and advocates aged 15 to 24 from 26 countries, including Ethiopia, Jordan, Canada, Kenya and the Philippines.
According to the report, which is one of the most extensive research surveys of girl leaders conducted to date, the biggest barrier to girls' campaigning is a lack of funding. More than half of the respondents named it as the main factor compromising their ability to campaign to the best of their abilities, while a third said that they needed to be made aware of funding sources that enabled their work.
Others also cited fear for their safety, mentioning that they faced threats of physical violence as a result of their campaigning and had experienced online harassment and abuse. Among those surveyed in the Philippines, many feared hostility from members of their community.
Another common barrier for those who took part in the research was a lack of confidence in their own skills and a lack of knowledge about the issues they were interested in. Respondents from the country also echoed this concern.
Girls and young women acknowledged that both their age and gender, being girls and young women, made it more difficult for them to achieve their goals. Young female advocates and campaigners were seen as less knowledgeable than their male counterparts. In most cases, they report being patronized and ignored.
Girl leaders likewise cited constraints on free speech, women's rights, peaceful assembly and activism due to restrictive laws and regulations.
In the Philippines, despite the increasing number of youth-led and youth-focused organizations, individual advocates, campaigners and social movements, most girls and young women remain unclear about how the government addresses the issues they are focused on.
Moreover, the majority of those surveyed expressed that there is a lack of clarity on specific actions, their implementation and engagement with government actors, partly due to their limited involvement in decision-making.
What they campaign for
In interviews and focus group discussions, the girls and young women in the Philippines identified similar areas of advocacy, which include gender equality, sexual reproductive health and rights, teenage pregnancy and climate change action. These align with the concerns of girl advocates from various regions of the world, where gender equality remains the top issue.
On a global scale, the report revealed that 95 percent of surveyed girl advocates found campaigning to have a positive impact on their lives, fostering pride, empowerment and a sense of capability.
However, at the national level, while most young women and girl advocates took pride in contributing to change, less than half felt their campaigns met or exceeded their expectations.
In celebration of the International Day of the Girl, Plan International Pilipinas convened representatives from the United Nations, foreign embassies, national government agencies and private sector partners in a roundtable discussion to plan a course of action and identify opportunities for collaboration for girls and young women leading the change in their communities.
