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Girl Effect is an independent non-profit organisation, launched in September 2015, that works to end poverty globally. Its work is based on the common belief in the field of International Development that when given the opportunity, girls and women are more effective at lifting themselves and their families out of poverty, thereby having a multiplier effect within their villages, cities, and nations.
Contents
History
Girl Effect was created in 2008 by the Nike Foundation, in collaboration with the NoVo Foundation, and United Nations Foundation among others. It launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos with a film that challenged people to think differently about the role girls play in development. The film has been seen by 1.8m people to date.
Since becoming an independent organisation, Girl Effect is still supported by the NIKE Foundation and other funders, as well as by new partners. Their website Girleffect.org exists to help this community continue to make a case for supporting girls.
In November 2014, Nike Foundation and Unreasonable Group partnered to launch an accelerator dedicated to impacting girls in poverty called the "Girl Effect Accelerator". This program brought out startups in the developing world including Embrace (non-profit), Jayaashree Industries with CEO Arunachalam Muruganantham, Bridge International Academies. The program was led by Nike Foundation's Tom DeBlassis and CEO of Unreasonable Group Daniel A. Epstein.
Why girls?
When girls are specifically included in education, health and economic investment, the world has a better chance of preventing issues such as child marriage, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and breaking the inter-generational cycle of poverty. But girls still need the world to listen to them and invest in their potential.
One study has shown that an educated girl will invest 10-20 times more income back into her family and community than a man would. Girls who receive an education marry at an older age, have fewer children, and are more likely to seek healthcare for themselves and their children. Even so, nearly 250 million adolescent girls live in poverty. Today, fewer than two cents of every international development dollar goes to girls – the very people who have the capacity to make an impact on ending poverty. As long as girls remain invisible, the world misses out on a tremendous opportunity for change.
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.
Supporters
Awards
Critiques
This campaign has been the focus of feminist and academic critiques. As other projects that talk of women and girls as 'the magic bullet of development', the campaign was said to rely on essentialist views of womanhood, depict women and girls in developing countries as 'in need of saving'. Further, these type of campaigns that do not take into consideration men and the relations of women and girls with their households and community often have the effect of overburdening women who are already responsible for childcare and all types of formal and informal labor.