Canada has decided to shift its foreign aid spending so that it emphasizes empowering women and girls. By setting a goal of 15 percent of aid spending on gender equality, Canada will become the single largest contributor in bilateral funding to women’s rights organizations.
The White House has denied any changes to Michelle Obama’s Let Girls Learn initiative, which education experts say has fought global poverty by empowering women and girls around the world.
A lack of information on the experiences of women and girls is one of the greatest barriers to addressing their needs, particularly in the developing world. A new report seeks to fill that gap by demonstrating how “big data” can provide critical information on health, social status and other experiences of women in countries where data is most lacking.
Britain has appointed the country’s first ambassador for gender equality, joining a handful of other countries that created the position in an effort to empower women and girls around the world.
Despite improving access to primary education, children in Tanzania often do not continue on to secondary schools. Barriers including lack of rural schools, pressure to work and high-stakes exams prevent more than half of Tanzanian youth from enrolling in secondary school. Limited alternative options leave millions of young people at a lifelong disadvantage, according to Human Rights Watch.
In developing countries, teenage girls have the best chance of succeeding later in life if they avoid unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Both directly impact the health of girls and force them out of school. A new working paper from Cameroon shows evidence that simply talking about HIV can reduce teen pregnancy.
The controversial two-month tenure for Wonder Woman as a U.N. ambassador ends today. Wonder Woman was appointed honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls in late October. The announcement came on the heels of the failed effort to elect the first woman secretary-general. Portuguese diplomat and former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres led the polls from start to finish.
Each year natural disasters force as many as 26 million people back into poverty, according to a new report from the World Bank, posing a formidable challenge in the fight to end poverty. But new research shows that there is a way to help the world’s poor deal with disasters – empower women.
In the lottery of life you don’t get to choose where you are born. But if you did, Europe is the best place for girls.
More than a year ago, Melinda Gates quietly created an independent organization called Pivotal Ventures. Gates never really explained its…