Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls

The state of the world's girls (2007 to 2015)

Plan is publishing the State of the World's Girls report series to bring global attention to the fact that progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the goals set by the world's governments in 2000 to halve world poverty by 2015 – is being hampered by a continued lack of investment in girls and young women. We believe that drastic legal change will make a difference for girls, as will an increased focus on their education.

I believe that securing the future for our girls is critical to achieving national development...Making a positive change to the state of the world's girls through educational and economic opportunities will lead to a decline in poverty around the world.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
President of Liberia (first woman president in Africa)

Plan's annual 'Because I am a Girl' report series will focus each year on a specific violation of the rights of girls and young women and the mechanisms for securing them. The reports will also feature the 'Real Choices, Real Lives' cohort study which will follow the lives of 135 baby girls living in nine developing countries from 2007-2015. This 'life cycle' approach in each report will provide an important lens for examining girls' rights and will bring to life the inequalities buried in global statistics.