One year ago, the U.S. government launched the world’s first foreign policy strategy solely dedicated to the rights and empowerment of adolescent girls: the U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls. Since then, in an unprecedented effort, six U.S. government agencies have joined forces to bring to bear the critical priorities of this strategy — which aims to ensure adolescent girls are educated, healthy, economically and socially empowered, able to live lives free from violence and discrimination, therefore promoting global development, security and prosperity around the world. The value of this policy is clear: evidence shows that approaches to empowering girls must take into account all of the complex ways in which girls lead their lives.
This is the good news.
The bad news is that at a time when the United States should be redoubling its efforts to show leadership to tackle some of the biggest issues facing girls, President Donald Trump has suggested a dramatic slash in an already stretched foreign affairs budget that, if realized, will have devastating effects on this important work. At Girls Not Brides USA, we know that for any policy to be impactful, it needs to be resourced to bring it to life. Otherwise, it’s just words on a piece of paper. The Girl Strategy is no different.