Three years ago, recognising widespread human rights discrimination and violence against girls, the United Nations (UN) made a promise to observe the International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October, and the theme this year is the power of …
An astonishing transformation is taking place that has until now been absent from mainstream development thinking: global ageing. Its absence is even more surprising as the evidence makes clear that demographic changes are affecting developing countries the most. Currently about …
Recently I spent a week in Kinshasa observing our talented Girl Researchers. They were analysing their first sets of qualitative data collected as part of DFID DRC’s programme for adolescent girls, La Pépinière. Sixteen girls aged between 16 and 24, from …
Romana was a young girl when her family told her she was getting married. This is not unusual in Bangladesh; according to UNICEF, nearly two-thirds of girls are married before the age of 18 and more than a quarter of …
Coming back from Latvia from a conference on women and sustainable development last week, a voice welcomed us on to Ryanair. “This is your captain speaking”, she said. Familiar enough words, but less so from a woman. In the week …
Twenty years ago the world took an important step in agreeing that population is not just about measuring the numbers of people in the world, it is about the quality of lives of individuals and that every person counts. At …
As long as there is gender-based violence, we will never achieve gender equality. The Prime Minister appointed me as Ministerial Champion for Tackling Violence against Women and Girls Overseas in 2010 for exactly that reason. And today Poland organised their …
I was educated to be a doctor, and look at what I became! In India, we follow the instructions of our parents. As part of a generation and culture of doing what we are told, I dutifully attended medical school. …
One in 3 women across the world has experienced domestic violence. It’s a horrible thought, but based on this statistic, the chances are we may all know someone who has been suffering in silence. Living with the fear of violence …
'No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you’, said Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan. Unfortunately for the majority of Pakistani women, the notion of equality remains a dream, even …
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