This policy paper provides top policy lessons on empowering adolescent girls. With overlapping crises such as climate change, the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, regional conflicts and rising global food insecurity, adolescent girls are facing exacerbated inequalities and more vulnerable in these times. For many girls, these circumstances force them to make decisions about employment and their fertility at an early age, limits their access to formal education, and further exposes them to restrictive social norms.
This paper looks at what works to empower adolescent girls, such as creating safe spaces, taking barriers to participation into account, providing scholarships to keep girls in school, harnessing the power of mentorship, and engaging boys to promote improved sexual and reproductive health outcomes.
