Girls Count, So Why Don’t We Count Girls?

We know that investing in girls is crucial to achieving our overall health and development goals. So why isn’t more being done? Tamara Kreinin, executive director of women and population at the United Nations Foundation, posed just this question during the launch of the newest report in the Girls Count series, New Lessons: The Power of Educating Adolescent Girls.Proof of successful programs is integral to convincing advocates, policy-makers and the public to increase investments in programs that benefit adolescent girls, and report author Cynthia Lloyd has made a valiant effort to provide just that. New Lessons includes a compendium of over 322 existing projects and programs focused on improving adolescent girls’ educational attainment. But even with the remarkable service the researchers have provided in compiling information about all of the programs, major gaps remain. Of the 322 programs they analyzed, only 10 percent reported having any form of external evaluation. More startlingly, only three external evaluations were actually provided to the researchers.Unfortunately this problem isn’t unique to girls’ education. It’s a prominent feature of just about every aspect of work to improve the wellbeing of adolescent girls. Basic information is missing about girls’ health conditions, use of health and other social services, risks at home, school and elsewhere…and more. At nearly every public forum on adolescent girls, someone stands up and says that they are trying to do more—but there just isn’t enough data. Improving knowledge about key aspects of girls’ lives and the extent to which programs are reach them is fundamental to figuring out what to do and whether we’re on the right track.This topic arose last week when I presented Start With A Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health to international economists and gender experts at the U.S. State Department. The Q&A session included a lively discussion regarding data availability, particularly at the country level. I pointed them to an exciting new resource, Girls Discovered; another product in the Girls Count series, Girls Discovered is a clearinghouse for maps and data on the status of adolescent girls worldwide (including a list of the most needed data). Those of us involved in the Girls Count effort hope that by highlighting what policy-relevant data is available – and what’s missing – we will provoke needed investments.The full set of Girls Count reports issued so far can be found on the newly launched Coalition for Adolescent Girls site. The Coalition is committed to uncovering adolescent girl-specific data and insights to inform meaningful action, and each publication sets out concrete actions for the global community—including the importance of not only caring about girls, but also counting them.