Article and graphics by Indira D’Souza, IANGEL Summer 2021 Intern
Kao, C. (2021). The Girls LEAD Act. Futures Without Violence. PDF File.
To increase women’s participation in politics and governance, adolescent girls must be included in decision-making processes and exposed to community leadership and empowerment opportunities. The Girls Leadership, Engagement, Agency and Development (LEAD) Act (S.634, H.R.1661) seeks to improve women and girls’ participation in democracy, governance, and human rights initiatives by strengthening foreign aid programming and reporting. In many economic and social sectors, women’s participation has led to increased growth, showing how women often contribute to collective decision-making and positive change. Including more women in leadership positions leads to more inclusive and peaceful democratic governments. Funding for girls’ leadership, civic engagement, and education will help to build a brighter future for girls around the world because their voices will be heard.
Barriers to Women’s Participation
Children are stakeholders in many policy decisions and implementation projects, but often are not consulted or given a voice in the political process. Young girls face “double” discrimination not only due to their age but their gender as well. The two factors compound and further dissuade young women from speaking out or taking leadership on issues that are important to them. Girls’ leadership potential is affected by the prevalence of gender-based violence. Every ten minutes, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence. Around one hundred twenty million girls worldwide (one in ten) have experienced rape or other forced sexual acts, and the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to increase the number of girls at risk of child marriage over the next decade. Girls also face an unfair burden of work because they are more likely to perform both paid work outside the home and unpaid household work. Girls are more likely to be permanently excluded from education due to their gender. Nine million primary school-aged girls will never learn to read and write, compared to only three million boys. These barriers directly affect the extent to which girls are able to participate in community organizing and other political processes.
Current Policy Gaps
The Girls LEAD Act seeks to address the gaps between democracy and governance programming and girls empowerment within United States foreign aid strategies. Current democracy and governance programs do not include adolescent girls, instead focusing on the post-adolescent age demographic of 18-30 years old. Many programs targeted towards women in other countries tend to focus on health, tackling issues such as child marriage and HIV/AIDS. Adolescence is a formative period where girls develop feelings of confidence and value, and this period must be utilized to promote both leadership and civic engagement. The Girls LEAD Act builds upon the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (WGDP) Initiative and the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment (WEEE) Act by ensuring that girls gain skills in leadership, public speaking, and data literacy. It also adds to the Women’s Peace and Security (WPS) Act and the Keeping Girls in School Act (KGISA) by working to include adolescent girls in political spaces prior to societal conflict. The Girls LEAD Act will create reforms within USAID and the State Department to address the gaps in these policies and ensure that girls are consulted and engaged in political processes within their communities.
Strategies to Include Women
The first objective of the Girls LEAD Act is to enhance existing programming for girls education and democracy promotion. Key goals of the Act are to identify and address specific barriers to girls’ civic and political engagement (such as child marriage and unfair domestic work burdens), support the capacity of community based institutions to engage with girls, and to prioritize girl and women-led civil society organizations at the local level. Each of these initiatives is required to use an evidence-based and best practices approach to ensure the meaningful consultation of women and girls. The second objective of the Act is to require public and annual reporting on the civic participation of children and adolescents, particularly girls. This aligns with the international human rights strategy of producing extensive reports to track progress on human rights issues around the world. The Girls LEAD Act also authorizes foreign aid funding from the Department of State and USAID towards democracy, human rights, and governance programs so they can continue operating abroad to fulfill the goals outlined by the bill. Lastly, the State Department and USAID are mandated to create a single democracy and governance strategy, coordinated with civil society, with methods to increase the participation of adolescent girls. The plan must contain a specific implementation and monitoring outline, along with an explanation of how gender analysis has informed the strategy. The Girls LEAD Act is an important step in increasing women and girls’ civic engagement and leadership, and must be supported by gender equity advocates. By creating new generations of girl and women leaders, it will ensure that women’s political participation is cultivated around the world in order to strengthen communities, build more inclusive governments, and drive positive change.