UPDATES: GPIA-UNICEF International Conference 2010

Strategic investments in girls’ social protection, health, education, and livelihood skills promote social justice and are essential for achieving internationally agreed upon development goals, human rights norms and other global commitments. Understanding and addressing the needs of adolescent girls is key to ensuring their protection and the fulfillment of their rights, as they face the specific challenges of marginalization, inaccessibility to resources, and invisibility.

Much of the current discussion about adolescent girls focuses on child marriage, trafficking, reproductive health and education. While these remain critical issues, girls have been left out of research and debates around some of the most challenging emerging global issues. The current economic crisis, climate change, demographic transitions, and dramatic expansion and changes in the uses and availability of new information and communication technologies, present today’s adolescent girls with new risks, but also new opportunities. The circa 600 million adolescent girls who live in developing countries have the potential to play a key role in building healthy families, communities, governments, and economies in those countries.

The Conference will create a space for engaging debates and peer consultation among UNICEF international staff, New School faculty and students, academic and research institutions across the globe, NGO practitioners, and other external experts. A Call for Papers will be sent out early November 2009