“We have to liberate what’s in our hearts, don’t keep it inside.” Oumou Kalsoum Diop, 18, girl activist, Dakar, Senegal. (UNICEF, International Day of the Girl 2020)
Girls and women are often the first activists to step up when there is work to be done. Emma González’s moving moment of silence at the March for Our Lives, the #MeToo movement, and Malala Yousafzai’s vocal fight for girls’ education after she was shot are just some examples of girls and women rising for social justice.
Humanitarian crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, can magnify the disadvantages adolescent girls and young women face, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where the majority of crises occur and high levels of poverty pervade.1,2 Girls’ pre-existing vulnerabilities to violence and exploitation are often exacerbated during crises, underscoring harmful gender norms and long-standing structural inequalities within communities.3,4 In the COVID-19 context, pre-existing high levels of violence against girls and women have deepened as a result of school closures and many victims face being trapped indoors with their abusers, in addition to service disruptions and limited access to accountability mechanisms.5–7 Adolescent girls also face disproportionately high risks as a result of the pandemic,8,9 including potentially permanent school dropout, heightened poverty, restricted access to sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights,6 and an increase in child-marriages.10,11 These have long-term consequences for girls and are likely to derail the progress made towards several Sustainable Development Goals.
At the same time, girl and women activists do not pause their work when crises hit. On the contrary, reports document many examples of the critical efforts of women-led groups in stepping up efforts to support their families and communities in the face of significant challenges. For example, local women’s networks in Nepal challenged the growing threats of trafficking and violence through the provision of safe spaces and hotlines after the earthquake in 201512. During the Ebola crisis, women’s groups in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia went door-to-door to educate communities on the spread of the virus.13,14 As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, women’s groups in India, Liberia, Palestine, and Vanuatu, helped to mobilize communities and raise awareness about the pandemic and how to stay safe.15-17.
Women’s and girls’ rights organisations and networks are arguably best placed to address critical needs and offer opportunities18 to re-shape societal structures and transform the gender imbalances in the long term. Compared to conventional top-down disaster management, supporting women and girl-led practices may facilitate sustainable and lasting change because the responses are tightly embedded in existing community structures.19-25 It is also their right, as affirmed in various human rights conventions and United Nations Resolutions.26-29 Yet, women and girls remain conspicuously absent from national recovery response efforts and plans30 and are frequently under-represented from decision-making structures. There is also limited information about the activism and organizing led by adolescent girls. Similar to women-led groups, girls are leading social movements that challenge the root causes of injustice and advocate for human rights, climate justice, and gender equality. However, young activists are often not taken seriously and their work does not receive much attention. As a result, girl-led activism is currently lacking comprehensive coverage that would provide insights into its scope and support needs.
We set out to systematically assess the scientific and grey literature on the evidence of girl-led activism at times of crisis in low- and middle-income countries, aiming to gain insights into and synthesize the evidence on girls’ agendas, priorities, funds, and achievements. We reviewed 679 records from 7 databases and 59 hand-searched academic journals which led to seven articles on girl-led activism in low- and middle-income countries, which were further reviewed for information on activism in emergency situations. The initial search also covered 25 relevant organizational websites through which we located four main reports on girl-led activism which were examined for information on girls’ activities during crises.
Our results showed that young women’s activism occurs across a range of contexts31-35 but also highlighted the lack of accessible documentation of the detailed agendas, achievements, and support-needs of girls under the age of 19. Even though girls’ activism does seem to receive much attention36-40 and some important insights on girl-led activism at ‘normal’ times is available, we identified a particular lack of information documentation of girls’ organizing and achievements during times of crisis.