There are 1.8 billion young people in the world and the majority live in developing countries. They are the largest generation of youth in history. Approximately half of them – 900 million – are adolescent girls and young women.

These girls and young women possess huge untapped potential. When educated, healthy, and equipped with the right skills and opportunities, they hold the key to unlocking many of the world’s most pressing problems: reducing poverty, advancing gender equality, catalyzing countries’ social and economic development, halting the spread of HIV, reducing maternal mortality, and ending violence against women, among many others . As educated mothers, they will invest in the survival, education and success of the next generation. As leaders of today and tomorrow, they can be a force for social change

Yet despite their potential the most marginalized, vulnerable and hard‐to‐reach adolescent girls are often invisible. They are not prioritized in many development programmes. Many youth‐ serving programmes tend to benefit older, educated, urban, and largely male youth. Not only is investing in girls and young women a human rights imperative, but it is one of the smartest investments any country can make.

Read More Interesting Facts

  • There are 1.8 billion young people in the world. Approximately half of them – 900 million – are adolescent girls and young women.
  • Girls’ primary school completion rates are below 50 per cent in most poor countries.
  • Pregnancy‐ and childbirth‐related complications are the number‐one killers of girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide.
  • One in seven girls in developing countries is married before age 15, and 38 per cent are married before age 18.
  • In sub‐Saharan Africa, more women than men are living with HIV, and young women aged 15–24 years are as much as eight times more likely than men to be HIV positive.
  • Women and girls make up 80 per cent of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked across national borders annuallyi with the majority (79 per cent) trafficked for sexual exploitation.

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