Because I am a Girl: the state of the world's girls 2008
Special Focus: In the shadow of war. The 2008 report examines the state of girls in conflict situations around the world.
Find out more »
Because I am a Girl is Plan's campaign to fight gender inequality, promote girls' rights and lift millions of girls out of poverty.
Across the world, girls face the double discrimination of their gender and age, leaving them suffering at the bottom of the social ladder. Girls are denied access to health services and education, and also face extremely high levels of violence, abuse, and harassment..
• Sixty-two million girls are not in primary school.
• Over 900 million girls and women are living on less than a dollar a day.
• About 450 million women suffer from stunted growth as a result of being poorly fed in childhood.
• More than 100 million girls under 18, some as young as 12, are expected to marry over the next decade.
Plan is producing one girl report each year in the run up to 2015, the target year for the Millennium Development Goals.
Girls in the Global Economy: Adding it all up
Failing to educate girls to the same standard as boys costs developing countries US$92 billion each year - only slightly less than the developed world's $103bn annual overseas development aid budget.
Read and watch a video about a campaign to change public attitudes to female genital cutting in Guinea.
