Are Adolescent Girls The Key To Ending Poverty?

The name Malala Yousafzai became known the world over after the Pakistani teenager was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban -- a high price to pay for demanding the right to an education. Her courage has won the 16-year-old international recognition, but her story has also brought into sharp relief the lives of adolescent girls living in the developing world.

There are 250 million girls living in poverty today. Most, after their last immunisations, will disappear from national policy agendas and slip through the cracks of development programmes until the birth of their first child, but the Girl Declaration — a set of ambitious but achievable goals in education, health, safety, economic security and citizenship — gives these invisible girls a voice.

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