East African Girls' Leadership Summit

The Challenge: Adolescent girls face many barriers to staying in school, including poverty, climate change, gender inequality, sexual violence, teen-pregnancy, and child marriage, making them less likely to finish their schooling. While the impact of girls’ education is significant for the girl, her family, the environment, and countries, there are limited supports to girls that help them navigate the barriers and stay in school.

Our Model:

Develop mentorship skills among African women teachers.

Build leadership skills such as self-confidence, public speaking, collaboration and creativity, and build knowledge of girls rights and advocacy tactics among adolescent girls.

Provide a platform for girls and mentors to determine a critical topic they want to address through creative advocacy efforts in their school and community and receive peer feedback.

Provide coaching to mentors’ and girls’ as they prepare for advocacy efforts in their schools and communities.

Watch the video below to learn more about this year's Summit:

Why it Works

We believe that girls’ leadership and advocacy skills paired with women mentors who are equipped to activate and guide girls’ advocacy efforts, is a winning recipe for moving the needle on gender equality. More importantly, program participants reflect this to be true.

Since 2014, 231 girls and 76 mentors at 35 organizations in 5 countries have participated in EAGLS. As a result of the program, girls and mentors initiated creative advocacy efforts that shift attitudes, change behavior and effect policy reform on gender equality, female genital mutilation, child marriage, girls’ education, sexual and reproductive health education, and teen pregnancies (Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4 and 5).