Background
The Together for Girls Partnership is a global partnership working to end violence against children and adolescents, particularly sexual violence against girls and other vulnerable populations. The partnership pays special attention to the gendered dimensions of violence and its impact on health, education and human rights. The Together for Girls Partnership connects and aligns diverse groups around a shared vision to drive meaningful change.
Founded in 2009, the Together for Girls Partnership includes more than 20 national governments across sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and Europe, as well as civil society organizations, UN entities, development partners and the private sector. Our collective work uses a three-pronged model:
- Data: Generating quality data and evidence about violence against children in order to inform solutions to prevent violence. This work is grounded by the Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS), led by national governments with technical assistance and support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other partners.
- Advocacy: Raising awareness to drive lasting change through communications and campaigns to build political will, shape policy agendas, and elevate the voices of survivors.
- Action: Galvanizing a coordinated, multisectoral response to bring evidence-based solutions to scale and create lasting change in the lives of children and adolescents.
In February 2022, under the work of our Advocacy prong, Together for Girls and partners catalyzed the survivor-centered Brave Movement to End Childhood Sexual Violence. This newly forming global movement, working with the direction of survivors and allied partners, demands an end to the scourge of sexual violence through advocacy for bold public policy solutions and campaigns to shift societal norms, eradicate survivor stigma and break the conspiracy of silence that enables sexual violence to continue. The Brave Movement mobilizes survivors and allies for globally connected, nationally coordinated, and locally grounded action across three priorities focused on prevention, healing and justice.
A small, fully-remote Secretariat team of 14 people supports the Together for GIrls Partnership, eight of which are based in the United States. The Together for Girls Partnership is rapidly growing this year, with an annual operating budget of approximately $4.5 M in grants from multiple donors, including the Government of Canada, USAID, foundations, and other private donors.