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TRANSCRIPT:
Hosted for the first time in the Oceanic Pacific region, a global gender equality conference Women Deliver is underway this week [[27–30 April]] in Narrm (Melbourne).
At the opening ceremony, Australia's first female former prime minister Julia Gillard - a key speaker at the conference - talked about the rolling back of women's rights, which she argued was not being done in secret, but heralded by key global political leaders.
Ms Gillard has urged gender equality activists to push back with the same ferocity - and one of the areas of concern is the wellbeing of adolescent girls.
"You have now two billion people on the planet living in conflict zones. There are more people now living in conflict than there was from the second world war. And those conflicts are really disproportionately affecting women and girls. Their bodies are literally on the line - either in death, harm, or under use of sexual violence as a tactic in war."
That's the CEO at Plan International Australia, Susanne Legena, talking about how women bear the brunt of the impact of war.
She says the ripple effects of the war in the Middle East and fuel shortages across Asia has had major impacts - driving food insecurity and economic instability - on girls in across Asia Pacific.
"Because as families start with cost of living pressure, they start to take their girls out of school, consider child marriage as a way of supporting their families through difficult times. We're starting to feel that effect on adolescent girls, and you're starting to see it in small but very significant ways - higher school dropout rates, pressure to marry early, higher rates of reporting on gender based violence."
Having worked closely with vulnerable communities in the region for more than 50 years, she says adolescent girls remain largely invisible in aid and philanthropy.
"Less than one per cent of aid in the world or philanthropy money flows towards teen girls or adolescent girls, even though they are nine per cent of the population and they grow up to be half of the world that lead, we know from 50 years of evidence when you invest in a girl you don't just change her life - if you can keep her in school, if you can let her decide when and if she marries, if you can keep her safe from harm. She doesn't just lift herself up, she also lifts her family, her community and her entire society up."
Globally, one in five girls still marries before the age of 18, which is equivalent to one girl every three seconds.
Gender focused funding still overwhelmingly prioritises adult women, leaving adolescent girls’ distinct and critical needs unmet during their most formative years.
Ms Legena strongly believes there's transformative power in investing in adolescent girls, who she says are powerful agents of change.
Plan International wants the Australian government and major donors to step up and target funding and support in the order of $50 million dollars.
"There are 240 million adolescent girls living in this Asia Pacific region and we're calling on the Australian government and other philanthropist who have the means to consider that group as not just a vulnerable group but as a group that if you invest in have the power to catalyse change and lift up entire communities in our region."
Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis is the Ambassador for Plan International Australia.
She's also a global health and social researcher, community advocate, speaker, youth activist.
Ms Ojinnaka-Psillakis is Australian-born and grew up in the country.
She has told told SBS that living in an area that's considered low socio-economic, she sees adolescents in her area who have dreams and ability, but lack the funding needed to move forward.
"As a researcher in global health and adolescent health, we constantly see the numbers of the state of affairs to do with health and wellbeing for children and adolescents getting worse and worse. And I don't want it to be all doom and gloom - there is a great opportunity here for us to really package that effectively, come together with a greater financial investment and move forward with adolescents designing that future too, with philanthropy and aid."
Her research looks at children, adolescents and young people's wellbeing across Australia and tracking the progress on that annually.
She says there's so many data gaps in the stories - but that investment would produce a holistic long term effect in society.
She says she reflects on the things she wishes she and her peers could have had access to.
"I know even being here at Women Deliver and speaking to adolescent girls as young as 14 who are in attendance, talking about the lives they wish and want to have. But the obstacles that they are facing. I know that if we go full throttle in investing in these areas, they will be able to see the actions that they will be putting forward in Women Deliver that actually come into full effect, and I think that's a beautiful thing for everyone. That's a world that I want to live in, a world where I can see adolescent girls thriving alongside adolescent boys, alongside parents and families and broader communities as well. So there's a huge opportunity here."
