Girl Effect: What social change means, and why it matters

Normal. What is that? When a girl in poverty turns 11 or 12, her future is mapped out for her – she will likely marry young. Almost 750 million of today’s women and girls worldwide were married before reaching their 18th birthday.

Child marriage often results in early pregnancy. According to the Human Rights Advocacy Centre, 14% of girls aged 15–19 in Ghana are already mothers. If a girl marries at, say, 13 and is pregnant by 14, she may experience a downward spiral of social isolation, limited opportunities and domestic violence. Forget long-term aspirations. Expectations are low: 84% of Ethiopian girls, for example, do not attend secondary school.

Girl Effect is a creative non-profit designed to empower vulnerable and marginalised girls to transform their lives. The NIKE Foundation, which supports charities and non-profit organisations to make change in communities globally, launched Girl Effect more than a decade ago. When the organisation became independent from the foundation in 2015, Farah Ramzan Golant, former leader of Britain's largest creative ad agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, took up position as the first chief executive. Girl Effect’s aim, in 2020, is to inspire more than 350 million people to drive social change and engage 30 million individuals in its work.

Breaking old norms, beliefs and systems

The name Farah means ‘joy’ in Arabic. “I really believe in finding positive circles, positive moments and inspiring role-models,” Ramzan Golant tells executives at a London Business School Women in Business Club event. “In our work at Girl Effect, we emphasise positive, aspirational role-models.” The not-for-profit offers scores of girls an abstract yet potent feeling: hope.