Philanthropy frequently presents itself as responsive to emerging needs. Yet, in practice, it often remains bound to pre-existing structures, resulting in incremental ameliorations rather than instigating systemic change. For girls, particularly those in marginalised contexts, these structures have historically failed to support their rights, voices, and capabilities. Reimagining philanthropy with and for girls through girl-centered design thus requires more. It demands a structural shift in how institutions function, how resources are allocated, and how decision-making mechanisms are constituted.

Central to this shift is a critical examination of who occupies decision-making spaces and by what means. If philanthropy—understood as the voluntary provision of financial or material resources for education, health, poverty alleviation, and human rights—is to remain relevant, it must evolve into a framework such as girl-centered design that places girls not only at the center of its passive beneficiary ‘target group’, but also at the heart of its design, governance, and accountability as active agents.

Girl-Centered Design: Inclusion Isn’t Enough, We Must Center Agency

Girls, women, and children may be consulted as part of situation analyses, ‘needs assessments’ reports or featured on panels. Yet such gestures, although important, are often symbolic and insufficient.

At the heart of true transformation lies the concept of agency—the capacity to make meaningful choices and act upon them. Agency is not solely an individual attribute; it is also relational and collective. Strengthening girls’ agency requires enabling them to act not merely as beneficiaries, but as decision-makers and change agents. This means creating safe spaces, investing in skill development, and ensuring meaningful participation in social and political processes.

In this context, girl-centered design emerges as a methodology with significant potential. By centering girls as co-creators, girl-centered design ensures that their voices and perspectives actively shape the interventions designed to serve them.

Beyond fostering individual agency, this approach cultivates collective agency by encouraging collaboration and shared decision-making within communities. In the long run, the model opens the door to genuinely girls-led philanthropy—philanthropy shaped, driven, and sustained by girls’ leadership and lived experiences. So, what if we stopped asking how girls can be included and instead asked how girls would design a system if they built it from the start?

Read the full article about girl-centered design by Burcu Gündüz Maşalacı, Hikmet Melda Akbaş, and Aysel Madra at Alliance Magazine.