Giving Compass' Take:

• This Stanford Social Innovation Review piece details a framework for programs focused on empowering adolescent girls, such as Abriendo Oportunidades (Opening Opportunities) in Guatemala.

• Among the suggestions for community-based programs are creating safe spaces and mentorship opportunities. How might organizations coalesce around these basic elements?

• Here's how to empower rural women and girls through data.

The majority of adolescent girls — girls aged 10 to 19 — live in low- and middle-income countries, and are well poised to build the capabilities they need to fulfill their potential, and to contribute to the health and well-being of their families and communities. Empowering them represents an unprecedented opportunity for progress: When we keep adolescent girls healthy, safe, and in school, and give them skills and a say in their own lives, they have a path to healthy, productive adulthood. They are better able to gain knowledge, are less likely to become pregnant, and have more earning power. Society as a whole also benefits: Greater opportunity for young women to join the workforce can help close the workforce gender gap and boost national gross domestic products.

Based on evidence showing that investing in girls yields substantial returns, including reductions in early pregnancy and increased earning power, more and more donors, policymakers, and nonprofits are focusing on girls. Since 2015, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), for example, has invested more than $750 million in HIV prevention for girls and young women in 15 countries through the DREAMS Initiative. And at the 2017 Family Planning 2020 Summit, most of the 42 countries that committed to empowering women and girls with family planning made adolescents a focus of their plans.

However, many organizations that deliver services to adolescent girls lack systematic guidance for programming.

Read the full article about giving adolescent girls a voice by Miriam Temin, Sajeda Amin, Thoai D. Ngo, & Stephanie Psaki at Stanford Social Innovation Review.