Project “Unlocking Their Potential: Empowering Girls, Adolescents, and Young Women to Exercise Their Rights”
This initiative, led by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with support and funding from the Government of Canada, aims to improve the well-being and fulfillment of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls, adolescents, and young women in an environment of equality and free from gender-based violence. The project advances toward strengthening the bodily autonomy of girls (10-14), adolescents (15-19), and young women (20-29), with an emphasis on those most at risk of being left behind. Key factors defining at-risk populations include income and education levels, geographic location (marginal urban or peri-urban areas, Andean and Amazonian regions), ethnicity (indigenous, Afro-descendants), disability status, migration status, and sexual orientation.
The administrative geopolitical areas identified for intervention are Ayacucho, Piura, and the district of San Juan de Lurigancho (in Lima). These areas were selected due to gaps in realizing sexual and reproductive health and rights, high levels of gender-based violence and harmful practices, and UNFPA's past or present collaboration in these regions, which may contribute to better project implementation with a higher potential return on investment.
The implementation strategies ensure complementarity between development and humanitarian contexts and include policy advocacy and dialogue, capacity-building, knowledge management, and direct service provision. These strategies will also leverage accelerators based on human rights approaches, the transformation of discriminatory gender norms, coordination, partnerships and financing, the “leave no one behind” principle, data and evidence generation, innovation and digitalization, and resilience and adaptation.
The project will have a multidimensional approach, deploying multilevel interventions based on available global and regional evidence. These interventions will generate political and technical dialogue at both the national level and in regions with significant involvement from government authorities, traditional leaders, and civil society organizations, with active participation from indigenous and Afro-descendant populations, adolescents, and young people.
By the end of the project’s implementation, it is expected to achieve: i) the strengthening of policies, laws, and financial frameworks; ii) improved access to and use of quality health, education, protection, and justice services to ensure equal citizenship and the full restoration of rights for girls, adolescents, and young women; and iii) improved behaviors, attitudes, and practices to transform discriminatory gender norms and enhance the leadership and participation of girls, adolescents, and young women in decision-making processes.
Access to sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, and living in a violence-free environment enable individuals, particularly adolescents and young women, to break free from intergenerational cycles of poverty and inequality. When women make decisions about their bodies and exercise their rights without coercion or violence, including planning when and how many children to have, they are more likely to complete their education, increase their autonomy in all aspects of life, and improve their chances of entering the formal labor market with higher incomes.
In this way, their economic security and well-being, as well as that of their families, are strengthened. In turn, this contributes to development, poverty reduction, and gender equality and social inclusion in the country.
