The Girl Effect is a new online interactive project seeking to improve the dire situation in the developing world one girl at a time. The initiative, created by the advertising agencies Grow Interactive and Wieden & Kennedy, is part of a $100 Million investment in girls by the Nike Foundation and NoVo Foundation chairs Peter and Jennifer Buffett.

The Girl Effect recognizes that girls and young women are the foundation of communities around the world. The project seeks to direct funding to the education and entrepreneurial business activities of girls and young women in developing countries to help being their communities up. The statistical evidence is incredible when we learn the unique role girls and young women play in the health and wellbeing of their societies. According to the website’s Fact Sheet:

When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.

An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages 10 to 20%. An extra year of secondary school boosts wages 15 to 25%.

When women and girls earn income they reinvest 90% of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40% for boys.

The strategy is similar to those employed by Muhammad Yunus‘ Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank, which found that microloans to women had a much lower rate of default and stood a much higher chance of benefiting the community than those to men, which all too frequently ended up funding drinking and carousing.

You can see a video about The Girl Effect below:

takepart and help the developing world one girl at a time by learning more about The Girl Effect and its highly focused programs to benefit the education and careers of girls and young women throughout the developing world while creating a better future in the process.

LINKS:

PodBlack Blog: The Girl Effect

Nike Foundation: Nike Foundation and Buffetts join to invest $100 Million in girls

Motion Grapher: The Girl Effect