The COVID-19 crisis is a new threat to girls’ futures. From education, child marriage, female foeticide, gender based discrimination and violence, adolescent pregnancy, trafficking and labour, 2020 risks being a year of irreversible setbacks and lost progress for girls.

Parents, communities, civil society and decision makers must come together to protect a generation of girls from the worst impacts of COVID-19. And we must work with girls so that girls are able to realise their rights and have opportunities to pursue the futures they choose.

Millions of girls lives depend on how the world chooses to act now. Listen to their thoughts and voices, listen to their stories and understand realities that affect their lives today and tomorrow, because girls matter.