Project profile — Plan International Canada - Plan for Girls

• Benin (50.00%)
• Cameroon (50.00%)

• Basic Education: Basic life skills for youth and adults (11230) (20.00%)
• Secondary Education: Vocational training (11330) (10.00%)
• Population policy and administrative management:
Population policy and administrative management (13010) (20.00%)
Personnel development for population and reproductive health (13081) (15.00%)
• Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions:
Women's rights organisations and movements, and government institutions (15170) (20.00%)
Ending violence against women and girls (15180) (15.00%)

• Gender equality (principal objective)
• Nutrition (significant objective)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)

The project will help empower adolescent girls in target regions in Benin and Cameroon. It will give them access to improved, adolescent-friendly services in the areas of education, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and economic empowerment by creating an integrated package of core, community-level activities for adolescents. The project uses an approach that put girls at the center of its actions, working in collaboration with parents, community leaders and governments, to advance gender equality and empower adolescent girls. The project also addresses persistent challenges to girls’ rights and wellbeing, including discriminating social practices. Project activities include: (1) increasing girls’ knowledge regarding their rights, and child protection; (2) strengthening adolescent girls’ and boys’ groups that conduct peer-to-peer education on gender equality, rights and child protection and monitoring of related services; (3) changing attitudes of families, communities and leaders to contribute to a gender equitable social environment conductive to the realization of adolescent girls’ rights; and (4) providing training to service providers to deliver improved services to adolescent girls in sexual and reproductive health, education and vocational training, and child protection. The project engages adolescent girls and service providers across various sectors, including health, education and children’s rights to increase their life skills, and active participation in decision making and governance bodies. The project expects to directly benefit nearly 123,367 people, including 57,000 adolescent girls.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved agency of adolescent girls and young women to execute decisions regarding their rights; (2) improved delivery of protective, gender-responsive and adolescent-friendly services; and (3) Enhanced local government coordination and institutional responsiveness to the rights of adolescent girls and young women.

Results achieved in target regions of each country at the end of the project (December 2025) include: (1) reduced early marriage among young women aged 18–22, with the proportion of those married before age 18 decreasing from 15% to 4% in Benin and from 24% to 8% in Cameroon; (2) increased access to sexual and reproductive health services among girls and young women, rising from 9% to 30% in Benin and from 6% to 31% in Cameroon; (3) strengthened leadership, confidence and goal-setting skills among girls, with the proportion demonstrating these skills increasing from 10% to 30% in Benin and from 26% to 37% in Cameroon; and (4) increased parental support for equal opportunities for girls and boys. In Benin, the proportion of mothers expressing supportive views increased from 19% to 49% and the proportion of fathers from 16% to 41%. In Cameroon, supportive views increased from 16% to 24% among mothers and from 16% to 19% among fathers.

• Proactive disclosure