Project profile — Plan International Canada - Plan for Girls

• Cameroon (50.00%)
• Benin (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)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)
• Nutrition (significant objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)

The project will help empower adolescent girls 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 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 as of March 2024 include: (1) mobilized 10,235 young people in group schools and savings groups(6,633 girls and 3,602 boys); (2) trained 11,500 girls on life skills and skills for a successful transition to economically productive options such as entrepreneurship, financial literacy and job training; (3) sensitized 901 traditional and religious leaders to the girls empowerment program; (4) sensitized 18,479 parents (11,307 women and 7,172 men) to support girls’ education and participation; (5) trained 128 health service providers (61 women and 67 men) to provide adolescent-friendly and gender-sensitive services; (6) trained 362 employees (158 women and 204 men) at commune and district levels on laws, policies and mechanisms that support adolescent girls' issues and participation.

• Proactive disclosure