Equality for Women and Girls

Where: Summit’s Equality for Women and Girls (EWG) Program’s current grantmaking is focused primarily on Central America, with the majority of support going to Guatemala and Honduras, followed by Belize and Nicaragua.

The EWG Program also supports several initiatives that advance momentum for gender equality and sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice in Latin America and globally. This year (2021), we are beginning a modest US portfolio focused on young BIPOC-led and -focused efforts for gender equality.

Who: There are more than 5 million young women and girls aged 10 to 24 in our Central American focus countries. Summit grantee partners implement various strategies and programs to reach them, change policies affecting them and empower them as leaders. As poor SDG 5 indicators tell us, this group of girls and women, particularly those from disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups and from rural and economically marginalized areas, experiences profound gender inequities. Roughly 85% of rural girls in Guatemala and Honduras do not finish secondary school. Tens of thousands just in those two countries become mothers before age 19 each year and more than 100,000 are forced or compelled by poverty and gender norms to enter an early union before turning 18, also each year.

Why:  Gender equality in Central America lags behind most other countries in Latin America due to poverty, violence against women, longstanding underinvestment in education and health, as well as political conservatism, corruption and impunity. Aside from the fact that their achievement of gender equality is a human right, improving the well-being of women and girls can contribute to the achievement of other social justice, economic and environmental goals. Numerous studies have shown that as gender equality increases, poverty rates decline, economies grow and the environment benefits. However, women and girls everywhere continue to be constrained by socio-cultural, structural and policy barriers that impede their rights.

For adolescent girls in Central America, these constraints too often lead to elevated school drop-out, higher rates of adolescent pregnancy and increased child, early, forced marriage and unions. For women, these barriers can lead to an increased risk of having an unintended pregnancy, limit livelihood opportunities and increase financial dependency on a partner. Women and girls are at an increased risk for gender-based violence, maternal mortality and poor health outcomes for themselves and their infant children.

How: Summit prioritizes putting our resources in the hands of community-based and youth-led or serving organizations in our priority countries to address these complex issues of gender inequality. Some of our grantees are locally-founded and based. Based on a continuing need for organizational development and technical assistance responsive to local priorities, the EWG Program works with some intermediary funders to provide such non-financial supports as well as funding for general operations and for specific initiatives. Sometimes the EWG Program also supports international NGOs and broader initiatives to advance gender equality and address adolescent sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, whether locally, regionally or globally.

We endeavor to support our grantee partners to define success, to aim high, and to assess and share what works and what does not, in aid of course corrections, and to further public policy change and scale up based on their models.

Photo above and left: © Kate Lord Photography