World Thinking Day 2016 Theme Announced: Connect

We are pleased to announce the World Thinking Day 2016 theme is ‘Connect’!

The Girl Guide and Girl Scout experience is a lifelong adventure of connections. This upcoming World Thinking Day, let’s explore and celebrate the meaningful connections that make our lives better, whether to the people closest to us, to a place we care about, or to a Girl Guide or Girl Scout friend on the other side of the world.

Take part in WTD 2016 to explore how we are connected to the amazing world around us and experience different types of meaningful connections:

• Connect with me: If we don’t take the time to connect with ourselves and understand what we need to be happy and confident, we won’t be able to make the difference we want to make in other people’s lives. 
• Connect with friends: Connection is friendship and friendship is happiness. So what makes a good friend? 
• Connect with someone you care about, make a new friend and explore the relationships that matter to you. 
• Connect with the world: Look wider, and see how you can make a difference in the places you care about. Get to know your community or a place in nature, then look wider still and connect with the amazing world of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting. 
• Connect, share and celebrate! Share your WTD 2016 adventure and connect with Girl Guide and Girl Scouts around the world.

More information available here: http://www.wagggs.org/en/news/23599

International Day of the Girl Speak Out Event

At the International Day of the Girl Event this past Friday, held at the United Nations in NYC, girls from around the world came together to discuss issues girls face and explore their roles in policymaking. As part of the Speak Out event organized by the Working Group on Girls, girls from around were able to submit their art, videos, poetry, and stories online in the months prior to the Day of the Girl. Top submissions were selected to be presented and performed live in the ECOSOC Chambers of the UN to a full crowd of girls from around the world as well as UN Representatives from different nations and agencies.

The performances were amazing and powerful, a testament to the voices behind the submissions as well as to the talents of the girls who performed the acts. Submission topics included child marriage, body image, depression, peer pressure, and sexual violence. Submissions were true to life and very moving. One video submission of a girl putting on make up while flashing between sexual magazine covers of female celebrities featured no words but spoke volumes on the influence the media has on girls. Another girl who was at the event gave a speech on what it is like to be a girl in elementary school with a disability that drew a standing ovation. A story from a young girl in Africa talked about how she was nearly forced into child marriage at the age of 12 but managed to escape and continue her education. The stories not only spoke of the difficulties of being a girl, but also of how strong girls are at overcoming adversity.

Between each series of acts, a different representative from the UN had the opportunity to speak about how their agency is going to make sure these issues that girls face worldwide are going to be addressed. The commitments by these agencies brought tangible results to the experience and make sure that actions would be taken.



More Photos:

Girl Scouts from Mexico!

Working Group on Girls Co-Chairs, including Adwoa Aidoo (speaking) of Girl Scouts USA

Live: Meeting Africa's Youth Employment Challenge

Live right now on World Bank Live is "Meeting Africa's Youth Employment Challenge," available here: http://live.worldbank.org/africa-youth-employment-challenge

Event Summary:

Eleven million youth are expected to enter Africa’s labor market every year for the next decade and despite a rapid increase in formal sector jobs, the majority of these youth are likely to work on family farms and in household enterprises, often with very low incomes. What are governments, partners, and civil society doing to address the challenge of youth employment in Africa, and what should they be doing? What do we need to know more about to design better policies and programs? An interactive discussion during the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings brings together ministers, experts, and the private sector to reflect on the challenge and ways forward.

Follow on Twitter at #Jobs4Africa & #AfricasYouth 

FEATURING

Makhtar Diop

Vice President, World Bank Africa Region

Deon Filmer

Lead Economist, Africa Region, World Bank

Hon. Njuguna S. Ndung'u

Governor, Central Bank of Kenya

Hon. Serigne Mbaye Thiam

Minister of Higher Education and Research, Senegal

Simbarashe Mhungu

Managing Director of Harvest Fresh, Zimbabwe

Louise Fox

Visiting Professor, UC Berkeley; Former Lead Economist, Africa Region, The World Bank