Because I am a Girl: Urban and Digital Frontiers - Plan International

A Forsa
training
session in El
Marg, Egypt.
Nikki van der Gaag
as I am rather shy. After joining Forsa, I
began to overcome my shyness and fear
and started to be open to all. I acquired
a great deal of self-confidence. I made a
lot of friends throughout the course, with
whom I speak a lot and without any fears
or worries.”
Cultivating the desire to learn and the
confidence to speak out is especially
important for girls in a society where
women are not valued in the same way
as men and where only 22.9 per cent of
women are officially in the labour force. 84
In El Marg, the primary schools are
enormous and there are often 60 or 70
children in a class. Some primary schools
have to operate a three-shift system,
with children attending for only a third
of each day, in order to accommodate
the numbers. Not surprising, then, that
drop-out, especially for girls, is common.
The only secondary schools are in the
centre of town, so once again this means
girls who live nearer to the outskirts are
unlikely to finish their education.
Ola, who is still at school, says:
“We are the youth; we are the future
of this country, but when I analyse
the situation I feel there is a lack of
opportunities for jobs for young women.
The government must think about
young women and give us the same
opportunities as boys.”
Nikki van der Gaag talked to participants in the
Forsa programme in El Marg, Egypt
The informal economy: where most
adolescent girls in cities work
The International Labour Organisation
estimates that approximately 85 per cent
of all new employment opportunities in
developing countries are created in the
informal economy, which is where the
majority of adolescent girls and young
women are likely to find work. 85 This is
particularly true in slums. “In fact, slums
tend to form the epicentre or principal
source of informal labour, and within
slums most economic activity is informal,”
according to the United Nations Settlements
programme. 86
In sub-Saharan Africa, 84 per cent of
women’s employment in the non-agricultural
sector is informal. In many countries, more
young women work in the informal sector in
small cities than in the capital. For example,
in Kenya, 58 per cent of young women
employed in Nairobi and the country’s
other large cities work in the informal
sector, compared with 73 per cent of their
counterparts in small cities and towns and
rural areas. In Peru, 50 per cent of young
women in large cities work in the informal
sector, while the figure for smaller cities is
64 per cent. 87
However, what these general statistics
fail to reveal is the particular situations of
adolescent girls who are poor, or from a
minority group, or live in a slum. Having a
health centre in the next street is of no use
if you cannot afford to pay the fees, and
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