Youth Toolkit
Do you want a gender just world? A world where girls and young women, in all their diversity, are seen, heard and valued? A world where they can claim power over their bodies, lives and choices? A world where they are able be powerful leaders and shape the world around them? Yes? Then, you’ve come to the right place. This Girls Get Equal campaign toolkit is for you – young activists, human rights defenders and change makers all over the world. Now, is the time for action!
This digital version of the toolkit is abridged. Please download the full toolkit for full details.
Download the full toolkit
youth Toolkit – English
2.98 mb
العربية
2.62 mb
FRANÇAIS
3.08 mb
ESPAÑOL
3.05 mb
What is this toolkit for?
Use this toolkit to design and implement your own Girls Get Equal campaign for girls’ leadership and power in your own context.
Who is this toolkit for?
This toolkit is for all of us – you, me, your friends, your neighbour! It was designed with us. It’s for anyone who wants to create a world where girls, young women and other marginalised identities have the power, freedom and representation to make decisions and shape the world around them, as equals. Youth activists are not just the future. We are also the present. And we won’t stop until Girls Get Equal! Are you with us?
Keep updated
Sign up to our newsletter for monthly updates on the Girls Get Equal campaign.
Section 1: What is Girls Get Equal
Section 2: Campaigning basics
- Setting objectives
- Analysis in your context
- Campaign strategies
- Tips on messaging
- How to work with others
- How to manage risks to yourself, others and your campaign
- Self-love and collective self-care
- How to fundraise effectively and sustainably
- Reflection and learning
Section 3: Let’s take action
Section 1: What is Girls Get Equal?
Whether it’s on TV or film, in the streets, in the classroom, in the household, in places of worship, the boardroom, or the chambers of parliament, girls and young women are persistently undervalued, undermined and underestimated. We are held back by outdated rules that ignore our potential, suppress our power and subject us to violence and abuse.
Well, we’ve had enough! We are done with being silenced and ignored. We are refusing to accept the inequality and injustice we’ve inherited.
Our vision
A world where girls and young women, in all their diversity (including but not limited to non-binary and gender queer identities), are equally able to make decisions about their own lives and shape the world around them.
We want a new world, with new rules – one that acknowledges our power, voice and leadership as girls and young women.
We want a world where Girls Get Equal.
Boys and men as allies
Girls and young women, in all their diversity, are at the forefront of driving Girls Get Equal. This is because they are the most impacted by gender injustices. However, boys and men are critical partners and allies.
Boys and men, in all their diversity, have vital roles to play as change-makers and champions of gender equality.
What if people say ‘why girls?’
A lot of the time, we hear people say “why Girls Get Equal? Should it be All Get Equal?”. The response? This campaign is not about one gender rising above another. Rather, it is about all genders rising together.
Other resources:
- Read this blog by Gonzalo, 24, from El Salvador on A man’s role in gender equality activism and watch his video on How to be a gender equality and LGBTIQ+ ally
- Watch Sifat, 22, from Bangladesh on How to be a male feminist
- Promundo’s 9 Steps to being a better male ally for gender equality
- Check out this infographic on Boys and Men as Partners for Advancing Gender Equality
- Ways to navigate situations when you’ve made a mistake: 9 phrases allies can say when called out (instead of getting defensive)
- Check out this Girls’ Rights Fact Sheet
Girls Get Equal demands
Girls Get Equal is the global campaign championing girls’ voice, power and leadership to achieve gender equality. We are demanding equal power, equal freedom and equal representation for girls and young women – in all their diversity.
Equal Power
Girls and young women, in all their diversity, become powerful leaders and participate in all decisions that affect their lives.
Equal Freedom
Girls and young women, in all their diversity, have the freedom to live, speak up and act without fear of harassment or violence – both online and offline.
Equal Representation
End gender stereotyping and discrimination wherever it is seen – on film, TV, entertainment, marketing and advertising, and the education institution! Girls and young women tell their own diverse stories and are truthfully represented.
Cut out cards
We designed some simple cards for each demands. They are a customisable tool for you to think through what your Girls Get Equal wants to achieve, why and who you will engage to advance your campaign.
Section 2:
Let’s get to work: campaigning basics
This section lays out the key components of a successful campaign plan.
Remember: Always make sure your goal is strong and engaging enough to motivate and mobilise your target audiences to take action!
Here are some additional resources to help you through the process:
70+ time-tested guidelines for how to design successful campaigns (Beautiful Rising)
Read stories of memorable campaigns analysing what worked and what didn’t…and why! (Beautiful Rising)
How to develop campaign objectives
Once you’ve identified which Girls Get Equal campaign goal you want to focus on (Equal Power, Equal Freedom Online/ in Public and/or Equal Representation), now it’s time to think about what specific concrete thing you want to achieve! This is called a campaign objective.
Your Girls Get Equal campaign objective(s) could be, for example a policy change, law change or budget commitment.
There are endless possibilities of what your Girls Get Equal campaign objective(s) might be. But, ideally, it needs to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound).
Download this section for campaign objective guideance.
Here are some additional tools to help develop your Girls Get equal campaign objective(s):
- Beautiful Rising: how to develop SMART objectives
- The Change Agency: SMART objective writing
How to conduct an analysis of your Girls Get Equal context
Downloading this section will help you map your stakeholders and the systems that have power over that issue. Click to download each individual activity worksheet.
Activity 1: Stakeholder mapping
Plot who has a stake in your Girls Get Equal campaign.
Activity 2: Which stakeholders will you target and how?
Additional tools to guide your system analysis.
PESTLE Tool by UN Women
Problem Tree Analysis by WeRise
Systems Mapping Tool by MobLab
What are the different campaign strategies?
There are lots of different strategic approaches that you cause use in order to achieve your campaign objective(s). These can be a mixture of advocacy, policy, public mobilisation (online and offline), strategic communications, partnerships, and research/ data gathering.
In this section you’ll find an infographic to explain public mobilisation vs community organising and cut out cards for the different types of strategies.
Tips for campaign messaging on girls get equal
In this section, you can use these two exercises to think through how you would communicate your Girls Get Equal campaign to others, and how you would convince them to support you.
Activity 1: Build your pitch
Activity 2: Head, heart and hands tool (appeal to your audience)
How to work with others
Girls Get Equal runs on the power of collective action of diverse, girl- and youth-led movements for gender equality!
Collaboration, networking and a large supporter base increases your chances of achieving your campaigning objective.
In this section, find out who you can partner with and how.
How to manage risks
All campaigns will face risks – especially working on gender equality and girls’ rights due to the varying degrees of resistance and backlash. The important thing is to identify the risks in advance and plan for how to avoid them if you can – or how to manage them if risks turn into realities.
Use the tool in this download to help you consider and work through risks.
Self-care and collective care
Another major risk from campaigning is the risk to your own wellbeing. There’s no doubt about it: campaigning for gender equality can be stressful and exhausting at times. The political is personal. Taking care of our bodies and minds is very important. So is taking care of each other.
Self-care as an activist should be built in as a practice. In this section are some tips and resources to help you on your way.
Additional resources:
- Adriene Mishler’s Self-care tips for young activists
- Global Fund for Women: 5 ways to practice self-care
- FRIDA Young Feminist Fund’s tool to Develop your own self-care plan
- Phuongh Anh from Vietnam’s blog on How to be an intersectional feminist
How to fundraise effectively and sustainably
In this section are helpful tips and resources on who to target, what funders look for and how to raise your own funds!
Tip: Check out Plan International’s EQUALITY ACCELERATOR for funding opportunities, tips and tools.
Reflection and learning
How to monitor and evaluate your campaign
How do you know if your campaign is successful? It’s important to keep an eye on whether your campaign is having the desired impact. Try the activities in this section to monitor your progress and impact.
Failure is not falling down. It is staying down.
Section 3 – Let’s take action
So, you’ve got your campaign basics sorted, now it’s time to figure out what you need your key stakeholders and target audiences to do to take action on Equal Power, Equal Freedom Online and in Public and/or Equal Representation!
This section will guide you on how to activate the Girls Get Equal demands by mobilising the public and building a supporter base.
Ideas and actions
Here are some things you can ask your target audience to do:
- Share or post something on social media (e.g. an infographic, a statement, a video, an article) using the #GirlsGetEqual hashtag
- Take a survey, poll or quiz
- Sign a petition (online/offline)
- Sign onto an open letter to a decision-maker which you can publish
- Boycott a certain product or company
- Share your campaign to their friends, family and networks
- Write an e-mail or letter to a key power-holder
- Write a blog or article
- Donate to the campaign or fund a specific activity
- Attend an event, workshop, rally, march, demonstration, flash mob, festival, street theatre, or exhibition
- Enter a competition, or submit a poem or piece of art which can be exhibited with your campaign
- Speak at an event, festival, in a school, at a protest etc.
- Meet with a locally elected politician
- Organise or co-design an action with you
Now let’s get to work!
Share this toolkit with your friends, groups and networks!
We would like to say a BIG thank you to all the activists from 11 countries around the world who helped to design this toolkit – in Ecuador, El Salvador, USA, Germany, Sudan, Bangladesh, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, and Indonesia.