What we do and why business should care

• About Girl Stats

  Girl Stats empowers businesses to empower girls and helps them become catalysts for global social change. We encourage companies to think about how their operations impact girls, and provide them with the information they need to successfully target investments to reduce gender inequality, and improve the lives of girls and young women around the world. 

  The interactive platform offers global data on adolescent girls and young women (aged 15-24) across issues such as health, education and labour market participation. This data enables businesses to identify gaps and understand where their engagement will have the most positive impact. In 2017, we aligned the data with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Companies can now use Girl Stats to better target their investments to contribute to the realisation of the SDGs. 

  Girl Stats also features some of the most compelling CSR initiatives by organisations currently investing in girls and young women, as well as links to relevant NGOs working on the ground to improve the lives of girls worldwide. Businesses can use Girl Stats to identify the relevant NGOs they may like to partner with in order to develop their own initiatives and improve their social impact.

  Drawing on the Women’s Empowerment Principles, Girl Stats focuses on telling positive stories about the role businesses can play in improving the lives of girls around the world.

  Girl Stats at a glance:
  

  • Over 50 datasets covering six themes (conflict, employment, education, health, legal status and migration) across 198 countries
    
  • Data aligned with SDG targets to help businesses identify where they can contribute to the realisation of the goals
  • Written analysis on how these issues impact both businesses and girls
  • Country profiles allowing users to compare data within each country 
  • Links to NGOs working on girls' issues on the ground, to help businesses identify partnership opportunities and collaborate with the best partners to deliver social impact and stimulate positive change for girls
  • Links to girl-focused CSR initiatives by industry leaders investing in girls and young women 
  • In-depth analysis of women and girls' issues in selected emerging economies
  • Links to studies about the benefits of investing in girls and young women 

  
  

  Girl Stats is funded by Verisk and is implemented by Verisk Maplecroft

• Our Mission & Vision

  Mission

  Be the authoritative source of data and analytics that empower businesses and NGOs to reduce gender inequality and improve the lives of adolescent girls and young women worldwide. 

  Vision

  • Support business decision making by providing data and analytics on the issues that girls and young women face around the world
    
  • Provide links to organisations working on the ground so that businesses can collaborate with the best partners to deliver social impact and stimulate positive change for girls and young women 
    
  • Provide insightful data and analytics to influence responsible investment, lending and procurement decisions, as well as help businesses contribute to the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals
    

• Why invest in girls?

  Girls represent an important group of potential employees in both developed economies and emerging markets. Yet, across the globe, girls and young women face a number of legal, societal, cultural and religious barriers that prevent them from achieving full equality with men.

  Research shows that investing in girls is vital for sustained economic growth. The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, has stated that investing in female employment is “essential for business.” Investment in girls yields considerable social and economic returns for businesses and society alike. These include increased purchasing power, wider tax bases for governments and better outcomes for health and education. Economically empowered girls contribute towards more productive societies.

  By learning about the issues that girls face around the world, and by investing in their development, business can recruit and retain talented girls and young women, unlock more potential and improve their competitive edge.

• Letter by the Chairperson of the Trustees

  Welcome to Girl Stats – 

  We believe that an empowered, skilled female workforce is a driver for business success and we see a future where businesses and societies can propel women into decision-making positions, shatter gender stereotypes, and simultaneously improve their competitive edge. 

  Drawing on my experience as president of Verisk Maplecroft and my long career, together with my understanding of business needs and of women in the workplace, we launched Girl Stats in 2018 as an initiative that provides insightful data and analytics to influence responsible investment, lending and procurement decisions that benefit girls globally. 

  I firmly believe that for businesses to continue to thrive, it is essential to invest in the future of girls now. We want to demonstrate that over time and with the right support, girls can spur universal gains and be agents for positive change in workplaces and society alike. We want to unlock the potential of the next generation of girls and help them take greater control of their lives by changing their status in society so that they can make choices that they, their families and communities value and that help them all thrive. 

  It’s all about helping to empower girls to help themselves as they enter the workplace. This requires the creation of new domains for women in growth sectors and to break through barriers that create gendered division of work. We believe that they main ingredients to support the type of decision making that can make lasting change happen are data-driven solutions, increased access to information and ensuring a continuous and virtuous cycle of learning. 

  By providing the resources and tools to inform businesses and their investment decision, we support companies and their supply chains to elevate girls into leadership positions so that they can advocate for the improvement of gender responsive workplace policies and practices once they begin working. 

  Thank you for your interest in the organisations, and I hope you will join our mission and support the sustainable future of girls. 

  All the best,

   

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Sondra Scott
  

  Chairperson of the Trustees, Girl Stats 

  President of Verisk Maplecroft

  
  

• Untapped Potential

  Population of girls aged 15-24 (2015): 578 million

  Girls aged 15-24 make up 15.9% of the world’s population. However, of that figure, only 34% are employed, a figure that has been decreasing since 2006. While this decrease can be attributed partially to strengthened efforts to tackle child labour, girls continue to be disproportionately affected by unemployment and early exit from the labour market. Girls and young women are also more likely to face higher risks of vulnerable employment (i.e. self-employment or working as part of a family business). These factors have a significant impact on economic development. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that the countries with the largest gender gaps in the labour force incur income losses of up to 30% of GDP per capita. 

  Why are girls absent from the labour market?

  • Poverty: In many countries, boys’ education is prioritised when low-income families cannot afford the direct costs of sending all of their children to school.
    
  • Early drop-out rates: Often, young girls bear the chore burden in the home, and many do not complete their schooling due to family responsibilities. Child marriage and pregnancy also play central roles in why many girls leave education early.
    
  • Child marriage: Although child marriage is a human rights violation, in developing countries one in every three girls is married before the age of 18, and one in every nine is married under the age of 15. Child marriage has serious implications for a girls health and career prospects. This negative impact on girls’ employment prospects can also have a long-term effect on the wider family unit. 
    
  • Pregnancy: 7.3 million babies are born to girls under the age of 18 each year. Pregnancy is the second leading cause of death among adolescent girls aged 15-19 globally. Along with the significant health consequences, pregnancy affects both a girl’s education and her potential to earn an income. Many girls will drop out of school to assume household and childcare responsibilities. In some countries, such as Sierra Leone, girls are prohibited from attending school once they fall pregnant.
    
  • Conflict: Girls continue to be disproportionately affected by conflict and emergencies. The use of rape and sexual violence by security forces against girls not only contributes to early pregnancies and the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, but in some cultures it can also ‘dishonour’ a girl, reducing her chance of marrying at a later stage. Conflict also negatively impacts girls’ education and their access to healthcare as families will often forbid girls from leaving the home during outbreaks of violence.
    
  • Cultural values and legal framework discouraging women to work: In some countries, girls require the express permission of their husband or male guardian to go to school, work and travel. 
    

  Encouraging girls’ economic empowerment makes sense

  • A wider tax base for governments: More girls working means greater contributions to government taxes and associated welfare provisions.
    
  • Increased purchasing power for girls: More money is usually available in women-headed households as women tend to spend less on themselves and more on their families. 
  • Substantial positive multiplier effects: Women’s economic empowerment has a direct positive impact on the health and educational outcomes within a household.
  • A new inheritance paradigm: When labour market opportunities improve, gender bias in inheritance is reduced. As children begin to seek work outside their parental occupation, families are less likely to discriminate between sons and daughters in terms of inheritance. Rather, wealth is viewed by parents as a human capital investment rather than as work incentives for sons. 

  
  

• Business Case - Women, The Fashion Industry, and Global Development

  The fashion industry is a USD1.2 trillion industry that employs approximately 60 - 75 million people worldwide. The industry is global, with supply and value chains spread across many countries and continents and is often characterized as a ‘stepping stone to development’. It is a buyer-driven value chain, meaning multinational retailers, often headquartered in Europe and North America, set the market and prices, while the manufacturing labor is outsourced to less developed and developing countries. Not only are women the primary consumers of fashion, but also comprise the majority of garment workers.

  Both women and the fashion industry have immense potential for encouraging sustainable global development. Research has shown that investment in women’s empowerment is vital to economic growth, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that the countries with the largest gender gaps in the labor forceincur income losses of up to 30% of GDP per capita.  Businesses are key to bridging these gaps; not only do they stand to benefit from increased economic growth in sourcing markets, but they also have a responsibility to contribute to the Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly SDG 8 on Gender Equality. Given its role in the global economy and its predominantly female labor force, the fashion industry should become a model for investment in women’s empowerment in favor of the sustainable development.

  The Issues

  Although the fashion industry consists mainly of women, it frequently engages in unethical practices that inhibit gender equality. The majority of garment workers are low-paid, informal laborer’s in countries where societal gender discrimination bleeds into the workspace. As a result, female garment manufacturers often bear the price of increasingly complex global supply chains and the emergence of fast, cheap fashion.The main issues that are perpetrated by and ultimately hinder industry success are insufficient living wage, workplace abuse, and exploitation through overworking in unsafe conditions.

  Insufficient Living Wage

  The Global Living Wage Coalition defines a living wage as the compensation received by a worker for a standard workweek that adequately affords a decent standard of living for the worker and their family. A decent standard of living includes access to food, water, housing, education, healthcare, transport, and other necessities. Most workers in the global garment industry do not earn more than $2 per day, and are often paid less than the national poverty levels established by governments and organizations such as the United Nations and World Bank. Frequently, the minimum wage rates instituted by governments in developing areas are calculated in a competitive context and are based on a desire to attract trade. Research even indicates that many suppliers do not pay workers the legal minimum. These offenses are protected by limited job security for workers and strict anti-unionism. Women are often especially impacted by these exploitations, as they already face a gender wage disparity and cultural barriers that prevent them from speaking out against their predominantly male supervisors.

  Workplace Abuse

  Physical and sexual violence is another major issue women garment workers face, given their power dynamic with predominantly male factory supervisors and the insecure nature of their manufacturing jobs. Female apparel workers may find it difficult to escape these aggressions, as they do not have the financial security to quit or resist speaking out in fear of the social stigma of experiencing abuse. Women in India are especially vulnerable to workplace abuse, as demonstrated in a 2015 report by international NGO Sisters for Change. The study of 400,000 female garment workers in Karnataka, India’s textile capital, found that 1 in 14 women experienced physical abuse at work, while 1 in 7 had been raped or sexually assaulted in the workplace.

  Exploitation Through Overworking in Unsafe Conditions

  In 2013, one of the deadliest disasters in garment industry history occurred when the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed. More than 1,100 people were killed, and many were garment manufacturers that supplied goods to major retailers in Europe and the United States. Since the incident, there have been motions to create safer workspaces for apparel laborer’s, but the reality is that most garment workers toil in hazardous conditions for unrealistic stretches of time. Extremely long work days resulting from pressure to meet production quotas cause a variety of health issues that often go untreated. As deadlines approach, factory managers may force unpaid overtime, lock doors, and prevent workers from taking bathroom breaks. Unjustly long hours especially negatively impact women, as many face pressures to not only work, but also to uphold household duties when their workday ends.

  Solutions

  These offenses are not only harmful to employees, but to businesses themselves. For an average item of clothing, only between 0.5-3% of the cost goes to the worker who made it.This statistic indicates that there is a lot more potential to reallocate investment in manufacturers’ wages and safety, which is proven to be a profitable endeavor. Research suggests that companies and laborer’s alike benefit from the institution of living wages, because successful businesses invest in their employees as strategic assets.Businesses have a responsibility to keep their workers safe and investing in employee salaries and protection means investing in productivity and risk management.

  Despite these issues, the garment industry presents a promising opportunity for setting a CSR example in bettering the lives of women. “In the apparel sector, 80% of supply chain workers are women. So, it just makes better business sense to engage in women’s empowerment and really understand what the needs of these supply chain workers are and how can we not only help benefit them but benefit their communities.” Says a CSR professional at one of the world’s largest apparel companies. With increased investment in supply chain ethics and women workers, the fashion industry can set not only clothing and beauty trends, but also lead the way for industries in CSR. 

  E. Fayette Plambeck

• FAQS

  Q: What is Girl Stats?

  We are an independent UK registered non-governmental organisation whose mission is to be the authoritative source of data and analytics that helps businesses improve the lives of adolescent girls and young women by empowering them to fulfil their social and economic potential. 

  Q: How do you achieve this?

  We work to achieve our mission through our interactive platform, that offers global data on adolescent girls and young women (aged 15-24). We use this data to work with businesses and communities to help them understand the issues that girls face, as well as the factors that drive these issues. This enables companies and their supply chains to make informed decisions that promote better outcomes for adolescent girls and young women, providing them with a path out of poverty.

  Q: Why adolescent girls and young women?
  

  Girls represent an important group of potential employees in both developed economies and emerging markets. Yet, across the globe, girls and young women face a number of legal, societal, cultural and religious barriers that prevent them from achieving their full social and economic potential. According to the World Bank, globally women have just 75% of men’s legal rights, and over 2.7 billion women are legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs as men. Such inherent gender discrimination means that girls often leave school earlier and are more likely to be affected by early exit from the labour market and unemployment, and subsequently find themselves trapped in exploitative jobs in the informal sector. Consequently female workers tend to be employed in low-paid, unskilled, low-value and low-status occupations and rarely hold positions of power, which prevents them from achieving full equality with their male counterparts. 

  Q: What is your area of focus?

  Currently we are focusing on the apparel industry where women make up 75% of workers worldwide. The vast majority of them are young women under the age of 30 and are located in countries where gender discrimination permeates the workspace. According to the World Bank (2016) female garment workers in particular face an inequitable access to good quality jobs and there are persistent inequalities in earnings, work-hours and in the types of jobs that men and women do.

  Q: What is your vision?

  We see a future where businesses and societies harness an empowered, skilled female workforce, thereby increasing purchasing power, generating wider tax bases, creating a new inheritance paradigm and producing better outcomes for health and education. But such a paradigm shift is only possible if we invest in girls now. 

  Q: Why should businesses invest in girls? 

  Girls are agents of change and essential for addressing and solving some of the most persistent development issues facing our world today. By engaging with the issues girls face and by investing in their development, businesses have the unique opportunity to directly benefit and impact global societies and drive economic growth. Subsequently businesses can:  

  o  Recruit and retain a bigger skilled workforce and improve their competitive edge

  Educated girls and women are healthier, have the skills to make choices over their own future and can subsequently lift themselves and their communities out of poverty, thereby contributing to positive development outcomes.

  o  Access a bigger and wealthier customer-base

  When more women work, economies will grow because women’s economic empowerment boosts productivity, increases economic diversification and income equality (IMF). An increase in income allows families to have more quality resources to sustain a higher standard of living.

  o  Unlock untapped potential

  Women reinvest up to 90% of their income back into their families, compared to just 30-40% by men, and empowered mothers provide better nutrition and health care as they spend more on their children (World Bank).  Investing in girls therefore creates long-term social and economic benefits for all individuals in the home, their communities, and the world as a whole. 

  o  Accelerate innovation 

  Women’s and girls’ educational attainment is essential for women’s economic empowerment, and contributes towards the construction of social capital, long-term inclusive economic growth and innovation. According to the OECD increased education accounted for about 50% of the economic growth in OECD countries in the past 50 years, which has a lot to do with bringing more girls to higher levels of education and achieving greater equality in the number of years spent in education between men and women. 

  o  Help combat climate change through an economically empowered and educated generation 

  One year of female schooling reduces fertility by 10% according to the UN. A key solution to tackling climate change therefore lies in educating girls and supporting family planning.

  o  Improve health, and reduce fertility rates and poverty levels

  Educating adolescent girls decreases fertility rates, cases of HIV/AIDS and overall health. In Morocco for example, 66% of women with secondary education use contraception which led to a decrease in maternal mortality rates by 60% between 1990 to 2009. Family planning and access to contraceptives enables millions of girls to stay in school, saves lives and has the capacity to lift entire communities out of poverty. 

  o  Influencing GNP of a nation and reducing gender pay gaps  

  The returns of education are vast; for every additional year of schooling the adult population has on average  a country’s GDP will increase by 0.37%. According to the World Bank, the barriers preventing women from fulfilling their economic potential are estimated to have cost the Asia-Pacific region around $42-46 billion in GDP losses.

  Q: How does Girl Stats empower businesses?

  We use data and tools that help companies to identify gaps, better target their investments and develop initiatives that positively impact the lives of girls in their global operations, supply chains and local communities. 

  Q: What does your data cover? 

  Girl Stats provides sex-disaggregated indicators that measure the most important gender issues across six categories; health & wellbeing, education, legal status, employment, migration and conflict & security. All indicators are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal targets to help companies determine where they can contribute to the SDGs. 

  Q: Where do you get your data from?

  We collect our data from a number of open data sources: Wold Bank, OECD, FAO, UN Data, CIA Factbook, WHO, UN Population Division, UNICEF, UNODC, ILO, UN Gender Statistics, UN Development, World Economic Forum, Small Arms Survey and the UN.

  Q: How often do you update your data?

  We updated our indicators and data sets annually, in the first quarter of the year. 

  Q: What does ‘no data’ mean?

  'No data' highlights where data gaps exist. The lack of sex-disaggregated data demonstrates the need for greater research on the situation of adolescent girls and young women around the world.  

  Q: Where are you based?

  We are based in London, UK, and work with a global team of data, analytics and risk specialist.

  Q: How is Girl Stats funded?

  We are entirely philanthropically funded by our founding partner Verisk .  

  Q: Who are your implementing partners?

  Girl Stats main implementing partner is Verisk Maplecroft, which specialises in providing data-driven solutions and insight into the primary political risk, human rights, economic and environmental issues impacting organisational resilience, sustainable sourcing and the investment landscapes.