I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1661 

To support and expand civic engagement and political leadership of adolescent 

girls around the world, and other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 8, 2021 

Mr. TRONE (for himself and Mrs. RODGERS of Washington) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To support and expand civic engagement and political leadership of adolescent girls around the world, and other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Girls Leadership, En5 gagement, Agency, and Development Act of 2021’’ or the 

6 ‘‘Girls LEAD Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

8 Congress makes the following findings: 

9 (1) Inclusive democracy and governance are 

10 fundamental objectives and critical foundations for 


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1 sustainable development and global peace. Pro2 motion of democracy, human rights, and governance 

3 is a reflection of fundamental American values and 

4 identity. 

5 (2) Democracies score consistently higher than 

6 nondemocracies on a broad range of socioeconomic 

7 development indicators, including infant and child 

8 mortality, life expectancy, primary school enrollment, 

9 adult literacy, female youth literacy, female sec10 ondary school enrollment, and access to clean water. 

11 (3) Women’s political participation results in 

12 tangible gains for democracy, including greater re13 sponsiveness to citizen needs, increased cooperation 

14 across party and ethnic lines, and more sustainable 

15 peace, as emphasized in the Women, Peace, and Se16 curity Act (Public Law 115–68). 

17 (4) Women in leadership positions are more 

18 likely to resolve national crises without resorting to 

19 violence, sustain peace agreements over longer peri20 ods of time, advocate for social issues that benefit 

21 all, and allocate budgets to health and education. 

22 (5) Despite comprising over 50 percent of the 

23 world’s population, women are underrepresented at 

24 all levels of public sector decision making. At the 


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1 current rate of progress, it will take over 100 years 

2 to achieve gender parity in political participation. 

3 (6) Engaging adolescent girls more in civil and 

4 political activities contributes to increased political 

5 participation and women’s leadership around the 

6 world over time. Adolescents who participate actively 

7 in their community from early on are more likely to 

8 become engaged citizens and voters, with higher lev9 els of ambition for future leadership positions in 

10 both politics and the private sector. Their safe, 

11 meaningful, and appropriate participation is key to 

12 creating democratic societies with informed and en13 gaged citizens. 

14 (7) Adolescence is a critical period in a girl’s 

15 life, when significant physical, emotional, and social 

16 changes shape her future. Adolescent girls are par17 ticularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and other STDs 

18 and STIs, child, early, and forced marriage, and 

19 other forms of gender-based violence, including traf20 ficking in persons and sexual exploitation, harass21 ment, and assault, which are detrimental to their fu22 tures. 

23 (8) School closures related to the COVID–19 

24 pandemic have pushed nearly 743,000,000 girls 

25 around the world out of school, on top of the apVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:08 May 05, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1661.IH H1661

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1 proximately 132,000,000 girls between the ages of 6 

2 and 17 already out of school. 

3 (9) The economic impacts of the COVID–19 

4 crisis are projected to put an additional 2,500,000 

5 girls at risk of child marriage between 2020 and 

6 2025, in addition to the 12,000,000 adolescent girls 

7 under 18 who will marry annually. The number one 

8 cause of death for adolescent girls 15 to 19 years old 

9 is childbirth, and 90 percent of births to adolescent 

10 girls 15 to 19 occur within a marriage. 

11 (10) Every 10 minutes, somewhere in the 

12 world, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence. 

13 A girl’s risk of dying as a result of violence increases 

14 from early to late adolescence. Violence is the second 

15 leading cause of death among adolescent girls glob16 ally. Girls with disabilities may face up to 10 times 

17 more violence than girls without disabilities. 

18 (11) Empowering adolescent girls and young 

19 women in childhood and as they transition to become 

20 adults, investing in their leadership potential, and 

21 ensuring there are established pathways to positions 

22 of political leadership and civic engagement con23 tribute to ensuring a world where women can thrive 

24 as political leaders and decision makers, in economic 

25 spaces and across society as a whole. 


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1 SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

2 It shall be the international development policy of the 

3 United States to— 

4 (1) promote and ensure that all adolescents 

5 from the most marginalized populations, including 

6 both girls and boys, are able to fully participate in 

7 society, and are specifically able to exercise their 

8 civil and political rights as agents of change in their 

9 communities and countries; 

10 (2) increase the capability of adolescents, par11 ticularly adolescent girls, in assuming leadership 

12 roles, holding decision makers to account, and influ13 encing decision making at the household, commu14 nity, and societal levels; 

15 (3) ensure meaningful engagement and con16 sultation with adolescents, particularly adolescent 

17 girls, to ensure that United States foreign assistance 

18 initiatives, including the planning, implementation, 

19 and evaluation of projects, are effective and respon20 sive to this input with a focus on country and com21 munity ownership; 

22 (4) ensure that consultation processes are 

23 transparent, voluntary, inclusive, safe, respectful, 

24 and responsive to structural barriers affecting ado25 lescent girls’ meaningful engagement; 


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1 (5) actively work to decrease discrimination to2 wards, and the abuses of, the rights of adolescent 

3 girls, particularly among the most vulnerable popu4 lations; and 

5 (6) utilize evidence-based approaches and prac6 tices in developing such programs, including taking 

7 into account the role of family, religious, and com8 munity leaders in creating supportive environments, 

9 the identification of mentors and role models, and 

10 the creation of safe spaces for adolescent girls. 

11 SEC. 4. STRATEGY TO ENCOURAGE THE CIVIC AND POLIT12 ICAL PARTICIPATION OF ADOLESCENT 

13 GIRLS. 

14 (a) STRATEGY REQUIRED.—Not later than one year 

15 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 

16 of State and the Administrator of the United States Agen17 cy for International Development shall jointly submit, sep18 arate from or as part of other public strategies, to the 

19 appropriate congressional committees and make publicly 

20 available a single strategy on strengthening the participa21 tion of adolescents, particularly adolescent girls, in democ22 racy, human rights, and governance. The strategy shall 

23 include a detailed description of how each agency’s democ24 racy and governance center intends to fulfill the policy ob25 jectives set forth in section 3. 


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1 (b) ELEMENTS.—The strategy submitted under sub2 section (a) shall include the following elements: 

3 (1) A specific implementation plan from each of 

4 the relevant Federal agencies that describes— 

5 (A) the anticipated contributions of the 

6 agency, including technical, financial, and in7 kind contributions, to implement the strategy; 

8 and 

9 (B) the efforts of the agency to ensure 

10 that the policies and initiatives carried out pur11 suant to the strategy are designed to achieve 

12 maximum impact and long-term sustainability. 

13 (2) Strategic objectives and activities, including 

14 social accountability, research, and learning, to ad15 vance the leadership, civic, and political engagement 

16 of adolescents, particularly adolescent girls, includ17 ing a description of how such efforts will advance 

18 gender equality and reduce the distinct barriers that 

19 adolescent girls and boys each face, including the 

20 most marginalized adolescents, to their civic partici21 pation in existing structures, institutions, and the 

22 broader enabling environment. 

23 (3) Metrics, benchmarks, and a monitoring, 

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1 ability and effectiveness of all activities related to 

2 the policy objectives set forth in section 3. 

3 (4) An explanation of how such objectives and 

4 activities will be aligned with existing United States 

5 foreign assistance policies and strategies relevant to 

6 promoting global gender equality and women’s and 

7 girls’ empowerment. 

8 (5) An explanation of how gender analysis has 

9 informed the strategy and implementation plan, in10 cluding the strategic objectives and activities to ad11 vance the leadership, civic, and political engagement 

12 of adolescents. 

13 (6) Plans for consultations with civil society 

14 that include girl-led and women’s organizations and 

15 other local civil society in partner countries, United 

16 States civil society, and other stakeholders to inform 

17 the development and implementation of the strategy, 

18 the creation of metrics, and the monitoring and eval19 uation of program interventions. 

20 (c) CONSULTATION.—The strategy required under 

21 subsection (a) shall be developed in consultation with civil 

22 society in the United States and affected foreign countries, 

23 including adolescent girls. 


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1 SEC. 5. IMPLEMENTATION OF FOREIGN ASSISTANCE 

2 PROJECTS, PROGRAMS, AND ACTIVITIES. 

3 The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the 

4 United States Agency for International Development shall 

5 implement United States foreign assistance projects, pro6 grams, and activities designed to strengthen the participa7 tion of adolescents, particularly adolescent girls, in democ8 racy, human rights, and governance, including— 

9 (1) increasing adolescent girls’ civic and polit10 ical knowledge and foundational skills, advocacy, 

11 confidence, leadership and research skills, leadership 

12 opportunities, intergenerational mentorship opportu13 nities, data and media literacy, and supporting their 

14 meaningful political participation and engagement in 

15 civil society and the public sphere; 

16 (2) addressing barriers to adolescent girls’ and 

17 women’s civic engagement and political participation, 

18 and integrating engagement of men and boys, fami19 lies, community leaders, religious leaders, schools, 

20 political bodies, government bodies, and other stake21 holders to improve the enabling environment for ad22 olescent girls’ civic and political participation; 

23 (3) identifying and taking into account other 

24 barriers to adolescent girls’ civic and political en25 gagement, including child, early and forced mar26 riage, access to quality primary and secondary eduVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:47 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1661.IH H1661

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1 cation, unequal childcare responsibilities, gender2 based violence, early pregnancy and motherhood, ad3 olescent maternal mortality, mobility constraints, 

4 malnourishment, displacement, lack of safe and reli5 able female sanitation and hygiene facilities, harmful 

6 social norms, HIV infection, physical, communica7 tion, and attitudinal barriers faced by adolescent 

8 girls with disabilities, and discrimination based on 

9 religious or ethnic identity; 

10 (4) integrating feedback from program partici11 pants into the monitoring, evaluation, and learning 

12 processes of relevant United States departments or 

13 agencies; 

14 (5) supporting girl-led and girl-focused civil so15 ciety organizations with flexible, sustainable funding 

16 and technical support; 

17 (6) targeted efforts to increase work with part18 ner country governments, alongside local civil-society 

19 organizations, and to build greater allyship among 

20 men and boys for adolescent girls; 

21 (7) ensuring age-appropriate and gender-sen22 sitive child-safeguarding provisions for all programs 

23 that engage participants under the age of 18; and 

24 (8) ensuring adolescents, particularly adolescent 

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1 vironments so that they successfully enter adulthood 

2 with skills which empower their leadership within 

3 their communities or governments. 

4 SEC. 6. PRIORITIZATION OF SPENDING. 

5 The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the 

6 United States Agency for International Development shall 

7 prioritize foreign assistance funding made available for de8 mocracy, human rights, and governance programs in ac9 cordance with this Act. 

10 SEC. 7. ANNUAL REPORT. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 

12 date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 

13 the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the 

14 United States Agency for International Development shall 

15 jointly submit to the appropriate congressional committees 

16 a report on progress made by relevant United States Gov17 ernment agencies towards increasing civic and political 

18 participation of adolescent girls and boys around the 

19 world, separate from or as part of other mandated public 

20 reporting on efforts to advance gender equality and adoles21 cent girls’ empowerment. 

22 (b) ELEMENTS.—The report required under sub23 section (a) shall include the following elements: 

24 (1) An estimate of the number of people 

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1 ed foreign assistance or development projects 

2 disaggregated by age and sex. 

3 (2) A description of how adolescent girls, par4 ticularly among the most vulnerable populations, are 

5 integrated into existing democracy, human rights, 

6 governance, and rule of law programming. 

7 (3) The percentage of program participants 

8 that are adolescent girls in all new democracy, 

9 human rights, and governance programs focused on 

10 issues, including civic engagement, political partici11 pation, advocacy, research, and leadership develop12 ment, the percentage of funds spent on those pro13 grams that focus on adolescent girls, and the coun14 tries in which those programs take place. 

15 (4) The number of democracy, human rights, 

16 and governance programs created to improve or that 

17 otherwise support civic engagement, political partici18 pation, and leadership of adolescent girls, the 

19 amount of funds spent on those programs, and the 

20 countries in which those programs take place. 

21 (c) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The report required 

22 under subsection (a) shall be posted and made available 

23 on a text-based, searchable, and publicly available internet 

24 website of the United States Agency for International De25 velopment. 


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1 SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act— 

3 (1) the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com4 mittees’’ means— 

5 (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations 

6 and the Committee on Appropriations of the 

7 Senate; and 

8 (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 

9 the Committee on Appropriations of the House 

10 of Representatives; 

11 (2) the term ‘‘foreign assistance’’ has the mean12 ing given the term in section 634(b) of the Foreign 

13 Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2394(b)); and 

14 (3) the term ‘‘gender analysis’’ has the meaning 

15 given the term in section 3(a) of the Women’s En16 trepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 

17 2018 (Public Law 115–428). 

Æ 


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