Girls' Advocacy Alliance Uganda SUMMARY 
The Girls Advocacy Alliance Programme of Plan in Uganda is part of the Girls Advocacy Alliance Programme of Plan International Netherlands (lead), Defence for Children – ECPAT Netherlands and Terre des Hommes Netherlands that promotes equal rights and opportunities for girls and young women and stimulates inclusive economic growth. Particular emphasis is being placed on improving policies and practices for the elimination of violence against girls and women and ending their economic exclusion. In Uganda, the programme is implemented by Plan Uganda and Terre des Hommes. The Girls Advocacy Programme by Plan in Uganda started in January 2016 and will run for five years. Through lobby and advocacy, linking and networking and capacity building, the programme contributes to eliminating child marriage, commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labour and economic exclusion on community level (Kampala, Tororo, Bukedea, Lira, Kamuli, Buyende and Alebtong) and national level. Violence against girls and young women and the denial of their economic rights stand in the way of achieving meaningful gender equality. Serious violations of these human rights are affecting millions of girls and young women. Societies pay a high price for not tackling these issues. 

Studies have indicated that child marriage is a product of social values, cultural norms and economic motives. In general, there is a strong link between poverty and child marriage. Child marriage is the leading cause of school dropout (31%) and teenage pregnancies for girls in Uganda (83%). Girls who are married early not only jeopardize their future economic security, but also experience social exclusion as they are often separated from their families and friends. 

In regard to CSEC, one study  in Uganda estimated the number of children affected by CSEC in 2011 to be 18,000 with more girls affected than boys. The study identified the key drivers for CSEC as lack of responsible parental care  and lack of sustainable opportunities for education . 

Trafficking was identified as one of the conduits of CSEC with most female victims of trafficking ending up in prostitution. There is little information on the actual number of trafficking victims due to its clandestine nature.  However one ILO study  revealed that a high number of girls are trafficked at a later age between 15 – 19 years compared to boys who are trafficked at the early age bracket of 10-14 years.  This is partly because younger girls are more protected and their movements restricted as compared to boys. A big number of girls who are trafficked end up working as child domestic workers or in CSEC.  The main factors that exacerbate the problem of child trafficking are children dropping out of school and lack of professional skills/ training. Children who drop out of school and have no skills often get involved in any activity that could boost their survival and thus easily fall prey to trafficking. The Theory of Change for the Girls Advocacy Programme in Uganda follows four interrelated paths. 

Three of these lead to legislation, understanding, adherence and monitoring of public and private policies and practices regarding violence against girls and young women and their economic empowerment. Each focuses on a specific type of actor: (1) government officials at national, state, province, district and community level, and representatives of customary systems; (2) private sector actors; and (3) girls’ and women’s organisations and other CSOs and CSO networks with enhanced organisational and advocacy capacity. 

The fourth path leads to the abandonment of social norms and practices that discriminate against gender and to the change of deeply rooted and widely upheld beliefs that negatively affect policy makers, local government officials, local courts and/or service providers’ willingness to adopt and implement gender equality policies. The main actors are community, traditional and religious leaders and other key opinion leaders. 

Each of the paths will entail three levels of change: agenda setting, policy setting and, ultimately, changes in practices. The Girls Advocacy Programme builds on the outcomes realised, lessons learned and relationships built up by the three alliance organisations during various programmes. 

The Girl Power Programme focused on the political and economic empowerment of girls and young women, making them better protected against sexual and other forms of gender-based violence and improving their access to secondary education. The Girls Advocacy Programme will build on the thematic and strategic expertise and experience that was gained during the Girl Power Programme, including partnering, networking and lobbying and advocacy. The end beneficiaries of the Girls Advocacy Programme of Plan in Uganda will be girls and young women (up to the age of 24) in selected districts. The programme focuses on four strategic goals.
1.	Public support for the elimination of gender-based violence and the economic exclusion of girls and young women, will be increased.
2.	The influence of civil society organisations and networks (particularly girls’ and young women’s organisations) on governmental and corporate/private-sector actors to eliminate gender-based violence and the economic exclusion of girls and young women, will be increased. 
3.	The policies and practices of corporate/private-sector actors that support the elimination of gender-based violence and economic exclusion, will be improved.
4.	Legislation and public policies, as well as improved practices of governmental actors, that support the prevention of gender-based violence and economic exclusion, will be effectively implemented.

The programme embraces two main strategies. 
The first of these involves strengthening CSOs and networks (particularly girls’ and young women’s organisations). This will make them better able to influence government and private-sector actors to eliminate gender-based violence and the economic exclusion of girls and young women.
 
The second of these strategies entails policy influencing for increased public support, improved policies and practices of private-sector actors, as well as for the effective implementation of legislation and public policies and the improvement of practices of governmental actors that support the prevention and elimination of gender-based violence and economic exclusion. Specific strategies for policy influencing are lobby, advocacy (including media campaigns and ICT), research and linking & networking. The changes that will be instigated by the Girls Advocacy Programme in Uganda will be sustainable. The main strategies of the programme, which are capacity development and policy influencing, will both underscore sustainability. Institutional sustainability will be ensured by the programme’s focus on capacity strengthening of all local partner organisations. This will be based on carrying out assessments of individual organisational capacity and then annual assessments of the progress on custom developed capacity-strengthening plans. The financial sustainability of the programme’s outcomes and, more notably, the processes of change it will initiate, will depend on the financial and organisational sustainability of local partner organisations after the life of the programme. These aspects will receive plenty of attention during the capacity-strengthening trajectories that will be developed and rolled out with all local partner organisations. Inclusivity is an important principle of the programme and this will also be embedded in the capacity-development activities.