Girls' Advocacy Alliance Philippines SUMMARY 
The Girls Advocacy Programme in the Philippines is part of a broader initiative by an alliance comprising of Plan International Netherlands, Defence for Children – ECPAT Netherlands and Terre des Hommes Netherlands. It promotes equal rights and opportunities for girls and young women, reducing poverty and stimulating inclusive economic growth. Particular emphasis is being placed on improving policies and practices for the eradication of violence against girls and women and ending their economic exclusion. In the Philippines, the Programme is being implemented by Plan Philippines and Terre des Hommes. The Girls Advocacy Programme runs from January 2016 to December 2020, and is carried out in 4 regions. Through lobby and advocacy, the programme works with government, traditional leaders, private sector agents, local CSO’s and youth advocates to reduce child trafficking, the commercial sexual exploitation of children and the economic exclusion of young women. 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. 

Due to culturally accepted gender biases, girls are discriminated against from an early age. They take over the stereotyped role of their mothers, who are often abused and submissive women relegated to domestic work. Moreover, men there see girls and women as sex objects, typically regarding them as club/bar entertainers, beauty-pageant contestants or the stars of pornographic films. The low esteem with which women and girls are held by the Philippines’ society is made even worse by other problems. These include extreme poverty, a low percentage of girls completing their education, few jobs in rural areas, massive labour migration, aggressive tourism campaigns, and the negative ways that girls and women are shown in the media. All these factors make girls and women easy victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and economic exclusion. 
Physical and economic aspects of gender-equality are intertwined. A lack of economic opportunities makes it very difficult for girls and young women to refuse child marriage and makes them more vulnerable to child trafficking and commercial and sexual exploitation. Equality in laws and policies does not necessarily mean that girls and young women enjoy the same development outcomes and benefits as boys and men. The Theory of Change for the Girls Advocacy Programme in the Philippines follows four interrelated paths. 

Three of these lead to legislation, understanding, adherence to and the 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 civil society organisations (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. It also leads to the changing 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. For Plan, in particular, there are important experiences that can be taken into account and exploited from its counter-trafficking programming. The end beneficiaries of the Girls Advocacy Programme of Plan Philippines will be girls and young women (up to the age of 24) in xx districts. The programme focuses on four strategic goals.
1.	Public support for the eradication of GBV and for the economic inclusion of girls and young women, will be increased.
2.	The influence of CSOs and networks (particularly girls’ and young women’s organisations) on governmental and corporate/private-sector actors to eradicate GBV and support the economic inclusion of girls and young women, will be increased. 
3.	The policies and practices of corporate/private-sector actors that support the eradication of GBV and support the economic inclusion of women, will be improved.
4.	Legislation and public policies, as well as improved practices of governmental actors, that support the prevention of GBV and support the economic inclusion of women, 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 eradicate GBV and support the economic inclusion 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. It also includes improving the activities of governmental actors that support the prevention and eradication of GBV and support the economic inclusion of girls and young women. Specific methods used to influence policies are lobbying, advocacy (including media campaigns and ICT), research and linking & networking. The changes that will be introduced by the Girls Advocacy Programme in the Philippines will be sustainable. Moreover, 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 strengthening the capacity 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 completion 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. Learning and reflection are important aspects of the programme. In 2016, a learning agenda will be worked out and this will focus on the continuous assessment of the assumptions underlying the programme’s design and Theories of Change. These will be reviewed critically every year at country, regional and alliance levels, resulting in strategic adjustments where necessary to ensure the maximum effectiveness of the interventions. 

Learning will also be an outcome of the programme’s evaluation agenda. A baseline will be conducted in the first half of 2016 and a mid-term review and final evaluation are scheduled for 2018 and 2020 respectively. The lobbying and advocacy part of the programme and its thematic orientation on GBV and economic empowerment will provide plenty of opportunities for visibility in the Philippines. This will mainly be through newspaper articles, radio and television interviews and programmes, presentations during conferences and media and public campaigns. Visibility in the Netherlands will be focused on providing input for evidence-based lobbying of the Dutch government (“dialogue and dissent”) and corporate companies and multinationals. There will also be opportunities for visibility through newspaper and magazine (Vice Versa) articles, radio interviews and presentations during forums and conferences.