Girls' Leadership, Engagement, Agency, and Development Act of 2021 or the Girls LEAD Act
This bill directs the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to jointly report to Congress a strategy to strengthen the participation of adolescents, particularly girls, in democracy, human rights, and governance.
The State Department and the USAID shall (1) implement activities to achieve this goal, including activities to increase adolescent girls' civic and political knowledge and skills and address barriers to political participation; and (2) prioritize foreign assistance funding for democracy, human rights, and governance programs toward achieving the goals in this bill.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 634 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 634
To support and expand civic engagement and political leadership of
adolescent girls around the world, and other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 9, 2021
Ms. Collins (for herself and Mr. Cardin) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To support and expand civic engagement and political leadership of
adolescent girls around the world, and other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Girls Leadership, Engagement,
Agency, and Development Act of 2021'' or the ``Girls LEAD Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Inclusive democracy and governance are fundamental
objectives and critical foundations for sustainable development
and global peace. Promotion of democracy, human rights, and
governance is a reflection of fundamental American values and
identity.
(2) Democracies score consistently higher than
nondemocracies on a broad range of socioeconomic development
indicators, including infant and child mortality, life
expectancy, primary school enrollment, adult literacy, female
youth literacy, female secondary school enrollment, and access
to clean water.
(3) Women's political participation results in tangible
gains for democracy, including greater responsiveness to
citizen needs, increased cooperation across party and ethnic
lines, and more sustainable peace, as emphasized in the Women,
Peace, and Security Act (Public Law 115-68).
(4) Women in leadership positions are more likely to
resolve national crises without resorting to violence, sustain
peace agreements over longer periods of time, advocate for
social issues that benefit all, and allocate budgets to health
and education.
(5) Despite comprising over 50 percent of the world's
population, women are underrepresented at all levels of public
sector decision making. At the current rate of progress, it
will take over 100 years to achieve gender parity in political
participation.
(6) Engaging adolescent girls more in civil and political
activities contributes to increased political participation and
women's leadership around the world over time. Adolescents who
participate actively in their community from early on are more
likely to become engaged citizens and voters, with higher
levels of ambition for future leadership positions in both
politics and the private sector. Their safe, meaningful, and
appropriate participation is key to creating democratic
societies with informed and engaged citizens.
(7) Adolescence is a critical period in a girl's life, when
significant physical, emotional, and social changes shape her
future. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV/
AIDS and other STDs and STIs, child, early, and forced
marriage, and other forms of gender-based violence, including
trafficking in persons and sexual exploitation, harassment, and
assault, which are detrimental to their futures.
(8) School closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic have
pushed nearly 743,000,000 girls around the world out of school,
on top of the approximately 132,000,000 girls between the ages
of 6 and 17 already out of school.
(9) The economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are
projected to put an additional 2,500,000 girls at risk of child
marriage between 2020 and 2025, in addition to the 12,000,000
adolescent girls under 18 who will marry annually. The number
one cause of death for adolescent girls 15 to 19 years old is
childbirth, and 90 percent of births to adolescent girls 15 to
19 occur within a marriage.
(10) Every 10 minutes, somewhere in the world, an
adolescent girl dies as a result of violence. A girl's risk of
dying as a result of violence increases from early to late
adolescence. Violence is the second leading cause of death
among adolescent girls globally. Girls with disabilities may
face up to 10 times more violence than girls without
disabilities.
(11) Empowering adolescent girls and young women in
childhood and as they transition to become adults, investing in
their leadership potential, and ensuring there are established
pathways to positions of political leadership and civic
engagement contribute to ensuring a world where women can
thrive as political leaders and decisionmakers, in economic
spaces and across society as a whole.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It shall be the international development policy of the United
States to--
(1) promote and ensure that all adolescents from the most
marginalized populations, including both girls and boys, are
able to fully participate in society, and are specifically able
to exercise their civil and political rights as agents of
change in their communities and countries;
(2) increase the capability of adolescents, particularly
adolescent girls, in assuming leadership roles, holding
decisionmakers to account, and influencing decision making at
the household, community, and societal levels;
(3) ensure meaningful engagement and consultation with
adolescents, particularly adolescent girls, to ensure that
United States foreign assistance initiatives, including the
planning, implementation, and evaluation of projects, are
effective and responsive to this input with a focus on country
and community ownership;
(4) ensure that consultation processes are transparent,
voluntary, inclusive, safe, respectful, and responsive to
structural barriers affecting adolescent girls' meaningful
engagement;
(5) actively work to decrease discrimination towards, and
the abuses of, the rights of adolescent girls, particularly
among the most vulnerable populations; and
(6) utilize evidence-based approaches and practices in
developing such programs, including taking into account the
role of family, religious, and community leaders in creating
supportive environments, the identification of mentors and role
models, and the creation of safe spaces for adolescent girls.
SEC. 4. STRATEGY TO ENCOURAGE THE CIVIC AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF
ADOLESCENT GIRLS.
(a) Strategy Required.--Not later than one year after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State and the Administrator
of the United States Agency for International Development shall jointly
submit, separate from or as part of other public strategies, to the
appropriate congressional committees and make publicly available a
single strategy on strengthening the participation of adolescents,
particularly adolescent girls, in democracy, human rights, and
governance. The strategy shall include a detailed description of how
each agency's democracy and governance center intends to fulfill the
policy objectives set forth in section 3.
(b) Elements.--The strategy submitted under subsection (a) shall
include the following elements:
(1) A specific implementation plan from each of the
relevant Federal agencies that describes--
(A) the anticipated contributions of the agency,
including technical, financial, and in-kind
contributions, to implement the strategy; and
(B) the efforts of the agency to ensure that the
policies and initiatives carried out pursuant to the
strategy are designed to achieve maximum impact and
long-term sustainability.
(2) Strategic objectives and activities, including social
accountability, research, and learning, to advance the
leadership, civic, and political engagement of adolescents,
particularly adolescent girls, including a description of how
such efforts will advance gender equality and reduce the
distinct barriers that adolescent girls and boys each face,
including the most marginalized adolescents, to their civic
participation in existing structures, institutions, and the
broader enabling environment.
(3) Metrics, benchmarks, and a monitoring, evaluation, and
learning plan to ensure the accountability and effectiveness of
all activities related to the policy objectives set forth in
section 3.
(4) An explanation of how such objectives and activities
will be aligned with existing United States foreign assistance
policies and strategies relevant to promoting global gender
equality and women's and girls' empowerment.
(5) An explanation of how gender analysis has informed the
strategy and implementation plan, including the strategic
objectives and activities to advance the leadership, civic, and
political engagement of adolescents.
(6) Plans for consultations with civil society that include
girl-led and women's organizations and other local civil
society in partner countries, United States civil society, and
other stakeholders to inform the development and implementation
of the strategy, the creation of metrics, and the monitoring
and evaluation of program interventions.
(c) Consultation.--The strategy required under subsection (a) shall
be developed in consultation with civil society in the United States
and affected foreign countries, including adolescent girls.
SEC. 5. IMPLEMENTATION OF FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROJECTS, PROGRAMS, AND
ACTIVITIES.
The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States
Agency for International Development shall implement United States
foreign assistance projects, programs, and activities designed to
strengthen the participation of adolescents, particularly adolescent
girls, in democracy, human rights, and governance, including--
(1) increasing adolescent girls' civic and political
knowledge and foundational skills, advocacy, confidence,
leadership and research skills, leadership opportunities,
intergenerational mentorship opportunities, data and media
literacy, and supporting their meaningful political
participation and engagement in civil society and the public
sphere;
(2) addressing barriers to adolescent girls' and women's
civic engagement and political participation, and integrating
engagement of men and boys, families, community leaders,
religious leaders, schools, political bodies, government
bodies, and other stakeholders to improve the enabling
environment for adolescent girls' civic and political
participation;
(3) identifying and taking into account other barriers to
adolescent girls' civic and political engagement, including
child, early and forced marriage, access to quality primary and
secondary education, unequal childcare responsibilities,
gender-based violence, early pregnancy and motherhood,
adolescent maternal mortality, mobility constraints,
malnourishment, displacement, lack of safe and reliable female
sanitation and hygiene facilities, harmful social norms, HIV
infection, physical, communication, and attitudinal barriers
faced by adolescent girls with disabilities, and discrimination
based on religious or ethnic identity;
(4) integrating feedback from program participants into the
monitoring, evaluation, and learning processes of relevant
United States departments or agencies;
(5) supporting girl-led and girl-focused civil society
organizations with flexible, sustainable funding and technical
support;
(6) targeted efforts to increase work with partner country
governments, alongside local civil-society organizations, and
to build greater allyship among men and boys for adolescent
girls;
(7) ensuring age-appropriate and gender-sensitive child-
safeguarding provisions for all programs that engage
participants under the age of 18; and
(8) ensuring adolescents, particularly adolescent girls,
are provided opportunities and empowering environments so that
they successfully enter adulthood with skills which empower
their leadership within their communities or governments.
SEC. 6. PRIORITIZATION OF SPENDING.
The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States
Agency for International Development shall prioritize foreign
assistance funding made available for democracy, human rights, and
governance programs in accordance with this Act.
SEC. 7. ANNUAL REPORT.
(a) In General.--Not later than one year after the date of the
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State
and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development shall jointly submit to the appropriate congressional
committees a report on progress made by relevant United States
Government agencies towards increasing civic and political
participation of adolescent girls and boys around the world, separate
from or as part of other mandated public reporting on efforts to
advance gender equality and adolescent girls' empowerment.
(b) Elements.--The report required under subsection (a) shall
include the following elements:
(1) An estimate of the number of people reached by all new
United States Government-funded foreign assistance or
development projects disaggregated by age and sex.
(2) A description of how adolescent girls, particularly
among the most vulnerable populations, are integrated into
existing democracy, human rights, governance, and rule of law
programming.
(3) The percentage of program participants that are
adolescent girls in all new democracy, human rights, and
governance programs focused on issues, including civic
engagement, political participation, advocacy, research, and
leadership development, the percentage of funds spent on those
programs that focus on adolescent girls, and the countries in
which those programs take place.
(4) The number of democracy, human rights, and governance
programs created to improve or that otherwise support civic
engagement, political participation, and leadership of
adolescent girls, the amount of funds spent on those programs,
and the countries in which those programs take place.
(c) Public Availability.--The report required under subsection (a)
shall be posted and made available on a text-based, searchable, and
publicly available internet website of the United States Agency for
International Development.
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act--
(1) the term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the
Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the
Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives;
(2) the term ``foreign assistance'' has the meaning given
the term in section 634(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961 (22 U.S.C. 2394(b)); and
(3) the term ``gender analysis'' has the meaning given the
term in section 3(a) of the Women's Entrepreneurship and
Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-428).
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
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