Editor’s Note: On September 21, 2024, in New York City, more than 50 young women from around the world – including the youngest Nobel Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai – gathered to take United Nations member states to task for failing to prioritize girls and young women in the planning and content of the upcoming Summit of the Future. 

At a demonstration in front of the UN, surrounded by life-size cutouts of world leaders dressed ironically as youthful “girl experts”, the activists delivered a strong message: world leaders aren’t the experts on what girls want and need for their futures – girls are. 

The group is backed by an informal coalition of girl-centered non-profit organizations, institutions, networks, and funds who worked to synthesize the well-documented policy, programming, and resourcing demands of girls at WhatGirlsWant.com

Joan Kembabazi, a Girl-Centered Incubator Fellow & founder of Gufasha Girls Foundation, spoke at the demonstration:

My message to World leaders is;

Girls want protection from child marriage.

Girls want access to education 

Girls want access to SRHR

Girls want to lead conversations on matters affecting their lives.

Girls want to lead decisions, 

Girls want to lead solutions

Girls want to lead their own futures.

Let girls lead.