Since 2015, the With and For Girls Collective has run a global awards initiative to recognise and reward outstanding girl-centred and girl-led grassroots organisations working on the front line to create a world where girls' rights and well-being are recognised, respected and realised.
The awards do not focus on a particular theme, but are open to grassroots organisations working on a range of development outcomes – from health and education to challenging negative attitudes towards girls in their schools, families and communities.
Critically, this work must be done either by girls organising themselves or in close partnership with girls, ensuring that girls are not only receiving the support that they need to realise their rights but are active participants in the design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of an organisation’s work.
To date, we have awarded 40 inspiring organisations from 31 different countries.
Awards are open to all countries and made in five regions:
To ensure we are awarding a range of civil society organisations, and to include younger, emerging organisations, we provide two categories of awards:
The Award package also includes profile raising and capacity building support, as well as access to a community of practice formed of fellow With and For Girls Award winners.
In 2017 the With and For Girls Collective plans to award up to another 20 organisations – 10 in each of the two categories.
The Collective uses a ‘proactive sourcing’ method rather than an open invitation to identify award candidates. We work with a network of expert referral partners in each region to identify eligible applicants. Eligible applicants are any not-for-profit grassroots group with an annual income between US$20,000 and $500,000 and whose mandate and work focus on adolescent girls. Organisations also need to have been operating for a minimum of 3 years. Applications do not need to be registered to be eligible but would instead need to have a fiscal sponsor.
Please note there is no option to submit unsolicited applications. However, if you would like to become a referral partner for the Girls Award please contact us at globalaward@starsfoundation.org.uk
We invite between 100 to 200 organisations to apply to the Awards. Applicant organisations go through a two stage-selection process which assesses them against the following five key criteria:
A group of adolescent girls also provides meaningful input throughout the selection process.
Nomination of eligible organisations by referral partners
Applicants are invited to submit an Expression of Interest
Applications are assessed and scored by the Collective
Applicants submit a visual application and are interviewed by regional panels of adolescent girls who select 20 winners
Award Winners are announced and invited to attend an Award Ceremony and workshops with other winners
The final stage of the application process is conducted through girl-led judging panels, giving girls final decision-making power over the choice of winners. The inclusion of girls on the judging panel is in line with the Collective's core belief in girl participation.
The shortlisted organisations are interviewed by a panel of approximately four girls, between 16 and 19 year old and two expert adults. In total five panels will take place, one per region. Each panel will select up to two larger and two smaller organisations for an award, totalling up to 20 winners.
Read more about the 2016 girl-led judging panels
Read the original pledge made at the Girl Summit
Follow #WITHandFORgirls on Twitter
Watch the latest With and For Girls video