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Mission, Vision, and Objectives

Our Mission

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls drives new and improves existing programming, policies, and investments that will promote the rights and opportunities of adolescent girls.

Our Vision

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls envisions a world where adolescent girls are able to fully realize their rights, navigate challenges, and access opportunities during the transition from childhood to adulthood and beyond.

The Coalition seeks to ensure that adolescent girls can:

  • Minimize their vulnerability to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, violence, exploitation, and abuse
  • Obtain a quality education at the primary and secondary levels
  • Access safe, affordable, and comprehensive girl-friendly health services
  • Build and protect their economic assets and opportunities
  • Advocate for themselves and their communities
  • Count on and be counted by their communities, families, men, and boys as allies
  • Participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives, communities, and nations
  • Decide if, when, and whom they marry and if, when, and how many children to have
  • Understand and obtain legal rights

Our Objectives

  • To elevate girls’ voices and ensure that girls have the opportunity, skills, and resources to advocate for their own empowerment.
  • To build capacity and increase organizational commitment of member and non-member organizations to design, implement, and evaluate evidence-based adolescent girl programming with a practice based learning agenda
  • To influence and inform donors, policy-makers and other key decision-makers regarding programmatic, funding and research priorities for adolescent girls
  • To adapt to the evolving and changing needs of our community of practice through time-bound, task-oriented working groups and activities

2021-2024 CAG Strategic Goals and Objectives

The CAG Steering Committee, in consultation with its member, is currently implementing the following Strategic Plan.

Goal 1: The CAG facilitates increased capacity of member organizations to design, implement, and evaluate relevant, evidence-based adolescent girl programming and promote the utilization of existing tools and evidence.

  • Objective 1: Members increase their understanding of girl-centered issues and strategies that can be used to address these issues.
  • Objective 2: Members learn promising practices and approaches from fellow CAG members to enhance their capacity and expertise in their own work.

Goal 2: The CAG is a recognized and reputable resource and community of practice dedicated to adolescent girls issues.

  • Objective 1: CAG amplifies adolescent girl issues at major global fora and events.
  • Objective 2: CAG is sought after to support important global and local advocacy efforts, be partners and collaborate on efforts/activities that seek to empower and improve the lives of adolescent girls.

Goal 3: The CAG influences and informs policy-makers, donors, and other key decision-makers to take action on policy, programmatic, funding, and research priorities that advance the rights, protection of, and justice for adolescent girls, in all their diversity.

  • Objective 1 (GLOBAL): Adolescent girls–especially those from the Global South– are better able to meaningfully and safely participate in global fora or processes.
  • Objective 2 (US): Girls’ issues are elevated and integrated into US policies and policy discussions.

Goal 4: The CAG increases its members’ capacity to meaningfully engage adolescent girls in their work, so that CAG members can elevate girls’ voices and make space for their inclusion in leadership and decision-making.

  • Objective 1: The CAG is a known resource for promising approaches to meaningful adolescent girl engagement.
  • Objective 2: The CAG provides capacity-sharing and capacity-strengthening support to its members (and the larger field, when possible), through expertise from the CAG Steering Committee and membership organizations, regarding meaningful adolescent girl engagement.

Goal 5: The CAG is a global and inclusive coalition that is led by leaders from a diverse set of member organizations, and is actively working to increase the diversity and inclusion of its leadership and membership.

  • Objective 1: The CAG assesses the impact of our current policies, working practices, and structure on the diversity and inclusivity of CAG membership and leadership.
  • Objective 2: The CAG increases the diversity and representation of Global South/LMIC organizations within CAG membership.
  • Objective 3: The CAG increases the diversity and representation of Global South/LMIC members with CAG leadership.
  • Objective 4: Speakers and leaders of CAG activities and initiatives are from a diversity of contexts, and special priority is given to those CAG members and member staff from the Global South/LMIC

Goal 6: The CAG achieves financial and operational sustainability.

  • Objective 1: 100% of CAG members pay membership dues and/or contribute in-kind services
  • Objective 2: The CAG’s revenue streams are sustainable and allow the CAG the stability to continue its work.
  • Objective 3: The CAG’s governance structure and policies, including its registration structure, enable the CAG to most effectively accomplish its goals.