Because I am a Girl...The State of the World's Girls, 2007

Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls, is the first in a series of global reports on girls to be published over the next nine years by Plan UK. Timed to be released on the United Nation's International Day of the Family, it warns that the Millennium Development Goals agreed by world leaders are likely to fail girls living in poverty. Global statistics highlighted in the report paint a bleak picture of some of the challenges facing girls and young women growing up in the world's most impoverished regions:

• Girls aged 15-19 account for 50% of victims of sexual assault worldwide
• Birth complications and unsafe abortions are the leading cause of death for young women aged 15-19
• Seventy per cent of the 1.5billion people living on less than a dollar a day are female
• Stunted growth in estimated 450million women as a result of childhood malnutrition
• Approximately 7.3million young women are living with HIV/AIDS, in comparison to 4.3million men
• Two thirds of 15-19-year-olds newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are female
• Sixty two million girls are out of primary school

Thanks to the astute writers at The F-Word for letting us know about this. You can check for news updates relating to the status of girls at the Plan UK or you can download the report.