As part of this year’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we spoke with Dorothy, Gender Lead at The Girl Generation–ALM, whose work has been instrumental in shaping a girl-centered approach within the movement. In this Q&A, Dorothy reflects on how girls’ champions drive community change, the milestones achieved, and how centering girls as leaders is transforming the movement to end FGM.
1. Can you describe your role in shaping the girl-centered approach within The Girl Generation?
As Gender Lead, my role has been to ensure that girls are not just beneficiaries of TGG-ALM, but are central to its design, implementation, and learning. This means advocating for structures and processes that actively bring girls’ rights, agency, and voices into decision-making, from the very start and aspects like advocacy, community programming, monitoring & evaluation, and strategic planning. I support the development of safe spaces for girls (Girls’ Councils, in-school clubs, mother-daughter forums, and peer groups). I guide the co-creation of curricula and messaging with girls, and I push for adaptive feedback mechanisms so that girls’ insights are not only heard but acted upon. This is aligned with TGG’s girl-centred programming approach.
2. How do you see girls’ champions influencing change at the community level in the movement to end FGM?
Girls’ champions are incredibly powerful agents of change. At the community level, they serve multiple roles: as peer educators, as trusted voices, and as bridge-builders between generations. Because they have lived experience or direct exposure to the risks and harms of FGM, they speak with authenticity and moral authority. Their presence in community dialogues has opened up critical conversations that might otherwise be taboo in the contexts we work in: they have challenged social and gender norms, questioned traditions, and modelled alternative ideas.
During the course of the programme, girls’ champions have organized forums, led outreach activities, and engaged with elders or parents. Their involvement has helped shift attitudes from the ground up, not just by preaching change, but by embodying it and portraying them as active agents of change.
3. Looking back, what milestones or successes stand out most in supporting girl champions to lead initiatives in their communities?
- Proof of Concept Assessments (PoCAs): In the four countries the program works in, it has been proven that centering girls’ agency and voice works and contributes to an end to FGM. This has been seen through the impact of the interventions that girls have led in shifting attitudes and norms around FGM and girls’ rights.
- The creation of Girl Councils has contributed to a stronger, more accountable, and more transformative programmethat centres girls’ expertise, shifts harmful norms, and supports the protection and empowerment of girls. The Councils have:
- Empowered girls with leadership skills, building their confidence, and influence.
- Strengthened programme design and interventions.Shifted community attitudes and increased acceptance of alternative rites and equality.
- Created safe spaces and enabled rescues and legal enforcement, for example, a 7-year-old girl who was rescued from child marriage in Isiolo county, Kenya, through the help of a girl who was attending a girls’ school club co-led by the girl council members.
- Improved girls’ well-being and school attendance through the girl council-led activities in schools, which have included the distribution of menstrual hygiene kits in some schools and discussions.
- Strengthened advocacy, visibility, and movement-building
- Strengthening grassroots capacity: Through the small-grants mechanism, local organizations (including young women ones) have been resourced, trained, and supported to lead contextually relevant anti-FGM activities.
- Recognition of girl as agents of change: An example is in the learning brief from Senegal which documents how girl champions in Tambacounda, Kédougou, Sédhiou, and Kolda regions are respected voices, despite cultural resistance through their engagement at community level.
- Recognition of survivor’s voices-In the contexts the program works in most girls are survivors of FGM. Through the girl centred approach survivors have been empowered to lead change and have become active agents of change.
4. How does a girl-centered approach differ from other advocacy or prevention strategies in the FGM movement?
A girl-centered approach is distinct because it places girls—not just as beneficiaries, but as active leaders and decision-makers. Many traditional anti-FGM strategies rely on external actors, policy advocacy, or top-down interventions. These are valuable, but they can miss the lived realities of girls on the ground.
By contrast, the girl-centered model:
- Believes that girls are powerful, have agency and have ideas and solutions to the challenges they face.
- Prioritizes participation: Girls co-create interventions (curricula, forums, messaging) rather than being passive recipients.
- Centres on listening: Safe spaces are created specifically for girls to speak, reflect, and guide the programme.
- Supports adaptive management: The programme learns and evolves based on girls’ feedback.
- Embeds safeguarding: Ensuring the wellbeing of girl champions is a core part of program design. The Girl-Centred Framework includes specific guidance on protecting girls.
- Recognizes the Intersectional nature of girl’s lives. This is recognizing that girls are not an homogenous group- Ie in The TGG-ALM program we are working with girls in schools, others out of school, girls who are mothers, others married.
- Recognizing that girls live within communities-i.e in TGG-ALM the program has taken a socio-ecological model where we do not only work with girls but work with their parents, their grandparents, teachers, law makers, religious leaders and community leaders
This approach reduces the risk of tokenism and ensures that interventions are relevant, respectful, and sustainable.
5. What unique contributions do girls themselves bring when they are positioned as leaders or decision-makers in programmes?
When girls themselves lead, they bring:
- Authentic legitimacy: As individuals directly affected (or at risk), they speak with authority and empathy.
- Innovative ideas: Girls often propose solutions grounded in their realities—ideas that adults may not foresee.
- Peer influence: They can reach other girls more effectively; their stories resonate.
- Sustainability: By building their capacity, we create a generation of leaders who will carry the movement forward.
- Moral authority: In many communities, hearing from a girl champion who has rejected FGM or survived its harms is deeply persuasive.
6. How have girl champions evolved within TGG-ALM and its partner networks since the programme began?
Since the programme began, girl champions have evolved in several ways:
- Increased Confidence and Agency: There is notable change in girl confidence, agency and power. Girls have contributed this change to the different mentorship sessions conducted and the opportunities availed to them to speak both at community level and regional and global spaces.
- Scaling of roles: What started in a few communities and schools has expanded: more girls are now part of school clubs, forums, and grantee-led initiatives.
- Leadership maturity: Many champions have taken on mentoring roles for new cohorts of girls at community level. At a strategic level girl council members have been engaged at the Strategic Technical Advisory Group of Experts where they have actively engaged in influencing and advising the program.
- Network building: Girls champions and girl council members have are increasingly connected across regions and countries, sharing experiences and strategies.
- Institutionalization: Girls input has being integrated more formally into program frameworks, monitoring systems, and grant-making decisions.
- Survivor leadership integration: The Survivors Leadership Initiative (SLI) complements girl champion work, bringing survivors and girls together in shared leadership.
7. From your perspective, what lessons can other programme learn about centering girls in designing interventions to end FGM?
From TGG-ALM’s experience, some key recommendations include;
- Invest in safe, structured spaces — meaningful participation requires trust, protection, and time.
- Invest in mentorship and peer-to-peer learning to sustain motivation and spread best practices.
- Understand local contexts — co-create with girls from different backgrounds (school-going, out-of-school, marginalized), so interventions are inclusive.
- Support capacity-building — give champions not just a voice, but the tools to run campaigns, monitor impact, and sustain their work.
- Use adaptive feedback loops — build in regular check-ins, reflections, and the flexibility to change course based on what girls say.
- Prioritize safeguarding — ensure that girls leading change are supported and protected emotionally, psychologically, and socially.
- Link to broader systems — connect girl champions to policies, government structures, and civil society so their influence can scale.
- Prioritize Girls’ Leadership in Policy Spaces: Moving beyond symbolic inclusion, girls should be decision-makers in shaping strategies that affect them. Regional and global events must prioritize direct engagement with grassroots girl-led movements.
- Adapt Programming to Conflict and Crisis Situations: As demonstrated in Ethiopia, flexible and resilient approaches are essential in sustaining progress even amid crises. Future programs must integrate adaptability as a core principle.
- Increase Investment in Girl-Led Movements: Supporting girls with tangible resources—financial, educational, and technical—will amplify their impact, ensuring that advocacy translates into systemic change.
8. Are there particular examples where girl champions have driven unexpected or innovative change that inspired the wider movement?
One powerful example comes from Senegal : A group of girl champions from Tambacounda and Kolda organized a community dialogue in a public space. They invited parents, teachers, religious leaders, and health workers, and instead of presenting FGM as a distant policy issue, they shared personal stories of girls who faced health risks and missed school due to FGM. The conversation transformed from defensiveness to listening and questions. Elders who had previously supported the practice began to acknowledge the harms and expressed commitment to alternatives. A local leader publicly pledged to support safe passage for girls to pursue education and health services. The moment captured the essence of the girl-centered approach: respectful engagement, lived experience guiding action, and a shared commitment to protecting and prioritizing girls’ futures.
In Kenya, there’s a story (via ActionAid) of a boy, Adow, whose participation in a boys’ forum saved his sister from FGM. This unexpected interlinking — where girl-centered programming influenced a male youth, who in turn protected a girl — reflects the creativity and reach of the girl-centered model.
Through the TGG-ALM program we have come up with girl councils in each country. These girl councils have girl representative (selected by girls themselves) from the smallest administrative unit the program works in .These girl council members have been very effective at providing feedback to the program and creating safe spaces for girls. These forums have created spaces for reflection, strategizing and healing.
9. How do you see the role of girl champions and a girl-centered approach sustaining long-term progress against FGM?
In my view, centering girls is will sustain the movement because;
- Ownership: When girls lead, they internalize the movement; it’s not “someone else’s” agenda.
- Peer networks: These girl champions have created peer-to-peer alliances that will endure beyond project cycles.
- Institutional change: Their voices influence policies, local governance, school systems, and community dialogues, embedding the movement in structures.
- Legacy building: Today’s girl champions will mentor the next generation — we are building a pipeline of leaders committed to ending FGM.
- Resilience: As these girls evolve into young women, they bring lived experience and commitment and can adapt strategies as contexts shift.
10. To end on a lighter note, is there a memorable story or moment from your work with girl champions that captures the spirit of this approach?
It has been very encouraging every time I interact with the girls; those in school, out of school and the girl council members. When I look back at when the program started, I visibly see significant change, power and agency on these girls through the way they speak, articulate their vison and passion on why they continue to advocate for girl’s rights and an end to FGM. Today, many are vocal on social media, championing issues like child marriage and FGM. Their passion and leadership signal a future where communities are safer and more inclusive for women and girls.
