Blueprint for Systemic Change
Building Thriving Ecosystems for and by Girls and Young Feminists for a Just and Democratic World
Overview
A just and democratic world is possible and can only be realised through deliberate, coordinated, and tangible action.
The report offers a Blueprint for Systemic Change—a pathway of urgent investments and infrastructure-building recommendations to create thriving, interconnected ecosystems that uphold the power and rights of girls and young feminists.
At a time of shrinking resources, rising authoritarianism, and compounding crises, the need—and opportunity—to strengthen ecosystems that advance just and democratic worlds has never been greater.
Why This Matters Now
Realising the rights of girls is fundamental to achieving human rights, social justice, and lasting systems change.
Across the world, girls face intersecting forms of structural violence shaped by age, gender, race, disability, class, sexuality, and geography. Yet they are not only resisting harm—they are leading transformative solutions across movements. Despite this, their leadership remains underfunded and under-recognised. At a critical moment of backlash and shrinking civic space, all actors must step up to resource and support their leadership.
“True feminist systems change means moving beyond critique to the construction of a world where equity is not an aspiration but a lived reality, and where the power to decide, shape, and lead is in the hands of those historically excluded. This vision rejects incremental change and seeks the radical restructuring of economic, social, and political systems to align with feminist principles of autonomy, care, and justice.”
— Priyanka Samy, Girls and Young Feminists: Sparking, Leading, and Organising Across Social Movements
The Path Forward
Governments, funders, INGOs, researchers, and intermediaries each have a vital role in cultivating a healthy, thriving ecosystem. This blueprint shows how collective alignment and collaboration can unlock greater impact and more effectively support girls, young feminists, and grassroots leadership.
Together, these recommendations call for rethinking risk, reimagining value, and coordinating action so resources, power, and decision-making move closer to those driving change.
A thriving ecosystem demands collective responsibility—shared strategies, accountability, and the redistribution of resources and power to girls, young feminists, and their allies.
For Private Funders
Prioritise girls and young feminists within your funding strategies, recognising that—regardless of your thematic or population focus—they are contributing to meaningful social change across sectors, movements, and policy priorities. Move funding at scale and over the long term, direct funding where possible to girl- and young feminist-led and centred groups, and strengthen the critical infrastructure of regional anchors and trusted intermediaries that can move resources with proximity and care. Prioritise flexible, multi-year support; invest in shared back-end services such as fiscal hosting, language justice, and digital security; and commit to transparency by tracking and publishing annual data on funding flows to girls and young feminists.
Our Responsibility Towards Systemic Change
The opportunity and path forward is clear: invest in building thriving ecosystems for and by girls and young feminists, align and coordinate roles across the ecosystem to build connectivity and resilience, and centre the leadership of girls and young feminists who are already building the infrastructure for justice, democracy, and liberation.
A resilient, thriving ecosystem is within reach. The question is, how will you leverage your power to make it real?
“Power is both a source of oppression in its abuse and a source of emancipation in its use. In this way, power can be understood not only as the domination of some over others but also as a capacity to be, do, dream, and transform. It is something that occurs not only in high-level decision-making spheres, but it is also key to the way we build daily life and the pillars of autonomy and emancipation.”
— Juliana Román Lozano, Girls and Girlhood: Resisting, Building, and Dreaming New Worlds
Acknowledgements
The research is grounded in decades of cumulative evidence and knowledge generated by activists, practitioners, funders, and girls and young feminists —particularly with the leadership from the Global Majority. The analysis and recommendations are informed and shaped by experts with decades of cross-sectoral and social movements experience across diverse contexts, articulating a shared understanding of how to cultivate and sustain thriving ecosystems for and with girls and young feminists worldwide.
This effort draws from a growing body of ecosystem-level research, evidence, and knowledge, including the Stories of Girls' Resistance, Girls’ Demands for Justice, Girls and Young Feminists: Sparking, Leading and Organising Across Social Movements, Resourcing Girls and Young Feminists: Analysis of the Context, Approaches, and Practises, No Straight Lines, Resourcing Girls to Thrive, Lighting the Way: A Report for Philanthropy on the Power & Promise of Feminist Movements, and Brave, Creative, Resilient: the Global State of Young Feminist Organising.