This question stayed with me while reading Plan International's 2026 State of the World's Girls report, Change Her Forecast. One finding particularly stood out: 49% of surveyed girls and young women reported observing an increase in pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications, including miscarriages, in their communities following climate-related events. Meanwhile, 76% reported that more girls and young women struggled to access at least one health service. These findings reveal an important distinction between the existence of healthcare and its accessibility. A clinic may remain open, yet damaged roads, transportation costs, safety concerns, or restrictions on mobility can prevent girls from reaching it. A service can exist in principle while becoming inaccessible in practice. This raises a critical question: how can we consider a healthcare system functional if those who need it most cannot access it?

For me, this ties to why essential healthcare should be integrated into emergency preparedness, why community-based services should remain accessible during crises, and why girls should help shape decisions about resource allocation. Recovery should be measured not only by which facilities reopen, but by whether girls can actually access the care they need.

Ultimately, the report left me with one question: Are we building systems that expect girls to become more resilient, or systems resilient enough to protect girls?

Because girls' rights should not depend on whether the systems around them can withstand a crisis.

I had always pictured climate harm as a flood on the news. But the report found that floods, for all the trauma they cause, seem to have less long-term impact on girls’ futures than drought does. Drought drains a family’s income month after month, and girls pay for it. In drought-affected communities, 60% of girls said more girls were being married before 18, nearly double the rate elsewhere. Chenai, 21, from Zimbabwe said it plainly: “During drought, families lose money. Girls enter into relationships to get extra money.”

What bothers me is that slow crises don’t get slow-crisis funding. They get no cameras and no emergency appeals. The harm piles up quietly, and by the time it shows, a girl has already left school or been married off.

The story I can’t shake is Karen’s. She is 23, from Peru, and she wrote the foreword. She describes a classmate who dreaded cancelled classes because home meant living with an abusive father: “For her, the classroom was the safest place she had.” That sentence changed how I see school. It isn’t only where girls learn. It is where they are safe, supervised and informed, and the data agrees: girls whose schooling is disrupted are twice as likely to marry before 18 or face unintended pregnancy.

I also keep thinking about how much girls are already doing. Ninety-eight per cent of those surveyed picked at least one solution, and the most common request for how to be included was just “listen to girls’ ideas.” Not money, not titles. Listen. Girls in Senegal are doing laundry for neighbours and looking out for each other because no one else is. They shouldn’t have to be the safety net.

As a member of the Plan International Youth Council, here is what I believe. Fund girls’ needs before the crisis hits, not after. Treat reproductive health services and menstrual products as essential, not optional. Do everything possible to keep girls in school through every shock. And put girls in the room where the decisions are made, because they clearly already know what is needed.

Meetup dates are now confirmed for Halifax (November 19, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. AT) and Montreal (December 3, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. ET). 

Learn more and express your interest!

Space is limited, and we especially encourage emerging leaders and early-career professionals to express their interest.

Open to members and non-members. Express your interest today.

I usually think about recovery in terms of what can be physically rebuilt. Roads reopen, schools are repaired, and families begin to return home. Yet, I kept thinking about a girl who was sitting in a classroom before a flood, excited to learn. By the time her school reopens since a physical disaster, she might be pressured to marry. She can still want to go back to class just as much as she did before, but other people may have already made up their minds about their plans for her future. That’s the part that really stayed with me. It’s easy to see that a school has reopened. It’s harder to see who was expected to give up their place in it.

It also made me think about how often we talk about protecting girls without asking them what would actually help. A girl might know what would make it possible for her to stay in school, who she could go to if she felt unsafe, or why a service that looks accessible on paper is somewhere she can’t actually get to. Girls should be part of those conversations before a disaster happens, while there’s still time to decide where money and support will go. I think every girl deserves the time to grow up and figure out what she wants for her life. Whether she wants to get married, and when, should be something she gets to decide for herself. Thus, until all girls are equal, we will face the interconnected struggles of climate-related disasters and inequality in women's right worldwide.

Designed for people between the ages of 14 to 20, it builds on the knowledge youth gain from the Your Future in Green Jobs Online Course, the goal of which is to connect the passion, interests, and skills of young people with meaningful green career pathways.

In this program, you will participate in workshops and receive tailored mentorship from green job practitioners and experts. Further, you will place yourself at the heart of climate action by implementing a Changemaker Project thereby putting the skills and knowledge you gained from the course into practice! These projects aim to tackle one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in local communities, leading to a better, greener future.

See eligibility here: Your Future in Green Jobs Mentorship Open for Applications

Apply here: https://bankimoon.submit.com//show/31

Designed for people between the ages of 14 to 20, it builds on the knowledge youth gain from the Your Future in Green Jobs Online Course, the goal of which is to connect the passion, interests, and skills of young people with meaningful green career pathways.

In this program, you will participate in workshops and receive tailored mentorship from green job practitioners and experts. Further, you will place yourself at the heart of climate action by implementing a Changemaker Project thereby putting the skills and knowledge you gained from the course into practice! These projects aim to tackle one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in local communities, leading to a better, greener future.

See eligibility here: Your Future in Green Jobs Mentorship Open for Applications

Apply here: https://bankimoon.submit.com//show/31