Adolescence is a crucial and defining stage in a girl’s life. However, girls around the world too-often face unique risks of gender discrimination and gender-based violence (GBV), including sexual violence, human trafficking, forced marriage and sexual exploitation and abuse. This is particularly the case in humanitarian settings, where girls’ already-limited access to vital services as well as family and peer support networks are disrupted by crises and displacement. Despite this, humanitarian programmes and policies do not adequately cater for adolescent girls’ needs. Falling at the nexus of childhood and adulthood, these girls are often not able or willing to access services designed for adult women or young girls.

This report seeks to explore the unique experience of adolescent girls by examining the types of gender-based violence affecting this group as well as drivers of this violence, within the frame of high levels of gender inequality in South Sudan. Data for this study was collected as part of the research program of the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls (‘What Works’) Consortium funded by the government of the United Kingdom (UK)’s Department for International Development (DfID). Through this programme, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Global Women’s Institute (GWI) at the George Washington University and CARE International UK conducted a mixed-methods study in five locations in South Sudan. 

Read the policy brief here.