Lessons on
girl-led design
In the past two years, we have worked with a select group of young women, and they in turn have worked with their peers in their communities to provide us with insights into their realities and the challenges they face from puberty to adulthood.
Girl-led design is mutually beneficial: girls access opportunities to learn new skills and strengthen their agency, while organizations reap the benefits of their expertise through more resonant programming.
01
For many girls, this fellowship was the first leadership role they held. The experience of being listened to, and holding power, reverberates into their lives and their communities, and has a profound effect on her confidence and sense of self.
‘’We didn’t feel left out when giving our ideas, people consulted US on issues that needed to be implemented’’
- Laura, 23 years, Cohort 1 femme
02
Girl-led design isn’t just about having girls in the room; it’s about creating spaces that are worthy of them
By creating spaces where girls could be among their peers, celebrated for their expertise, and equipped to build solutions for their future, we were able to build a space worthy of them. Without ensuring safety and comfort for girls, they won’t be able to speak their truths and find their power.
An invitation is not enough.
“Engage girls and let the present what they want”
- Maasai Mara Women Empowerment Organization, Imarika Concept implementing partner
03
To intentionally create collaborative spaces, we must neutralize hierarchies and reinforce girls’ agency.
At the Billion Girls CoLab, girls and funders sit together as peers. The people at the “top” don’t always have the right answer, and people at the “bottom” don’t need to accept what is offered. For organizations, ceding power looks like openness to new ways of working and a shift in how we've traditionally understood who is an expert and who should hold decision-making powers.
“This experience was great in acting as an equal design partner to co-create the concepts”
-Gladys, 20 years old, Cohort 2
04
“FGM has been in the community for years, there’s no way to miraculously end the practice. We need to make a call on understanding that we need to live with this ritual, but [that it] dies down in 10 years. The people we are engaging are the young moms today who have undergone the ritual, early pregnancies, and births. They will be the community elders one day, and they need to make the right choice one day. We need to be ok with change happening in the long-term...Incorporating men, and we need to you to be supportive of this. My girls need to stay in school make money.”
Joyce Kiok, 19 years old, Cohort 4 femme
When girls are centered as decision-makers, it's easier to get to holistic solutions, particularly those that transcend traditional gender roles.
Girls are facing Sexual and Reproductive Health challenges everyday. Thinking about solutions might not be part of their day job, but they bring a natural intuition to the challenge of designing something that makes their lives better. When girls lead the design process, they bring a fresh lens that allows teams to unearth root causes and name assumptions that experts without lived experience may bring.
05
When girls do research directly with their peers, it starts from a place of trust and shared experience. This leads to richer and deeper insights.
During the fellowship and design sprint, girls are trained in research and conversational methods so they can speak with their peers, share back what they heard, and brainstorm solutions to meet the needs of their community. When speaking with their peers, girls are able to be much more forthcoming and honest about their needs and desires.
“We did not just want to do a ‘board room’ design, we had to go to the field and get aspirations from other AGYWs”
Mercy, 23 years old, Cohort 2 femme
06
Creating an environment where girls feel safe to experiment and fail also creates space to practice lifelong leadership skills.
“At the end of the fellowship, I realized I had managed to achieve most of the goals that I had set for myself. I was so passionate about menstrual health and hygiene, but I didn’t have a voice. There was no forum I could speak to from an informed POV, [so] having the other fellows, we conversed deeper and it really pushed me to learn more about menstrual health”
- Dorcas, 21 years old, Cohort 3
Leadership looks like girls using their voices, feeling ownership over the solutions, and responsibility for their community’s well-being. Investing in tomorrow’s leaders results in better programming, while also directly contributing to the outcomes we stand for empowering girls and women today.
07
For implementers, engaging the community is not only valuable in building more resonant solutions, it also helps build credibility.
Through practicing design thinking with girls, organizations have built more community-responsive programming and have seen positive shifts in attitudes towards their organizations. We heard many stories of organizations applying this way of working outside of their girl-led work, demonstrating several ways of being more community-responsive. This includes engaging men in respectful ways, engaging different stages and ages of girls in different ways, and engaging pastoralist communities to suit their lifestyle.
“Community feels ownership of the project and the sense of we are working for them is not there, they feel we are working with them”
- Maasai Mara Women Empowerment Organization, Imarika Concept implementing partner
08
Implementing novel solutions is in itself an experiment; funding structures and support need to reflect this by being flexible, adaptive, and dynamic.
Sustainable and unrestricted funding is critical for small and large organizations, and yet organizations appreciated the hands-on help to think through ideas, plan for a pilot, and realize their plan.
“I really appreciated the hands-on support from [the program team]”.
BintiCare Foundation, Umeskia Unajua concept implementing partner