Rosemary McCarney

I firmly believe that the greatest and most urgent moral challenge the world faces is gender inequality, and specifically discrimination against girls. I believe this because statistics and research tells us that in many parts of the world, and in some of the world's poorest countries, girls face unique barriers...

Last December, thanks to determined Canadian leadership, the United Nations General Assembly designated October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child. In creating a day to celebrate and acknowledge girls, the UN is putting its weight and influence behind global efforts to raise awareness of girls'...

A number of images may come to mind when Canadians think of Colombia. For some tourist or business travellers it may be of extravagant cruise ship ports or the hustle and bustle of its major cities and economic centres. For others, it is images from Hollywood movies and media --...

The word is spreading: investing in girls is the catalyst poor countries need to break the cycle of poverty. The second half of the message often gets short shrift: gender equality benefits everyone -- girls, women, men, boys.

In the past few years, "the girl effect" has been explored by...

Chronic hunger is a fact of life for about one billion people around the world -- but those in the Horn of Africa who are in the midst of a famine are facing hunger and malnutrition on a scale few of us in the developed world can comprehend. Even so,...

I've been saddened to see reports from Plan Canada's staff on the ground in Cameroon of a surge in the cholera epidemic there. Largely unnoticed by Canadian media, we've been told that the number of cases in the West African country has risen to 8,450 and 281 people...

There's growing grassroots awareness of both the plight and the power of girls. There's also growing support for taking action to remove the barriers facing girls around the world and benefit from their imagination, knowledge and creativity. You see it on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and many, many websites raising...