Because I am a Girl : Universal restaurant Sydney

Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2010 report was launched today across the world. In Sydney, the report was launched at a lunch held at Universal restaurant and hosted by Chef, and member of the Coalition for Investment in Girls, Christine Manfield. 

Lunch at Universal was stunning, each course was a kaleidoscope of flavours and textures on the plate and in the mouth, which worked well within each dish and across the lunch. We started with a delicious drop of NV Heidsieck Monopole Champagne on arrival (and you all know how I love a champagne!) Just the right start to a girls’ lunch. Well it wasn’t quite all girls because Ian Wishart Chief Executive of Plan in Australia was there too. The starter of turmeric, chilli and ginger steamed blue eye trevalla, green mango, mint and cucumber salad was brilliant. The spices lightly tantalised the trio of cool and crisp salad and the moist flesh of fish sat as the centre fulcrum. The wine selectionof 2008 Pink Flamingo Gris de Gris with this course was just lovely for the dish and the first sunny Sydney day of spring.

Next came the stunning, stunning combination of spice roasted lamb, tamarind eggplant and spinach pakoras. This was matched with 2006 Ostler Caroline’s Pinot Noir.

Dessert was a delightful mix of delicious treats, each gorgeous component a star in itself and together ginger tapioca cream, star anise pineapple, coconut jelly, caramel ice cream was a marvellous finale. Well, here’s hoping it wasn’t quite the final note, but just the start for your support of Plan Because I am a girl.

The Coalition for Investment in Girls needs your help to generate support for girls all over the world – sign the petition to lobby the United Nations to recognize that investment is girls is critically important by declaring September 22 as International Day of the Girl. And join the coalition on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Wines were generously provided by Vranken-Pommery Australia, distributor of Heidsieck & Co Monopole Champagne, Listel Wines and Ostler Vineyards. And, the lunch was generously hosted by Chef Christine Manfield at her restaurant.

Universal Restaurant
Republic 2 Courtyard Palmer Street
Between Burton & Liverpool,
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

+61 (0)2 9331 0709

Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2010

• New global report reveals the impact of two of the most dynamic global trends of the 21^st century, cities and cyberspace. It is here that girls face the greatest opportunities but also the greatest threats.
• New petition calls upon the United Nations to declare September 22 as the International Day of the Girl.

A new report has found that two of the global trends that are the most dynamic, fast-moving and exciting of the 21^st century – cities and cyberspace – pose the greatest opportunities but also the greatest threats for the world’s girls.

‘Because I am a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls 2010’ was today launched globally by leading international development agency, Plan. Titled ‘Digital and Urban Frontiers: Girls in a Changing Landscape’, the report presents new research and analysis of the threats and opportunities that girls face in the world’s growing cities and through information and communications technologies.

The fourth installment of Plan’s annual ‘Because I am a Girl’ series, it argues that girls are the citizens who will be running our cities and shaping technology in the coming decades. It is these girls that need the skills and knowledge to build a better and safer world for everyone.

Despite all the threats that girls face in digital and urban spaces, the report finds that the best way to support their wellbeing and development – and to continue the fight against poverty – is to equip them with the skills to effectively and safely navigate the threats so they can make the most of the opportunities that are available to them.

This also requires that those in positions of power and authority do their utmost to remove the barriers that prevent girls making the most of these opportunities. As in previous reports, this year’s research demonstrates that removing the barriers to the opportunities for girls in cyberspace and urban areas will unlock their potential and play a key role in ending poverty and creating global prosperity. Initial report findings reveal some of the immediate risks of cities and cyberspace on girls around the world.

These include:

• For the first time in history, there are more people living in cities than in rural areas and by 2030 an estimated
  1.5 billion girls will live in urban areas.
• City life poses risks for girls such as poverty, overcrowding, poor sanitation, unlit streets, lack of housing, sexual harassment and violence.
• The report reveals that twice as many young women in cities experience physical or sexual violence compared to young rural women.
• Global information systems and mobile phones are connecting girls to a new world of information. However, they are also providing girls with little power or ability to protect themselves from harm.
• The report reveals how technology is increasing sexual exploitation and reports that more than two-thirds of girls do not feel safe online.

The report’s findings are emphasised by the latest information from Plan’s nine-year cohort study that is tracking the lives of 142 girls from nine countries from birth until their ninth birthday in 2015, when the Millennium Development Goals should have been reached.

Ian Wishart, Chief Executive of Plan in Australia, says that without fundamental investment in girls and young women and a genuine desire to encourage their participation in cities and cyberspace, they will both be at a disadvantage in the economy and at personal risk.

“Plan recognises that discrimination against girls and young women is one of the main underlying causes of poverty,” said Mr Wishart. “Girls and boys have the same entitlements to human rights, but they face different challenges in accessing them. This lack of opportunity and care is unfair, as investing in girls has a powerful effect on a family and community’s experience of poverty.”

“As the father of two girls, I know full well the parental instinct to try to hide them away from the dangers of the world, and too often this instinct is highly magnified in the developing world, leading to such outcomes as early marriage, denial of freedom of movement and girls missing out on education.

“But locking girls away to ‘protect’ them from the threats also denies them access to the opportunities that can expand their world, supercharge their development and help lift them, their families, their communities and, indeed, whole countries out of poverty.

“Plan’s ‘Because I am a Girl’ reports argue that investing in girls is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do, and that is most certainly the case when it comes to girls in urban areas and cyberspace,” he said.