Press Releases

EU states agree new aid approach, NGOs concerned about impact on world’s poorest

Fewer countries will receive EU aid in the future, with EU member states endorsing a new plan to shift bilateral aid away from many middle income countries and open up the private sector to development aid funds. The agreement was made by national government ministers at a Foreign Affairs Council today in Brussels

Global celebrations to mark 75 years of campaigning for child rights

Plan marks 75 years of commitment to children with a series of unique global celebrations. In 1937, Plan was founded by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge to care for children affected by the Spanish Civil War. Today, the organisation helps improve the lives of children all over the world across key child poverty issues of education, gender, health, water and sanitation, protection, economic security, emergencies and sexual health, including HIV. Plan International, one of the oldest and largest children’s global development organisations, works with more than 56 million children in 50 countries, and also ensures that child rights and the well-being of children worldwide are at the top of the European agenda.

Most vulnerable must not be forgotten – Two years after the earthquake in Haiti the most vulnerable are still at risk, if aid wanes.

Brussels, 12 January 2012: At least half of the over 220.000 casualties during the earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010 were children. Many of those that have survived the turmoil of the past two years have been abandoned by families no longer able to provide for them due to poverty and impossible living conditions. [...]

Day of the Girl Finally Dawns – European Parliament backs UN decision to inaugurate International Day of the Girl.

European Parliament backs UN decision to inaugurate International Day of the Girl. New York. 20 December 2011. Following Plan International’s advocacy efforts since 2007, the UN officially designated October 11th as the “International Day for the Girl Child” at its General Assembly, yesterday. The European Parliament (EP) had strongly supported this decision adopting a Resolution last week, after over 400 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) signed a Written Declaration for the Day of the Girl.

European Parliament declares its support for the International Day of the Girl

393 Members of the European Parliament from diverse political and geographical backgrounds have signed the Written Declaration 39/11 in support of an International Day of the Girl. The declaration of the European Parliament in favour of the initiative sends a powerful message to European leaders of the support that exists within Europe; and it does so one week before it is voted upon at the United Nations.

Disaster Risk Reduction fails too many children

Civil society organisations call on the EU to prioritise children in Disaster Risk Reduction

Brussels, 13 October 2011: 66 million children are affected by disaster every year. In Haiti alone, of the over 220.000 casualties in 2010, at least half of them were children. In response to the earthquake, the European Commission and EU member [...]

European Parliamentarians support International Day for the Girl

Brussels, Thursday 22nd September: Key MEPs call on all members of the European Parliament to support an upcoming Canadian resolution at the UN General Assembly to declare 22 September as the ‘International Day of the Girl’.

The majority of girls and young women around the world face discrimination, and often violence and exclusion. Girls [...]

Gender is about boys and men, too

Girls’ standing in the world cannot be improved without far more positive participation from boys and men in their lives, Plan’s ‘Because I Am A Girl – So What About Boys?’ report says.

The annual ‘Because I Am A Girl’ (BIAAG) report, which assesses the state of the world’s girls, states that fathers, brothers and [...]

No Day for Girls?

MEPs to support a UN International Day for the Girl during a ‘European Week of Action for Girls’ in the European Parliament

Left handers, mountains and civil aviation have an international day. Girls do not. In collaboration with the European Parliament and other civil society organizations, Plan is organizing a week of events highlighting issues [...]