Introduction Empowering girls to lead and co-create knowledge is vital to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality and building inclusive, resilient societies. Across Asia and the Pacific, girls and young women are not only rights-holders but also powerful agents of change, shaping community priorities, influencing institutional reforms, and driving innovative solutions to longstanding development challenges. Yet their voices often remain undervalued within formal decision-making spaces, particularly on issues that most directly impact their lives. The International Day of the Girl 2025 celebration, organized by Asian Development Bank and Plan International Asia-Pacific, underscores a transformative shift: recognizing girls' leadership as essential to sustainable development and systems change. By centering girls in the design, implementation, and evaluation of development programs, institutions can strengthen accountability, address gender inequalities more effectively, and build pathways for more equitable participation. This article examines how elevating girls' leadership enhances gender equality outcomes and accelerates progress toward SDG 5 across the region. Context The development challenges faced by girls and young women in Asia and the Pacific are shaped by intersecting economic, social, and institutional barriers that limit their agency and life choices. One of these challenges is child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). Although CEFM rates are declining, the region remains off track to meet SDG 5.3, which aims to eliminate child marriage by 2030. Persistent poverty, gender-normative expectations, and limited access to safe education and livelihoods continue to expose girls to heightened risks of early and forced marriage. Uneven legal protections, humanitarian crises, and the widening digital divide exacerbate the situation as these restrict opportunities for learning, participation, and leadership. Structural gender norms also perpetuate unequal power relations, making it difficult for girls to influence community decision-making or hold institutions accountable. This year's International Day of the Girl (IDG) celebration addressed these challenges by highlighting girls' leadership in driving change, framing their participation not as symbolic engagement but as a strategic, rights-based intervention to address the root causes of child, early, and forced marriage; and gender inequality. Empowering Girls to Lead Change Every year, IDG highlights girls' power, potential, and leadership while confronting the persistent inequalities they face. On 27 October 2025, ADB, in collaboration with Plan International Asia-Pacific, marked IDG under Plan International's global theme "Girls Takeover: Ending Child, Early, and Forced Marriage in Asia and the Pacific." The event drew over 160 onsite and online participants, including girl advocates, young leaders, ADB staff, Plan International staff, civil society organizations, and development partners. Two inspiring girl advocates symbolically took center stage: Saima Tahmin Tofa, youth mentor from Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, supported by Plan International's humanitarian action program, assumed the role of Director General of ADB's Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department; and Trisha Amberae Payumo, communications advocate from the Philippines, led a social media takeover, documenting the celebration and amplifying girls' voices across ADB's corporate platforms. By stepping into spaces where girls are rarely seen or heard, they embodied the message that girls have the right to lead, decide, and thrive. Meanwhile, in "Girl Talks," a lightning talk-style panel moderated by Samantha Hung, ADB Director for Gender Equality, three remarkable women leaders shared regional insights and solutions to end child marriage: Indah Erniawati, Associate Planner at Indonesia's Ministry of National Development Planning, who helped design the country's National Strategy on Child Marriage Prevention; Jolly Nur Haque, Regional Head of Programme and Influencing for Plan International Asia-Pacific, a pioneer in gender-transformative programming; and Lilly Kolts BeSoer, Founder and Director of Voice for Change Papua New Guinea, an award-winning human rights defender and mediator in post-conflict communities. Their dialogue illuminated how CEFM is intertwined with poverty, fragile contexts, gender-based violence, and limited education. They emphasized that lasting progress requires cross-sectoral collaboration—linking policy reform, social protection, health services, and community-level behavior change. By hosting girl advocates alongside policymakers and technical specialists, ADB and Plan International Asia-Pacific created a platform for mutual learning on how projects can address child, early, and forced marriage through: integration of gender and gender-based violence analysis in country partnership strategies and project design; investments in education and skills for girls; social and behavioral change communication at the community level; and institutional partnerships that strengthen referral pathways and safe spaces for girls in project-affected areas. Discussions also highlighted that child marriage rises in times of crisis—from conflict to climate disasters, underscoring the need for gender-responsive approaches in fragile and conflict-affected situations. Key Takeaways The IDG 2025 celebration demonstrated how shifting from symbolic participation to shared leadership transforms advocacy into action. Cross-departmental collaboration among ADB's Gender Equality and Fragility and Engagement Divisions, in partnership with Plan International Asia-Pacific, showcased how partnerships can drive gender-transformative action. The hybrid format further expanded visibility across Asia and the Pacific, engaging policymakers, youth networks, and the public through real-time interaction. Girls' leadership emerged as a development imperative, enabling young women to contribute to innovation, empathy, and accountability across programs. The discussions also revealed that the nature and drivers of child, early, and forced marriage differ across cultures. This emphasizes the importance of context-specific, intersectional strategies to protect and empower girls in an evolving digital world. Way Forward The 2025 IDG celebration demonstrated that when girls are given the space to lead, they amplify their voices and influence institutions to take action. It has been proven that meaningful engagement of young women and girls is not an add-on but an engine for innovation and resilience. For ADB and its partners, ending child, early, and forced marriage is both a development imperative and a moral commitment, central to building a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. Moving forward, ADB will continue to strengthen gender-transformative approaches across its operations, investing in education for girls, integrating gender-based violence risk management into projects, and partnering with youth and civil society networks to amplify its impact. By embedding their voices within policy dialogue and project design, ADB can help ensure that no girl is left behind and that every girl in Asia and the Pacific has the freedom to learn, lead, and decide her own future. Resources Girls Takeover: Ending Child, Early, and Forced Marriage in Asia and the Pacific. Ask the Experts Erika Joan Meñez Youth Engagement Consultant, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department, Asian Development Bank Erika Joan Meñez supports ADB’s efforts to institutionalize meaningful youth engagement and amplify youth voices in ADB operations and policy dialogues. Rangina Nazrieva Senior Social Development Specialist (Fragility and Engagement), Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department, Asian Development Bank Rangina supports ADB operations on CSO cooperation, strengthening CSO engagement and participation, capacity building, knowledge product development, and promoting synergies within the fragility-engagement nexus. She also contributes to the implementation of ADB's operational approach to enhanced civil society engagement. Before joining ADB, she served as a Senior Consultant for the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, UN WOMEN, and the International Finance Corporation, where she focused on social development and safeguards, gender mainstreaming, and stakeholder engagement. Edwina Kotoisuva Gender Specialist (Gender-Based Violence), Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department, Asian Development Bank Edwina supports ADB's approach to prevention, mitigation, and response to Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment in ADB-financed projects, as well as contributes to wider ADB approaches to addressing gender-based violence in operations. She has worked on gender-based violence programs in Papua New Guinea and across the Pacific region for more than 30 years. She holds an MA (Governance) from the University of the South Pacific and a BA (International Relations) from the University of Queensland. Asian Development Bank (ADB) The Asian Development Bank is a leading multilateral development bank supporting sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth across Asia and the Pacific. Working with its members and partners to solve complex challenges together, ADB harnesses innovative financial tools and strategic partnerships to transform lives, build quality infrastructure, and safeguard our planet. Founded in 1966, ADB is owned by 69 members—49 from the region. Follow Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Plan International Plan International works together with children, young people, supporters, and partners to strive for a just world, where everyone is equal. To do that, they tackle the root causes of the challenges and inequalities that children and young girls face. They are there for children from birth until adulthood and they enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. For more information, visit the Plan International website. Leave your question or comment in the section below: View the discussion thread.