Since 2002 Plan Nederland has been actively involved in educational vand lobby activities in the Netherlands with regards to international development in the field of the ŤigFifs of the child in order to gain public support toward issues in low and middle income countries. Youth have always been prioritized as a target group for educational activities and their involvement has given good results in the past. We therefore continue focusing on methodologies that involve young people themselves, putting them in direct contact with their peers in Plan program countries. This project will specifically strengthen that link and encourage joint activities between youth in Europe and West-Africa to formulate and articulate advocacy messages.As Plan Nederland focuses on equal rights for boys and girls, and girls' rights have long been neglected and severely violated, this project targets unemployment among young girls. The inability to become employed is a consequence of discrimination and inequality based on gender in terms of education, experience of violence, sexual exploitation, access to health care, etc. The role of youth ¡ή further economic development in Africa is crucial. Without considering girls role as seriously as that of boys, this growth will be impossible to achieve.• Objectives (including themes and priorities chosen)General objective of the project is to promote girls' rights among different cultures through pooling together experiences and knowledge of young people from both African and European cultures. Specific objective is to achieve better understanding of different aspects of girls' unemployment among youth across borders and to increase capacity of young people to communicate this understanding to the general public and policy-makers.The project is in line with the permanent priorities of the YiA program, namely: Participation of young people (Young people will be in charge of the core products of the project and will play a major role in the formulation of the advocacy message and delivering this to the public); Cultural diversity (the project will include participants from 6 different countries); and Inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities (social limitation, namely gender will gain special attention).In addition to the permanent priorities, the project is in line with additional annual priorities listed in the guidelines - namely "Inclusive growth and notably youth unemployment": The issue of unemployment among girls will be the main theme in the proiect: and "Fight against poverty and marginalization": the project promotes equal rights for boys and girls in the most impoverished countries of West Africa.• Activities foreseenActivity 1 - Preparation (administration, selection of the participants, developing a detailed program of the Event 1, logistical organization of the event, visibility plan, detailed timeframe and critical points) Activity 2 Start-up workshop (Event 1) including participants from all 6 partner countries (18 participants all together) will be held in Accra, Ghana. Background information will be given about unemployment among girls, reasons