Growing anti-rights backlash are impacting gender equality efforts in the Asia-Pacific, with a Plan Australia report finding global aid cuts are having particular consequences for girls.
The report found less than one per cent of global aid is targeted specifically to adolescent girls, even though evidence consistently shows that investment during adolescence delivers the highest returns.
Across parts of the Pacific and Southeast Asia, fewer than half of girls complete lower-secondary school, while adolescent fertility rates in some Pacific countries reach 50 to 65 births per 1000 girls, compared with 12 per 1000 in Australia.
The report also found that complications from pregnancy and childbirth account for one in every 23 deaths among girls aged 15 to 19 years globally, while one in five girls worldwide are still married before age 18.
One of the first acts of US President Donald Trump's second term in office was to disband USAID, which has resulted in cuts to sexual and reproductive health services, education and gender equality programs.
This has left adolescent girls more exposed to child and forced marriage, gender-based violence, unintended pregnancy and school dropout, particularly across low-income countries in Australia's closest neighbours in the Asia Pacific.
"Investment delayed until adulthood cannot recover what is lost during adolescence," Plan International Australia chief executive Susanne Legena said.
"If Australia wants its aid to work harder, investing in girls early is one of the smartest and most cost-effective choices it can make."
Asma, 16, is the oldest of five siblings living in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
With her family living in extreme poverty, she faced child marriage as her parents believed it would reduce the financial burden.
"If my (facilitator) was not there, if my friend was not there, if that committee was not there then my child marriage would have happened," Asma said.
"At home I couldn't manage everything alone, I would have become a victim of child marriage."
Asma had learned about the risks of child marriage through the Champions of Change youth club supported by Plan International.
She was supported through the Centrality of Protection in Protracted Crisis program, funded by the Australian Humanitarian Partnership and implemented with local partner Friends in Village Development Bangladesh.
Plan International Australia says the federal government has a critical opportunity to demonstrate regional leadership in the upcoming budget.
"Australia's international gender equality strategy has the potential to be world leading, but risks being ineffectual if it does not recognise the risks and opportunities for girls in the Asia-Pacific," Ms Legena said.
"Adolescent girls are not a niche group, they are a large, high-potential population facing systematic under-investment at precisely the moment when intervention matters most."
