The report from Plan International points to floods, droughts, storms, and extreme heat as risk factors for gender-based violence, child marriage, and unintended pregnancy among girls and young women, aged 15-24.
For decades already, the U.N. had observed commemorative days honoring women and children, but neither sufficiently reflected the experiences of being a young girl. That was the position of Plan International Canada when the organization campaigned to establish the International Day of the Girl Child, officially created through a U.N. resolution in 2011 and first celebrated in 2012.
This Sunday, Oct. 11, will mark the 15th such day. In the lead-up to the observance, Plan International has launched its 2026 State of the World's Girls report, with a focus this year on the unique impacts of the climate crisis on this young and vulnerable population.
The study combines an analysis of three decades' worth of data from more than 50 countries and a survey of 5,000 girls and young women aged 15-24 across Bangladesh, Kenya, Peru, Senegal, and Zimbabwe.
The report, which also reflects face-to-face interviews and group discussions with 139 participants, aims to fill a gap in evidence and enrich wider understanding about how the human-caused climate crisis is impacting sexual and reproductive health in low- and middle-income countries. Its findings point to floods, droughts, storms, and extreme heat as risk factors for gender-based violence, child marriage, and unintended pregnancy.
Among the girls and young women surveyed, 28% "said they had observed an increase in violence against women and girls following climate-related events," according to a press release. More than a third — 36% — said they had witnessed more girls under 18 being married following climate-related events, and one in 10 reported being married under such circumstances themselves.
While likely to be upsetting for many and notably building the case that climate disasters magnify gendered risks, some of these statistics may not exactly shock those already working at the intersection of gender justice and climate disaster.
Researchers have previously documented how the stress, isolation, and economic instability stemming from extreme weather events can increase the threat of gender-based violence. Similar connections have been made between the climate crisis and child marriage, particularly in settings where extreme weather has driven displacement, compromised safety nets, strained agricultural economies, and interrupted access to education and its protections.
But Reena Ghelani, CEO at Plan International, told CG that disrupted schooling can be a hazard for another, sometimes overlooked impact of climate shocks: unintended pregnancy.
According to the press release, one in 10 of the survey respondents "said they had personally experienced an unintended pregnancy following a climate-related event." Study participants described some girls as becoming pregnant as young as 12 or 13 and sometimes in primary school.
Extreme weather can close classrooms or make transportation there impossible. It can also strain households to the point that families can no longer afford to send young students to school, sometimes keeping them home to care for younger siblings, collect water and firewood amid shortages, or earn income.
"Our data shows that girls whose schooling is disrupted are twice as likely to marry before 18 or experience an unintended pregnancy," Ghelani told CG. "School is where girls access information about their bodies, their rights, and how to protect themselves. Remove that, and the risks compound quickly."
This points to another cause of unintended pregnancy among girls and young women following storms, floods, and landslides. For those who wish to use it, disrupted access to and delivery of contraceptives can present a major concern.
"Supply chains fail during climate emergencies," Ghelani explained. "In Bangladesh, girls told us female outreach workers could not reach them for two months during floods."
"In Zimbabwe, contraceptive pills were being sold by staff to buy food during the drought," she continued. "In drought-affected communities, 54% of girls and young women had seen more unintended pregnancy, against 29% elsewhere."
At issue is a broader concern over strained access to sexual and reproductive health care of all kinds, from menstrual products to contraception, maternal health care, and more.
In Plan's survey, 49% of respondents "noticed more pregnancy health or childbirth related complications, including miscarriages, in their community following a climate shock," according to the release, while 76% "said more girls and young women in their community were struggling to access at least one health service, rising to 84% among those affected by drought."
The numbers may be staggering, but they also provide a map — clear steps that decision-makers can take now to dramatically improve well-being among some of the world's most vulnerable populations.
Plan International and other organizations working in this space are calling on governments and donors to take urgent, decisive action, including ensuring that emergency response kits delivered in preparation for and immediately after disasters contain supplies such as menstrual products and contraceptive options so that affected communities aren't waiting on these critical supplies.
They are also calling for a portion of climate adaptation budgets to be dedicated to youth sexual and reproductive health services and maternal health care. And they want proactive plans to ensure that services can reach the most marginalized girls, including those with disabilities.
These measures and Plan's call to keep schools open and free during disasters have a chance of protecting against the sexual exploitation that can rise in crisis settings where resources are scarce.
"As one young woman in Zimbabwe told us, men target girls, 'capitalizing on their desperation for food.' A child cannot consent to sex in exchange for money or food," Ghelani said. "That is exploitation, and it leads to pregnancies no girl chose."
Ghelani emphasized the difference between climate disasters driving unintended pregnancies and conversations about how climate and related economic concerns may, separately, inform some individuals' personal choices not to grow their families.
"Our findings do not contradict evidence that economic stress can lower birth rates," she explained. "They show that the same pressure plays out differently for different girls."
Ghelani went on to make a key point amid sprawling debates over the factors that may be behind declining global birth rates.
"A girl who has been married off or exploited by an older man is not making a fertility decision," she underscored. "She is a child who has been failed by every system meant to protect her."
Widening the scope, those systems might be seen to involve decisions and activities beyond the borders of the five countries where Plan conducted its latest research.
While Ghelani told CG that the team focused its latest efforts on climate-impacted areas of low- and middle-income countries to close critical evidence gaps there, she noted that she "would expect the same mechanisms to apply wherever climate shocks meet existing inequality."
"As extreme heat, wildfire, and drought intensify, the buffers that protect girls in high-income countries are being tested," Ghelani noted, pointing to how her team's learnings from the frontlines of the climate crisis could continue to grow in their applications over time.
"But the more important message is about responsibility," she underscored.
"The girls in our research are among those least responsible for the emissions driving this crisis, yet they carry the greatest burden. In 2025, international aid fell by 23%, the largest drop on record. Only 6% of adaptation funding goes to health at all. The choices high-income governments make on climate finance, on adaptation, and on investment in services for the most vulnerable will determine whether that gap closes or widens."
She shared a strong response for people in high-income and high-polluting countries who may think the findings in Plan's new report do not apply to them:
"My answer is not 'this could happen to you.' It is that what happens to a girl in Piura [, Peru] or Chiredzi [, Zimbabwe] is already connected to decisions made in your capital."
Kirsten Krueger contributed to the editing of this article.
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