Intersectionality as an Economy: Girls Are Asset Conference Theme (September 2026 – July 2027)

From September 2026 to July 2027, the Girls Are Asset Conference will be anchored on the theme “Intersectionality as an Economy”—a bold reframing of how we see girls, communities, and systems of power in Lagos, Nigeria and across the Global South.

Why Intersectionality as an Economy?

Traditional approaches often treat gender, poverty, disability, geography, and culture as separate “issues” to be managed at the margins of policy and investment. Intersectionality as an Economy rejects this fragmentation. It recognises that the overlapping realities of being a girl—her gender, age, location, class, digital access, and safety—are not just social categories; they are economic coordinates that shape productivity, opportunity, and long-term national competitiveness.When girls in low-income communities face unsafe transport, unreliable energy, poor nutrition, and limited digital tools, the economy loses innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Conversely, when we intentionally design systems that account for these intersections, we unlock new growth pathways where each girl becomes a generator of value—not only for herself, but for families, markets, and cities.

Core Idea for the Conference

“Intersectionality as an Economy” will drive home three central messages throughout the Girls Are Asset Conference cycle:

Integration Multiplies Returns
We will showcase how simultaneous investments in safe water, clean energy, transport, digital access, and safeguarding for girls produce non-linear gains—better school attendance, reduced violence, improved health, and new income streams—forming a new local economy rather than isolated social projects.

Girls’ Inclusion is an Economic Strategy, Not Charity
Across all sessions, panels, and district activities, we will treat girls as structural assets whose decisions, creativity, and leadership directly influence SDG outcomes and macroeconomic resilience. Their perspectives will guide discussions on energy, climate, urban planning, and finance, demonstrating that excluding girls is an economic inefficiency, not simply a rights violation

Local Action Powers National Transformation
The Conference will connect daily realities in Lagos schools and districts to national and global agendas—UN SDGs, ECOSOC dialogues, and energy justice frameworks. Each girl’s story, project, and innovation will be positioned as data and evidence that can inform budgets, policies, and investments, showing that when girls thrive in intersecting systems, the economy itself is redesigned from the ground up

How the Theme Will Shape the Conference

Throughout the September 2026 – July 2027 cycle, the Girls Are Asset Conference will:

Use intersectional mapping tools to help girls and stakeholders visualise how transport, energy, safety, nutrition, and digital access interact to shape opportunity.

Host sessions where economists, planners, energy experts, social workers, and girls co-design “intersectional economies” for schools and districts—identifying where small changes can unlock big returns.

Integrate data collection and storytelling, turning each girl’s journey into evidence for ministries, UN partners, and investors on why intersectional investment in girls is smart economics

Create pathways from conference ideas to tangible pilots—Girls in Energy projects, digital literacy labs, safe transport routes, and nutrition partnerships—grounding the theme in practice, not rhetoric.

Ultimately, “Intersectionality as an Economy” will ensure that the Girls Are Asset Conference does more than inspire; it will teach every girl, parent, policymaker, and partner to see girls’ intersecting realities as the foundation of a new developmental economy—one where investing in girls is the fastest route to transforming communities, cities, and nations.

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