Next week I'll be reporting from New York. In what's shaping up to be a banner week for girls, I'll have the chance to share news as-it-happens from the MDG Summit, CGI, the WIE Symposium and a special meeting with heads of state on the MDG5. If it has an abbreviation, it's happening next week.
You can tune in here to eavesdrop on what's taking place. Who knows, you might even see some cool new developments from girleffect.org.
In the meantime, here's what all these letters (and one really important number) mean for girls:
The WIE Symposium on September 20 will bring together an impressive group of women who all agree on one thing: the need for change in the world. WIE stands for "Women, Inspiration, Enterprise" and I'm expecting a pretty dynamic event considering this was organized by three amazing women: Arianna Huffington, Sarah Brown and Donna Karan. In case you haven't already seen it, check out what they have to say here. I'll be speaking on a panel with Sarah Brown, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Ashley Judd, Baroness Amos and Nthabiseng Tshabalala.
Next up is the MDG Summit, September 20-22, a chance for world leaders and development experts to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals and, hopefully, commit to some concrete action.
The MDGs, as they're commonly called, are eight international development goals related to poverty, gender equality, global health and the environment. In 2000, all 192 UN member states agreed to achieve these goals by 2015. In most cases, we are not on track.
My goal here will be to drive home one simple message: we will not achieve any of the MDGs if we don't specifically invest in adolescent girls. And that brings me to the MDG5 High-Level Meeting on September 22. This meeting will look at progress against MDG5 (Improve Maternal Health) and the work that remains to be done.
This is important to me for two reasons: first, MDG5 is the goal against which the least progress has been made. Second, it is the only goal that actually calls out adolescent girls specifically in its indicators. Specifically, it looks at the adolescent birth rate as a measure of success.
I guess if I had to choose girls being mentioned only once in the MDGs, this would be the place. Not only is early pregnancy the #1 cause of her death worldwide, but early childbearing directly impacts all MDGs. It's linked to babies' chances of survival, overall health, nourishment, educational attainment, future economic opportunity and environmental sustainability.
In other words, if we achieve MDG5 for adolescent girls, we move the needle for all of the MDGs. It's hard to think of a better return on investment than that.
And finally, from September 21-23, there's the Clinton Global Initiative, better known as CGI. Last year, for the first time ever, CGI included a cross-cutting focus on "Investing in Girls and Women," which meant that their planners included solutions designed for girls and women to accelerate progress into every single session.
This year they're taking things a step further and dedicating most of Tuesday to "Empowering Girls and Women." It will include a plenary session, three breakout sessions and a smaller group discussion addressing everything from economic empowerment, education, health and safety to preparing girls for the world.
I have high hopes here, in large part because this year's theme is "Turning ideas into action" and that's exactly what girls need to prove their potential: action.
And it's needed urgently. No more excuses.
Every second that we don't act on what we know, a girl is lost. That's why I say the clock is ticking. Every single second in the developing world, a girl turns 12. That's when her body will change and many of the important decisions in her life will be made.
She might stay healthy, get educated and head along a path to a productive livelihood. Or, everything can go terribly, horribly, drastically wrong. School dropout, early marriage, HIV ... the list goes on and on.
Like I said, the clock is ticking. What happens in this second - and the next, and the next, and the next - will affect the future of every person on this planet.
For my part, next week can't come soon enough.