Girls as the 'New' Agents of Social Change? Exploring the 'Girl Effect' Through Sport, Gender and Development Programs in Uganda

Increasingly, SGD interventions are funded and implemented by transnational corporations as part of the mounting portfolio of girl-focused global corporate social engagement initiatives in development. The purpose of this study was to explore how girls in Eastern Uganda experience a corporate-funded SGD martial arts program. This study used 19 semi-structured in-depth interviews, participant observation and document analysis. Results revealed that while the martial arts program increased girls' confidence, challenged gender norms, augmented their social networks, improved physical fitness and was useful for providing girls with social entrepreneurial and employment opportunities, the program also attempted to 'govern' their sexuality and sexual relations with boys and men by promoting individual avoidance and encouraging the use of self-defense strategies against potential abusers. Though the program arguably promoted girls as agents of social change, it ignored gender relations by excluding boys, and failed to address the broader structural inequalities that marginalize young Ugandan women the first place.