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World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

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World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
HeadquartersWorld Bureau, Olave Centre, London
Country153 countries
Founded1928
FounderRobert Baden-Powell
Membership10 million
Chair World BoardCandela Gonzalez
CEOAnna Segall
Website
www.wagggs.org
 Scouting portal

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS /wæɡz/) is a global association that supports female-oriented and female-only Guiding and Scouting organizations in 153 countries. It was established in the year 1928 in Parád, Hungary. The organization now has its headquarters located in London, United Kingdom. It is the counterpart of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM). WAGGGS is organized into five regions and operates five international Guiding centers. It holds full member status in the European Youth Forum (YFJ), which operates within the Council of Europe and the European Union.

Mission

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The mission of WAGGGS is "to enable girls and young women to reach their potential as responsible citizens of the world."[1]

WAGGGS offers a non-formal educational program focused on developing life skills, leadership, and decision-making. It conducts international projects and programs aimed at engaging Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in community activities to foster responsible citizenship.

Members are encouraged to participate in leadership roles. Each unit follows a democratic structure, with members electing leaders and participating in decision-making.

Approximately 100,000 volunteers contribute to leading and supporting programs globally. It serves around 10 million Scouts and Guides across 152 countries, with international events hosted at five world centers. These programs focus on leadership, community service, and outdoor education, fostering personal growth and global citizenship.[2]

Members can attend international events organized by the United Nations and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on behalf of WAGGGS. Both WAGGGS and the World Organization of the Scout Movement hold General Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.[3]

Educational methods

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Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting is based on a core set of values that are found in the Girl Guide/Girl Scout Promise and Law. Each Girl Guide and Girl Scout is asked to promise to do her best to her faith and to others, with the intention that in so doing, she is able to realize her fullest potential as a responsible citizen.

Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting use non-formal educational methods, focusing on organized educational activities outside schools and colleges. The key components of the WAGGGS' non-formal education are that:

  • Young people can develop life skills and attitudes based on an integrated value system based on the Promise and Law.
  • Young people learn from their peer group.
  • Young people learn through activities and practical programs that are created by young people for young people.
  • Young people volunteer to join non-formal education organizations that are also led by volunteers that ensure commitment and maximum learning.
  • Young people learn by progressive self-development through:
    • Learning by doing,
    • Teamwork through the patrol system and training for responsible leadership, and
    • Active cooperation between young people and adults.

Participants progress through the program based on their individual goals and the provided framework. This approach differs from formal education systems, which often follow structured curricula with varying degrees of flexibility. The Girl Guide/Girl Scout method is the approach used by leadership to support the mission of WAGGGS. It is an integrated approach with certain key elements: the Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting method can be used equally effectively with girls of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. In his book Girl Guiding, Lord Baden-Powell (1918) wrote:

Our method of training is to educate from within rather than to instruct from without; to offer games and activities which, while being attractive to the girl, will seriously educate her morally, mentally and physically.

Since its founding, some former Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have pursued careers in politics, literature, and business. Senator Hillary Clinton (United States Senate), the Rt. Hon. Dr. Marjorie Mowlam MP (politician in the United Kingdom), Roberta Bondar Ph.D., MD (first Canadian woman astronaut), and Betty Okwir (politician in Uganda) are a few former and current Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

In 1965, Dame Leslie Whateley of the then Girl Guides World Bureau was awarded the Bronze Wolf, the only distinction of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world scouting.

Among its initiatives, WAGGGS partnered with Unilever's Dove Self-Esteem Project in 2013 to promote discussions on self-esteem and body confidence among girls.[4]

History

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Girl Guides were formed in 1910 by Robert Baden-Powell with the assistance of his sister Agnes Baden-Powell. After his marriage in 1912, his wife, Olave Baden-Powell, took a leading role in the development of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting.

As the movement spread, independent national Guiding associations were set up; however, a need for international cooperation was felt. Lady Baden-Powell founded an informal International Council in London in February 1918, which later became the International Conference in 1919. At the fourth World Conference held at Camp Edith Macy in 1926, representatives from several countries suggested the formation of a World Association to take the place of the informal International Council. After the 1926 International Conference, the Baden-Powells were approached about setting up a formal association, and in 1928, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts was founded at the 5th International Conference held in Parád, Hungary. That year, the International Conference became the World Conference.[5] Rose Kerr was Vice Chairman, later Commissioner for Tenderfoot Countries. From 1930 to 1939, WAGGGS occupied a room at the headquarters of the British Girl Guide Association, until it moved to 9 Palace Street, next door to Our Ark.

In 1920, two leaders from each known Guide country were invited to the British County Commissioners Conference held at Saint Hugh's College, Oxford. This became known as the First International Conference. The 13th World Conference was held in the same college in 1950. The member organizations continue to meet every three years (initially every two years) at World Conferences.[6]

List of chairs of the World Committee / World Board

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List of directors / chief executives

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  • Dame Katharine Furse (first director, 1926–1936)
  • Arethusa Leigh-White (1937–1946)
  • Winnifred Kydd (1947–1948)
  • Elizabeth Fry (acting director, 1948–1949)
  • M.E. Home (1949–1950)
  • Dame Leslie Whateley (1951–1964)
  • Lesley Bulman-Lever (1997–2006)
  • Mary McPhail (2007–2014)
  • Anita Tiessen (2014–2017)
  • David Coe (interim director, August 2017 – March 2018)
  • Sarah Nancollas (March 2018 – August 2020)
  • Anna Segall (September 2020 – current)
  • Nadine El Achy (from April 2025)[8]

World Conference

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Main article: World Conference (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)

The World Conference is the governing body and meets every three years. If a country has more than one association, the associations form a federation for coordination and world representation.

Organization

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WAGGGS consists of national Member Organizations, which are run independently but agree to abide by the WAGGGS constitution. The national Member Organizations are split into five regions. The member organizations, in turn, elect the World Board, originally the World Committee, which governs the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It is made up of 17 active volunteer members from around the world who are democratically elected by all Member Organizations and include the Chairs from each of the five WAGGGS regions. In addition, there is the permanent staff of the World Bureau based in London and headed by the WAGGGS Chief Executive (formerly Director of the World Bureau). Every three years, representatives from the member states meet in a World Conference to discuss and vote on policy. The World Committee changed its name to the World Board in 1996. The job title of the head of staff was changed from Director of the World Bureau to Chief Executive between 1964 and 1997.

Each WAGGGS Member Organization chooses how it believes it can best promote these goals, taking into account its culture and the needs of its young people. Some choose to work with girls alone in a single-sex environment in order to break down stereotypes and to give girls and young women the confidence to take their place in society. Other Member Organizations prefer to work with mixed groups to enable young women and young men to have equal partnerships within their units. Some Organizations choose to mix co-educational and single-sex approaches according to the age and the preferences of the young people.

World regions

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The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts has offices in five regional divisions:
  WAGGGS-Europe Region
  WAGGGS-Arab Region
  WAGGGS-Africa Region
  WAGGGS-Asia Pacific Region
  WAGGGS-Western Hemisphere Region
  There is no WAGGGS Region corresponding to the World Organization of the Scout Movement Eurasian Region; post-Soviet nations are divided between the WAGGGS-Europe Region and the WAGGGS-Asia Pacific Region
  grey areas such as North Korea, Laos and Cuba have no Scouting

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts has five regions: Europe, Arab, Africa, Asia and the Western Hemisphere.

World Centres

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WAGGGS operates five World Centers that offer training programmes, activities, and lodging for girls and leaders, as well as members of some other groups and independent travelers. Activities focus on international cooperation, skill development, leadership training, and community service. The Friends of the Four World Centers organization supports and promotes the centers.

The five World Centers are:

A new centre, Kusafiri, meaning "to journey" in Swahili, was announced in 2015. Unlike the other centers, it will be a roving centre and exist for a fixed period of time in different places with a particular theme in Africa.[9] While testing the idea, starting in 2012, the country organizations involved include Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, and Benin. Focuses so far have included "Stopping the Violence" training in Rwanda and developing entrepreneurial leaders among others.[9]

World Trefoil

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WAGGGS membership badge

Miss Kari Aas designed the World Trefoil emblem that was adopted at the World Conference in 1930, a gold trefoil on a blue background.[10]

The three leaves represent the three duties and the three parts of the promise, the two five-pointed stars stand for the promise and the law, and the vein in the centre represents the compass needle showing the right way. The base of the trefoil stands for the flame of the love of humanity, and the colours blue and gold represent the sun shining over all children in the world.[11]

The World Badge, incorporating the trefoil, was first adopted at the 11th World Conference in Evian, France in 1946.[12]

The World Association Badge, similar in design to the World Badge, was first adopted at the 7th World Conference in Bucze, near Górki Wielkie in Poland, in 1932. It is worn by members of the World Board, its Committees, World Bureau, and World Centre staff.[12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "WAGGGS". WAGGGS. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  2. ^ "WAGGGS". WAGGGS. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  3. ^ "WAGGGS". WAGGGS.
  4. ^ "PRESS RELEASE" (PDF). WAGGS. 11 October 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  5. ^ "History of WAGGGS". Archived from the original on 2010-03-29.
  6. ^ "World Conference".
  7. ^ "Heidi Jokinen elected World Board Chair".
  8. ^ "New Chief Executive - Nadine El Achy". WAGGGS.
  9. ^ a b "Kusafiri". World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  10. ^ "World Association of Girl Guide and Girl Scouts". www.vintagegirlscout.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2011.
  11. ^ "The World Trefoil". wagggsworld.org. WAGGGS. Archived from the original on December 31, 2006. Retrieved March 30, 2006.
  12. ^ a b "Symbols of the movement". WAGGGS.
  • Scouting Round the World, John S. Wilson, first edition, Blandford Press 1959 page 203.
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