A global imperative: development, safety, and health from girl child to woman.

The purposes of this article are to review what we know about the health status for girl children in the world and to suggest policy that allows us to see how to improve the health of girl-children. First, I will consider globalization and its relationship to health disparities. I then will review what we know about the health of the girl-child, contrasting patterns of health observed in girl-children from Sub-Saharan Africa and the consequences for subsequent generations. Finally, I will focus on interventions at the level of social and health policy, the community, and systems of health care delivery.