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Tomorrow marks the third International Day of the Girl Child, designated by the U.N. to highlight the need to create a better world for adolescent girls.

It's a day when activists ramp up efforts to make the public aware of issues like child marriage, violence against girls and the lack of access to education. It's also a time for activists to push world leaders to make commitments — financial or policy-wise — to end those problems.

But these days, it seems like every other day is the International Day of this, that or the other thing. In October alone, the U.N. has designated 13 days to celebrate teachers, the eradication of poverty, even the U.N. itself.

It makes you wonder: How effective are these commemorative days? Goats and Soda asked a few scholars who specialize in global issues. Their answers were decidedly mixed.

Commemorative days have their defenders. Activists single out an issue for the public, government and private donors to focus on. "It forces a lot of governments and agencies to comment on a certain issue," says Casey Dunning, a policy analyst at the D.C.-based think tank Center for Global Development.

And it's more than just comments.

Five Things You May Not Know About Child Marriage Dec. 1, 2013

A few years back, the challenges of girls weren't even on the agenda of world leaders, much less on the minds of the average person. The first Day of the Girl, in 2012, changed that. It focused on ending child marriage, enabling activists to bring the issue to the fore, says Lyric Thompson, a senior policy manager at the International Center for Research on Women.

That year, the U.S. State Department included child marriage in the annual Human Rights Report, putting pressure on countries to end the practice. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also announced a slew of initiatives, including tackling child marriage in Bangladesh, where rates are among the highest in the world.

Between the U.S. government and private donors, Thompson says, roughly $100 million was pledged to those initiatives.

So the day led to new commitments to help girls. But you can't prove that the day itself had any impact on the ground, says Daniel Esser, an American University professor who does research on the effectiveness of international aid.

"My concern is they don't serve the people they're intended to serve, but the agencies that invent and popularize them," he says. So the benefit may turn out to be bigger budgets and staff along with more political leverage for those agencies.

Goats and Soda

UNICEF Report On Female Genital Mutilation Holds Hope And Woe

In Nigeria, Many Girls Are Married And Divorced Before Adulthood June 29, 2014

That's good for the agencies, but what about the girls?

Esser points to a 2013 study that asked whether money that the United Kingdom invested in global development groups led to greater impact on the ground. The results, he says, are "sobering."

The British government rated the impact of agencies like the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Development Fund for Women as "poor." The World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Fund received an "adequate" score.

So does that means we should do away with dedicated days?

Dunning says you can't expect one day to spark a revolution. But that doesn't mean it's not an effective way to raise awareness.

"It plants a seed," says Thompson. "And if we're lucky, that seed's going to wiggle and grow."

child marriage

International Day of the Girl Child

U.N.

The push to get out the vote is in full force. Midterm elections are just over three weeks away, and early voting has already started in some states.

Rallying voters is always a major undertaking. But this year is proving even tougher, with trust in government at rock bottom. That includes both the Democratic president and the Republican House.

The GOP still expects to do very well in November. But that doesn't mean the Republican base is all that excited.

Nowhere is the GOP effort to fire up the base more evident than in Iowa. This week the Westside Conservative Club held its usual 7 a.m. breakfast meeting in the back dining room at the Machine Shed restaurant in the Des Moines suburbs.

Introductions out of the way, the guest speaker was Iowa's longtime U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who said later that he sees a very big day for his party come November.

"I think we're going to win anyway, but ... Republicans are putting as much emphasis upon turning out the base and the independent voter that leans our way than ever before," he says.

One thing Republicans are not doing this election is emphasizing social issues — focusing instead on linking Democratic candidates to President Obama. That choice is causing some frustration among core supporters. One of them is Bob Vander Plaats, president of The Family Leader, a prominent Iowa organization pressing to keep social issues front and center. Vander Plaats says many Republican candidates seem to be backing away from the mic.

"I just watched a debate the other night where the marriage issue was asked, and while the Republican candidate affirmed his position of one-man-one-woman marriage, he kind of did a pivot out of that then," he says.

That debate was on Monday, between Democrat Staci Appel and Republican David Young in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District. In the exchange Vander Plaats refers to, the moderator noted that the U.S. Supreme Court this week cleared the way for more states to adopt same-sex marriage.

The battles over same-sex marriage in Iowa have been fierce, and it wasn't long ago that such a question would have been red meat for a Republican candidate. But not this year.

Young replied, "You know, in Iowa, it's not an issue right now, because same-sex marriage is legal. It was done through our state Supreme Court. I wish the decision would have been brought down and decided by the people or the Legislature, but it is what it is in Iowa."

The Family Leader is a major player in Iowa politics, focusing on social issues. In 2014, it's doing its own extensive outreach to voters.

A meeting at a Godfather's Pizza in Fort Dodge on Thursday opened with this prayer: "We're just so blessed to live in a nation, God, that we can gather anywhere and just freely talk about you Lord, God ... and freely talk about our government, Lord." Sam Clovis, college professor and current candidate for state treasurer, exhorted the audience of about 25 to do all they can, and then some.

"You can't just take a yard sign, and put it in your yard — that's not enough. You gotta do one more thing. You can't just make phone calls — you gotta do one more thing. You can't just talk to your friends and family and church members — you must do one more thing," he said.

Dale Harlow, a Fort Dodge pastor, says he talks to people in his church about what's at stake. But he sees a lot of anxiety.

"There's definitely a lot of pessimism both sides, I think people generally feel just generally negative about what government's doing. It translates into apathy, is what it does," he says.

Seated one table over was 58-year-old computer consultant Karen Glaser.

"The world is upside down right now, and that's the way I feel and a lot of people feel. You know, did we live through the best of times? And now we're going into the worst of times? It kind of feels that way to a lot of people," she says.

But Glaser is busy promoting GOP candidates. She understands why people check out, but she says she won't quit.

Republican activists in Fort Dodge, Iowa, working to get out the vote, and rally voters — even the uninspired.

Virginia congressional candidates Barbara Comstock, a Republican, and John Foust, a Democrat, are hitting the campaign trail with the usual issues like jobs, health care and immigration. But they're also going a step further to close the deal in a district where Asian Americans are a fast growing ethnic group.

Comstock, a state delegate, has touted her work with human trafficking legislation and attendance at a recent town hall meeting about a hate crime. Foust, a Fairfax County supervisor, says he can relate to immigrants because he too was born into a family where no one else had gone to college. At a recent event, Foust told an attendee that he recalled seeing her at Eden Center, a shopping mall in the Washington D.C. suburbs that is a frequent stop for politicians courting Asian American support.

YouTube

Candidate Barbara Comstock has Comstock, a state delegate, has touted her work with human trafficking legislation and attendance at a recent town hall meeting about a hate crime to appeal to Asian American voters.

The Asian population statewide in Virginia climbed by 68% from 2000 to 2010. Asians now make up 5% of the state's population.

The competitive race comes as Congressman Frank Wolf is retiring and leaving an open seat. Wolf's district – which he has represented in Congress since Ronald Reagan was first elected president – is one-third nonwhite. Asian American residents account for 11% of the population, as do Hispanics. Vietnamese,

In September, both candidates spoke at a forum put on by minority chambers of commerce held in Annandale, the nexus of Korean life in Virginia.

Each spoke for about five minutes to a crowd of about 100 people gathered in a nondescript multipurpose room at a Northern Virginia community college. The attendees, who were seated in conference room chairs and clustered around high-top tables cluttered with campaign literature, were mostly Asian. The candidates – including Foust and Comstock – were mostly white.

"For a lot of these folks who immigrated to the U.S., government was something that was not a part of their lives," says Grace Han Wolf, a Herndon Va. town council member. Wolf says she was the first Korean American elected in Virginia. "It's quite different here in America because government is the way you get things done. Without a vote, without a voice, you're not able to impact the changes that can impact your community. And finally, those communities are realizing that connection."

When Foust, the Democrat took the stage, a connection is what he was going for.

"I am very very proud of the fact that I have been endorsed by every elected [Asian American and Pacific Islander] official in Northern Virginia," he said, singling each out by name.

Later, after speaking with a slew of reporters, Foust posed outside the event room for a photo with the officials that had endorsed him.

YouTube

Campaign ad for John Foust

Democrats like Foust see Wolf's retirement in this Virginia district as an opportunity to seize a Republican House seat as they face a challenging electoral map. But moreso, it's a good test-case for how both parties are adapting to the changing demographics of a country that is rapidly becoming more diverse.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have also been shifting dramatically toward the Democratic party for more than a decade. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush won 55 percent of the Asian vote. But in the two decades that followed, Republicans have loosened their hold. In 2008, President Obama won 62% of the Asian vote. Four years later, he won 73%.

But Republicans don't believe that's a foregone conclusion. In this Virginia district and in others across the country, Republican candidates are working to chip away at those numbers as they work to broaden their audience and appeal to minorities and younger voters.

Sang Yi, the president of Korean American Republican Party of Virginia, says Asians don't want to be pigeon-holed, or treated like candidates are stressing "Asian issues" to win their vote. He made an analogy to the way candidates court female voters.

"Women care about more than just reproductive health issues," he says. "They care about taxes, they care about the economy, they care about national security, they care about everything that everybody else cares about – and so does the Asian community."

When Comstock took the stage in Annandale, she hit on traditional Republican rallying points — repealing Obamacare, cutting taxes, a strong national defense.

But she was also looking to make a personal connection, telling the story of a Vietnamese family she met.

"They only had 45 cents in their pocket. They started washing dishes and they started going to night school and to community college and then getting degrees and then starting their own business," she explained. "You all here know somebody like that because that's the story of Northern Virginia and the 10th District."

The candidates wanted to make a connection – but it didn't work for everyone.

Genie Nguyen, the president of Voice of Vietnamese Americans sat through the speeches for each candidate – even the ones who weren't campaigning in her district. She works with voter outreach and advocacy in her community. And yet, she still hasn't decided who she'll vote for.

Like most voters, she cares about jobs, the economy and soaring student loan debt. But she says she thinks the outreach she's heard from candidates has just scratched the surface.

"They're making very surface appearance to the community events. They need to actually invest in the community," she says. "They need to pay for advertisements in printed media in Vietnamese, in Taiwanese, in Tagalog."

Nguyen says the candidates need to spend more time studying her issues. And she'll spend more time studying them.

"I'm going to wait and study more about each candidate," she says. "I do hope that in the next few weeks, more actions from the candidates will reach out to the community – especially the Asian-American community and the Vietnamese community – in a meaningful way. And more importantly, I hope whoever wins will keep their promise."

Candidates will also have to learn how to fine tune their message. What works for older Asians, like Nguyen, might not be as effective for younger Asians, Grace Han Wolf explains.

"They have one foot in both cultures. Both the ethnic culture as well as the American culture and they understand the importance of voting," she says. "It's something that you get in your AP U.S. History class in high school. So you see a lot of those kids who are old enough to be leaders in the community urging the elders and the new immigrants this is important, this is your job and your right and your duty as an American."

Nearly half of Asian American registered voters in a recent survey said they did not identify as Republicans or Democrats. And roughly one-third said they still don't know who they'll vote for next month.

For candidates in competitive districts around the country, that's what you call an opportunity.

Interview Highlights

On CBS trying to pull the All In The Family pilot right up to the last 20 minutes before it aired

There was one line [they were concerned about]. Archie and Edith come in from church when they're not expected, because Archie didn't care for the sermon and they left. And Mike and Gloria [their son-in-law and daughter], in the house alone have decided to go upstairs. ... And Archie comes in, sees what they were — knows, basically, what they were up to. And he says, "11 o'clock on a Sunday morning?"

They wanted that line out. And when I said, "But why?" "Well, because he's putting his finger on what they were doing." ... And I said, "Well, what's the problem with that? They're a married couple, nothing happened, the camera saw nothing." And they were still, "Can't do it, can't do it."

I just had a sense that if they won this battle, which was almost silly, that would dictate the nature of the show and I couldn't do that. So I said, "Well, clearly, that goes on the air or [you can] do the show without me."

And it went on the air, and believe me, no state seceded from the Union. America lived with it.

On why ABC and CBS had so much trepidation

Television

Norman Lear: 'Just Another Version Of You'

They were listening to an American bigot, they were listening to Archie Bunker. They had not heard those attitudes expressed, though you could hear them on a playground anywhere in America. It was no big deal. I'm saying that now with hindsight, because we went on the air and [during] the first show, because they were so fearful, they had hundreds of telephone operators, literally, ready to go to pick up the phone calls, the complaints. And it wasn't enough to trouble six operators. So America was living what they knew very well, because Archie Bunkers lived next door or right in the house with them.

On his idea for a TV show today

I would wish to get the generations below mine and mine — from 55 or 60 up — on television. I love Betty White, but she does not make a full demographic. Certainly they're the fastest-growing demographic, with the most expendable income. There's every reason in the world for a show to exist. [The show would be called] Guess Who Died?

The script exists if anybody's interested in putting it on.

Archie Bunker

ABC

TV

CBS