The Girl Child - Global Highlights

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Global Updates on the Girl Child in the Developing World

From the World Bank reports 62 million girls worldwide are not in school and more than a third of the number is made up from developing countries. Education is very vital when it comes to the holistic development of the girl child in the developing world. With an education, she tends to be healthier, able to participate actively in the formal labor market, marry at an adult age when they are ready, have better income and enable better health care and education for her children. In the developing world and especially in Africa, there is a general consensus that the family is the nucleus of the society, yet they jeopardize the society by not equipping the family’s future care taker and manager (today’s girl child) with the right tools.

To be a girl child is to go through insurmountable hurdles; the first commences from the simple fact of not being born a boy. There is the general stigma that girls are weak, will marry and leave their fathers’ home, and will not be able to continue with the family name so they are not due any inheritance. As a result they are not given an education. You have mainstream religions being misogynistic by giving the girl child no voice and compel her to marry as a child, way before adult age and time; she is further subjected to a submissive role that is less than the male children she bears. Practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), violence against the girl child, child trafficking and rape are very much alive and persistent.

In Nigeria, the bulk of the girls (widely known as “Chibok girls”), kidnapped by the murderous Islamist sect of Boko Haram in 2014 from their school in Chibok in Northeast Nigeria, have still not been rescued. They were kidnapped because according to Boko Haram, “education (western education to be specific) is forbidden.” Boko Haram and their internal sponsors in Northern Nigeria recognize the value of education and know it will give the girl child a voice. In a recent report by United Nations [“Special Rapporteur on trafficking in person, especially women and children,” published in 2016 by Maria Grazia Giammarinaro], child marriages are as a form of human trafficking and explains how rampant it occurs in situations of conflict and displacement. Countries prominent in the report are: Nigeria, who is facing an insurgency in the North caused by Boko Haram leading to violence and displacements which further leads to the persistence of girl child violations; although such violations have always existed in places like Nigeria even before the start of the insurgency; and Syria, a country going through a civil war and where the girl child has similar experiences.

As poverty is rife and conflicts are ceaseless in developing countries the girl child’s progress will remain stagnant. The scare of refugees and cry of cultural nationalism makes matters very bleak for the girl child. Our governments in developing countries need to know that girls rights is a human rights issue and drastic steps need to be taken to promote the education of the girl child. Boys and men need to be engaged in this discussion to ensure that safe and inclusive learning environments can be created, to address violence against girls and women. Legislation like the recent one in Tanzania tackling child marriage, and the ban of child marriage in The Gambia, should be strongly encouraged by the civil society.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/girlseducation/overview#1

http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/region/sub-saharan-africa/

http://www.globalpartnership.org/focus-areas/girls-education

http://plancanada.ca/child-marriage

http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures

http://www.globalissues.org/article/166/womens-rights

https://plan-international.org/because-i-am-a-girl

http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_70640.html

http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/events/2015/gs_2016_30.pdf

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June 28, 2016: SitiTalkBlog Post:

The United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) declared 2014 as “the Year of Innovation for Equity – to focus the world’s attention on showcasing and developing innovative solutions for children’s well-being.”

It has been more than 25 years ago since the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), when the world got together and decided that it should and must take proactive steps “to protect and promote their rights to survive and thrive, to learn and grow, to make their voices heard and to reach their full potential.” (UNICEF).

UNICEF recognizes that despite the progress made so far, such as “from declining infant mortality, rising school enrollment, to better opportunities for girls...”, there is still so much more to do.

In many African nations, including larger economies like Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana, the girl child continue to face all forms of violence, from rape to domestic abuse, child marriage, neglect, lack of education and so on. Even though children in general are vulnerable, the gender gap in opportunities between the girl and boy child remains a glaring reality.

Revisiting the basic requirements of the CRC, it is hard to see why it is so difficult for countries around the world, and especially the developing nations, to put in place child protection laws and enforce them. Perhaps, it could be because in many developing countries, it is the same persons who exploit children in one way or another that are also being charged with the responsibility to enact child protection laws and ensure that they are enforced. In Nigeria, as an example, many in the northern parts have used religion as an excuse to support sexual exploitation of young girls in the name of “marriage.” As unthinkable as this may sound, there are many such men, some even in their forties and older who are having sexual relationships with minors and have never been arrested and/or tried in a bona fide court of law. Some of these men claim that these young adolescent girls are their wives. How can these same men be charged as advocates of the girl child at the same time? It is heart-wrenching that in 2016 we as a people are yet to move beyond such primordial thinking.

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