As Nigeria joins the rest of the World to mark the International Day of the Girl Child 2023, an advocacy working group, Family Health Advocates in Nigeria Initiative, FHANI, has stressed the need for increased attention and resourcing in key areas such as education that would enable girls realize their rights and achieve their full potential.
In this regard, FHANI wants the Kaduna State Government to go beyond reaffirming commitments and invest boldly in the action needed to make that change.
In a statement, Grace Yila Maikano, Rise Up Project Manager, Family Health Advocates in Nigeria Initiative said the International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.
“Girls have the right to a safe, educated, and healthy life, not only during their formative years, but also as they mature into women.
“If effectively supported and educated, girls have the potential to change the world both as the empowered girls of today and as tomorrow’s workers, entrepreneurs, mentors, household heads, political leaders, and mothers.
” An investment in realizing the power of girls upholds their rights today and promises a more equitable and prosperous future, one in which half of humanity is an equal partner in solving the problems of climate change, political conflict, economic growth, disease prevention, and global sustainability.
Grace Maikano noted that in Kaduna State, girls have been displaced due to insecurity and kidnapping which has affected their education and livelihood.
Family Health Advocates in Nigeria Initiative (FHANI) with support from the Rise Up Project, she emphasized, is advocating on behalf of these girls to the State government through the ministry of education to formulate an e-learning policy to enable every girl in respect of where she is found, to have access to education.
“As today mark the international day of the girl child, we hope the Policy will not only be approved but disseminated to all stakeholders and the government at all levels make haste in implementing the policy.
” The current statistics from United Nations shows;Nearly 1 in 5 girls are still not completing lower-secondary and nearly 4 in 10 girls are not completing upper-secondary school today.Around 90 per cent of adolescent girls and young women do not use the internet in low-income countries, while their male peers are twice as likely to be online.Globally, girls aged 5-14 spend 160 million more hours every day on unpaid care and domestic work than boys of the same age.
“Adolescent girls continue to account for 3 in 4 new HIV infections among adolescent Nearly 1 in 4 married/partnered adolescent girls aged 15-19 have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime.Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage in the next decade.
“And now over the next ten years, up to 10 million more girls worldwide will be at risk of marrying as children because of the COVID-19 pandemic.These data indicates range of movements and actions to curtail girls’ and women’s rights and roll back progress on gender equality, we see particularly harsh impacts on girls.
“From maternal health care and parenting support for adolescent mothers, to digital and life skills training; from comprehensive sexuality education to survivor support services and violence prevention programmes; there is an urgent need for increased attention and resourcing for the key areas as education that enable girls to realize their rights and achieve their full potential. In responding to this call for change, the state government must move beyond reaffirming commitments and invest boldly in the action needed to make that change”, She concludes.
The United Nations General Assembly, on December 29, 2012 adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.
This year’s Day has as Its theme “Invest in Girls’ Rights: Our Leadership, Our Well-being.”