Beijing+20, Focus this Month: The Girl Child‏

As part of UN Women’s ‬Beijing+20 Campaign, this month’s focus is on the Girl Child. Below is a preview of our latest line-up. As always, the content is available in Spanish and French.

In Focus: The Girl Child

This month we focus on the needs of the girl child in terms of physical protection, discrimination in all forms and the struggles being faced by girls today.

They go to school, help with housework, work in factories, make friends, care for elder and younger family members and prepare themselves to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. Girls play multiple roles in the household, society and the economy. Upholding the rights of the girl child has seen increased support through the nearly global adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as through the UN Millennium Development Goals target of increasing equality between girls’ and boys’ educational attainment.

While today, equal numbers of boys and girls are receiving primary education in most of the world, few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education. According to the 2014 MDG Report in 2012, 781 million adults and 126 million youth worldwide lacked basic reading and writing skills, with women accounting for more than 60 per cent of both populations. Even when girls are encouraged to continue their education, they face major challenges that make it difficult for them to attend regularly, sometimes receiving an unequal share of the household tasks due to customary practices in many regions of the world.

Though life for the girl child is steadily improving, many are still subjected to horrific practices, such as female genital mutilation, son preference – often resulting in female infanticide – as well as child marriage, sexual exploitation and abuse. Girls are also more likely to experience discrimination in food allocation and healthcare, and are often outpaced and outranked by boys in all spheres of life. The Girl Child was also one of the 12 critical areas of concern raised in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995, concluding in nine strategic objectives framed as a means of holding governments accountable for girl’s rights.

Freedom from all forms of discrimination against the girl child remains only partly fulfilled, and governments and societies must galvanize efforts if true freedom is to be won. Policies and programs initiated must be duty-bound to take into consideration the differing, yet critical, needs of the girl child in terms of physical protection from sexual and physical exploitation, discrimination in all forms including in the field of education, and increased awareness of the struggles being faced by girls today.

This op-ed was written on behalf of five Nigerian sisters in their quest to get an education.

In the words of Op-Ed Nnenna Agba

Raised in Nigeria, Nnenna Agba gained popularity when she went on the widely watched television show America’s Next Top Model. With hard-won scholarships, she graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry; she also holds a Master’s of Science degree in Urban Affairs.

Nnenna is supporting the education of her four sisters in Nigeria, and is the face of Kechie’s Project, an NGO that provides scholarships to girls from Nigerian schools.

I grew up in Nigeria, in a culture where bearing a son validates a woman and her family, and a male innately holds the superior position in society over a female. At 11 years of age, I escorted my mother to deliver her fifth baby girl, my youngest sister, and watched our mom die in the hands of an unfit doctor.

My mother had succumbed to the confines of her society; even though she already had four healthy daughters, having a son was a traditional standard she was determined to achieve, even at the expense of her life. Realizing the underlying factors that subjected her to such a predicament presented a vivid picture of my position as a girl in Nigerian society.

Almost immediately, the importance of education took on a different meaning in my life and in the lives of my four sisters. I went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a Master’s of Science in Urban Affairs. With my education, I have been able to sponsor my younger sisters’ education in Nigeria, thereby increasing our likelihood of having a progressive future that far surpasses the traditional limitations defined by our society.

For Nigerian girls like my sisters and I, education is the key that opens the door when an opportunity to succeed beyond customary expectations knocks.

Education is a fundamental right, to which I firmly believe we should be naturally entitled. It is the only chance most Nigerian girls have to rise above the cultural and traditional system of stratification that continue to cast women as inferior to their male counterparts, economically, politically and socially. Women who have been able to escape such subjugation have done so mostly by being empowered through education. A good education offers Nigerian girls the opportunity of being valued members of their society and for this vital reason I am devoted and driven to ensure that my sisters continue with their studies.

For girls in Nigeria and around the world, education can enable economic independence, pave the way for political participation, and empower both men and women with the necessary knowledge to actively and effectively oppose oppressive norms that perpetuate different forms of violence against women. And in contrast to the culture of gender inequality that persists in Nigeria, education serves as an avenue of exposure to a cultural alternative. Nigerian girls stand to benefit from this exposure, and the possibility of such enlightenment poses a major threat to extremist groups such as Boko Haram.

Though we dream and yearn for the miracle of immediate solutions, I know that change does not occur by magic, nor does it take place overnight; rather it requires the dedication of time and relentless collective effort. My mother’s death is a product of unjust societal norms that facilitate perverse gender inequality. A society’s customs are engineered by its past generations, and in the same fashion its future citizens can redefine the culture that rules them by cultivating a new norm through education.

I am an optimist and I believe it is possible to change the world, to better the status of women globally and particularly in places like Nigeria. This is not because I am naive or unaware of the shortcomings of many efforts to effect change. My optimism stems from a desperate place—a core belief that the world as a whole, leaders and citizens, must awaken to the urgent need to end injustice against women. For me, necessity and possibility have become synonymous because living with the consequences of gender inequality makes it all the more obvious that change is imperative.

While my heart bled over the sorrow captured in the “Bring Back Our Girls” cry for help, my mind desperately indulged in a renewed hope that Nigeria might no longer ignore the agony of women and girls. Unfortunately, it often takes the presence of pain to garner the passion of a nation to vehemently advocate for change and demand action by its government. Although Boko Haram is perceived as an opponent to progress, the greater obstacle lies in a broader reluctance to take action in protecting girls in Nigeria who simply want an education.

Nigerian girls, like my sisters and I, desire and deserve for our aspirations of becoming valued members of society to be realized.

Education is the vehicle towards living this dream.

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