Why the girl -child should be up-skilled
14 October 2022 |
4:21 am
Throughout the world, millions of girls are being deprived of a fundamental right – the right to education. This all-important right outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1984 has been reinforced...
Girls from the school
Throughout the world, millions of girls are being deprived of a fundamental right – the right to education. This all-important right outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1984 has been reinforced, recognized as a global priority, and incorporated into developmental agendas over the past decades. Developed nations have made tremendous, progressive commitments towards achieving higher rates in girl education. However, the reality in most developing nations, including Nigeria, seems to be far from ideal. Statistics show that more than half of the 10.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria are girls – the highest in the world, indicating that for every five out-of-school children, three are girls.
The constraints faced by girls such as social exclusion, cost, distance, poverty, gender inequality, traditional influences and early marriage, as well as parental literacy continue to sideline many girls from getting an education. In Northern Nigeria, gender norms and stereotypes that define girls primarily by their function as wives and mothers often exclude them from decision-making processes and community involvements. They, therefore, reach adult age without control over many areas of their lives.
With the efforts of many organisations and particularly, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), an agency of the United Nations, the mindset of many families has started shifting and particular attention is now being paid to the girl. In 2012, the International Day of the Girl was established and has become a renowned day, as it has reached the milestone of a decade of existence.
The International Day of the Girl has contributed to the empowerment of girls and women all over the world. It has brought focus to addressing challenges faced by adolescent girls and women. The day also is to celebrate their empowerment and fulfillment of rights. The day has created huge awareness of the right to a safe, educated, and healthy life for adolescent girls in their formative years, continuing until they mature into women.
It is pertinent to add that SDG Goal 5 is fully focused on gender parity. It aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The targets in Goal 5 as elucidated below specifically clarifies how gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls can be achieved. It advocates the end of all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere and equally seeks to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in public and private spheres, including trafficking, sexual violence, and other types of exploitation.
It further aims to eliminate all harmful practices, such as childhood, early and forced marriage as well as female genital mutilations. It recognizes values of unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies, and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate. It is aimed at ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life. The goal seeks to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the ICPD and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.
Given the commitments made, it is time for the girl to be emancipated from all shackles that hold her back and fulfill her potential. The quality of girls’ future will be determined by the quality of opportunities they have now to learn and develop relevant skills that will enable them to access, perform, and create dignified and fulfilling work. If this is achieved, there is no limitation for the girl from infancy till adulthood.
The Mastercard Foundation posits that gender equality is imperative to building prosperous, inclusive economies so that everyone can have the opportunity to learn and prosper. Sub-Saharan Africa boasts the highest women’s labour force participation rate than any other region, the jobs held by women are more likely to be unpaid, insecure, and part-time. Displaced, disabled, and rural women are even more likely to bear the burden of these gender inequities. With the Young Africa Works strategy, the Foundation has made a bold commitment to girls and young women under our Young Africa Works strategy, which seeks to enable 30 million young Africans to access dignified and fulfilling work – 70% of whom will be young women.
The Mastercard Foundation has funded programmes that challenge occupational segregation and champions having access to more paid employment. Women have also been given more access and quality of education for children is imperative for all youth. Education matters particularly for young women, because of the strong relationship between increased education for girls and lower rates of child marriage, higher incomes and increased decision-making power in the household. The Mastercard Foundation is invested not just in delivering access to schooling but access to learning that ultimately leads to earning. Girls and young women develop the kind of skills that are relevant to the future of work—21st Century skills, technical and vocational skills, entrepreneurship skills, digital skills – as well as the confidence to use their voices to shape their communities and futures.
Recently in Kano State, Nigeria, Aisha Muhammad, a 16-year-old girl became a beneficiary of WOFAN Group through her mother, a member of the group who diversified into poultry and livestock production from the profit generated from the COVID-19 intervention through ICON of Hope Project in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The women reciprocated the support they received by training more young girls to be poultry farmers, thereby, increasing the number of girls and women contributing to the economic development of their community.
Aisha was provided with a cage and 25 broiler chicks as a startup. She combined raring the birds with her studies. She lost 15 of the chicks and managed to raise 10. She remains determined to continue with the business by upscaling her stock to 50 after selling them to off-takers of WOFAN Group in Gargai. She is an example of the spirit of liberation and empowerment that characterize the International Day of the Girl.
The Mastercard Foundation is committed to investing in girls’ future with intent to unlock the barriers that keep women from accessing the capital they need to start or scale businesses and create opportunities for other young women. As we mark the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl, we all need to rise to the challenge of supporting our girls and women to optimize their potential in all spheres of human endeavours.
Bakare wrote from Lagos.
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