The Worst Countries For Girls – And How We Can Help
On 19 December 2011, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 which declared October 11 the International Day of the Girl Child. The purpose of this day is to recognise the rights of girls and the challenges they face in their communities around the world. It’s a day dedicated to understanding and promoting the empowerment of girls, and how we can help better fulfill their rights in line with making the Sustainable Development Goals a reality by 2030.
And it’s not all doom and gloom. The UN reports that the global community has made significant strides over the last 15 years in improving girls’ lives in their early childhood – more and more girls the world over are enrolling in primary education and receiving vaccinations, while less are suffering from malnutrition and other health problems.
But many countries are failing their girl children. CTG is committed to SDG 5: Gender Equality, and a key step towards gender equality is empowering the next generation of women.
So where should the global community focus its efforts in countries where the rights of girl children are neglected?
YEMEN: WHERE CHILD MARRIAGE & LIMITED EARNING CAPACITY GO HAND IN HAND
Girl children in Yemen grow up in a country with the world’s biggest wage gap between the genders, according to the 2015 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report. The numbers for child marriage are also startlingly high; 52% of girls are married off before they turn 18, one of the highest in the world.
WHAT CAN BE DONE? Recognising a legal minimum age to marry and strengthening the education system for girls. Research shows that girls with eight years of education are four times less likely to be married as children (National Academies Press 2005) and girls with just one extra year of education can earn 20% more as an adult according to the World Bank.
At CTG, it is our belief that empowering women in the workplace and communities strengthens the likelihood of the future generation to receive education. Due to this we launched our #FemaleFirst platform to create opportunities for women in some of the worst countries mentioned above, including Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen. In Yemen, we’ve already reached our 2030 target goal, as over 30% of our project-related roles in Yemen are represented by women. We have women working as field monitors and translators on the ground, who feel enthusiastic, valued, confident and motivated for the changes they help make every day. We’re showing a generation of women that their human rights are non-negotiable, and providing them with safe environments in which to work and raise their family. These are the women who will teach their daughters that their rights matter.
EGYPT: WHERE FGM IS HANDED DOWN TO DAUGHTERS
The World Health Organisation has denounced the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), yet in a survey of Egyptian women performed in 2000 found that 97% of married women who participated had experienced a form of FGM. More women and girls from Egypt have been cut — 27.2 million — than anywhere else in the world. A study in 2003, by the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, found that 69% of the women who participated agreed to FGM being performed on their daughters.
WHAT CAN BE DONE? UNICEF believes that ‘opening up the practice to public scrutiny in a respectful manner, as is being done in many programmes throughout Africa, can provide the spark for community-wide change’. Female genital mutilation is also an issue in Somalia — one of the countries where CTG’s teams are making an impact — where up to 98% of women have undergone FGM, 80% of which happens to girls between the age of five and nine years old.
SOMALIA: WHERE THE MOST DANGEROUS THING A WOMAN CAN DO IS BECOME PREGNANT
Aside from FGM, Somalia presents even more challenges for women. Somalia’s Maryam Qaasim, in her term as Women’s Minister, describes Somalia as the world’s original failed state the worst country in the world for women. Rampant famine means that women who become pregnant have almost no way of providing food for their children, and the lack of law enforcement of any kind mean that girls as young as five years old are raped without justice.
WHAT CAN BE DONE? Women’s centres which provide education and training can be better funded to help better equip young women with the skills and knowledge needed to take care of themselves and their family.
CTG had the privilege of hearing Ilwad Elman speak at the UN General Assembly in New York in September, 2017. Ilwad has made strides in championing for peace in Somalia, further outlining the need for more organisations to make a difference in the region. Her work has led to the establishment of Sister Somalia, a rape crisis centre which was opened to support survivors of gender-based and sexual violence, and to help rehabilitate them to lead their own lives again. CTG has deployed gender experts, women’s rights development consultants and human resource managers – all women – in our goal to make effective change possible and to help make SDG 5: Gender Equality a reality.
Some sources say that gender equality will only be possible by 2090… we can’t wait that long. The only way gender equality is possible is by empowering the upcoming generations – and ensuring that not one single girl is left behind.
See how UN Women is helping to make a difference by empowering girls before and after crises:
CTG is committed to making SDG5: Gender Equality a reality. Read more about our Female First recruitment initiative here.