Investing in the Hardest to Reach Girls

This CSW parallel event- Investing in the Hardest to Reach Girls: Challenges and Opportunities was sponsored and organized by Save The Children, an NGO that is changing the world by transforming children’s lives and the International Center for Research on Women, an organization that uses data to show that when the lives of girls and women are improved, everyone benefits. There were five panel members, three of whom work with rural girls in the field in different contexts. Two of the panelists come from the organizations that organized the event which are Save the Children and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).

The panel discussion began with Charles from Malawi who works with an NGO to reach out to girls living in the rural communities of Malawi. He outlined the challenges for Malawi as a country and for rural girls and women as a subgroup in the society and the present opportunities in the country for empowerment. He stated that the country as a whole is facing economic hardship as a result of the dwindling sales of tobacco. The first group in the society who feel the social and economic impact of poverty are the girls who live in rural communities as poverty sometimes leads to child marriage. The culture and social norms also encourage early marriage as girls are married off when they hit puberty. Majority of the problems that surround the hardest to reach girls are all centered around child marriage and this challenge creates an opportunity for the government of Malawi to act in favor of these girls which it started to do in April 2013 when it implemented the Gender Equality Act. The Constitution has been amended to protect the rights of the girl-child and a national strategy on ending child marriage has begun in the country. Among the recommendations to help the hardest to reach girls is to develop comprehensive programs that provide a component of livelihood to the homes of these vulnerable children in addition to making sure that these girls get the education they need.

Debra, who is a young Albanian champion for gender equality and the participation of girls advocated for access to quality and inclusive education for girls who live in rural communities. She outlined that girls from the poorer regions of Albania struggle with poverty, lack of access to education and social protection. The opportunity for improvement presents itself in the manner of government involvement in the provision of quality education, knowledge, technical and vocational skills, books, transportation and protection to ensure that these girls succeed.

Shaikat from Bangladesh identified child marriage as the main challenge to girl’s education in Bangladesh as there is a mistaken assumption that girls can continue getting an education even when they are married at an early age. The opportunities to combat this situation presents itself in the form of comprehensive education that includes both boys and girls. Educating girls on their rights to consent and the consequences of child marriage and early childbirth is instrumental in controlling the situation. Boys and men should be educated and made a part of the movement towards empowerment of women and girls.

Yeva from Save the Children and Lyric from ICRW addressed these issues from an economic and financial standpoint. Yeva addressed how national governments could make public budgets work for gender equality. This could be done by effectively allocating funds that are gender and age responsive. It is also necessary to set targets for gender equality and center policies around global goals for women empowerment. As also solidified by Lyric from ICRW, data is power. Without data on a certain subgroup of the population, they become invisible and there is no accountability. The ICRW approaches it from a different standpoint through its collaboration with the World Bank to show countries and governments the human and economic costs of early child marriage. This work has gone further to prove to national governments that it is necessary to invest in the hardest to reach girls as the social, economic and human costs are too high to pay if we fail in this aspect.

For more information on economic cost of early child marriage, visit: http://www.costsofchildmarriage.org/