Today marks the
International Day of the Girl Child, a United Nations led initiative supporting
the more than 1.1 billion girls worldwide who are a powerful force for shaping
a sustainable world.
Women’s
Agenda report continues:
The
Day aims to highlight the fact too many girls around the world have their
potential and dreams thwarted by violence, discrimination and inequality.
The
theme this year is "Girls' Progress
= Goals' Progress: A Global Girl Data Movement", calling for action on
increasing the availability and analysis of girl-focused and sex-disaggregated
data.
Already,
some such data highlights some of the major issues facing girls all over the world
including that:
o
One
in 3 girls in developing countries (except China) are married before turning
18
o
Poor
girls are 2.5 times more likely to marry in childhood than wealthy girls
o
Child
marriage usually ends a girl's education, and puts her at greater risk of
violence.
o
Childbirth
is the number one killer of girls aged 15 to 19, with 50,000 deaths annually
o
36
million primary school aged girls are not in school
o
Girls
receive just an average of six years of formal education in their lives
o
A
girl's income is elevated by 10 to 20% for every year of secondary school she
attends
o
A
child is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five if she is born to a
mother who can read
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