Education
Source: allAfrica The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has reiterated the need for countries to place more value and also invest in girl-child education.
Executive Director of the UNFPA, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin and Executive Director of U.N. Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, stated this in a joint statement, a copy which was made available to Daily Independent in Abuja, on Thursday.
The plight of the over 200 abducted Chibok schoolgirls, UNFPA said, was a powerful reminder that girls' education is not universally valued, and that violence and discrimination against half of the world's population remained widespread.
UNFPA in the statement regretted that, "this mistreatment is seen in the starkest terms in the challenges of child, early, and forced marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)."
According to UNFPA "The targeting of the Chibok girls was a targeting of their right to education first and foremost. Girls' education undermines discriminatory power relations and threatens those who maintain them. It leads to lower child, early, and forced marriage and reduces harmful traditional practices, violence at home, maternal death, and feminized poverty.
"In short, it is a clear path to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. While a strong security response is critical in the case of the Chibok girls, safe access to education for all children must be a cornerstone of our efforts to curtail extremism and end harmful practices."
Despite the commitment of almost all governments to end force and early marriages, such 'marriages' remain appallingly common.
"One in three girls in the developing world outside China is married before she is 18, and for one in nine girls, this will happen before she is 15, and for some, at just eight years old.
"Child, early, and forced marriage limit girls' education, future prospects, health, and lives. Marriage at such a young age greatly increases the chance of complications in pregnancy and childbirth -- and is one of the main causes of death among girls ages 15 to 19 in the developing world," the statement noted.