UNFPA on why we need to invest in teenage girls

POLITICAL leaders have been advised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) that it is inevitable to invest in teenage girls if the country is to attain the needed stability and peace
Such investment would help to protect girls from sexual violence and dangers to their reproductive health while expanding their income opportunities to attain self-reliance early in their lives.
UNFPA Executive Director Dr Babatunde Osotimehn said in a statement in preparation for the World Population Day on Monday next week that “a teenage girl whose rights are respected and who is able to realise her full potential is a girl who is more likely to contribute to economic and social progress of her community and nation.”
He urged governments to invest in teenage girls to enable them make important decisions while equipping them with skills to enable them earn a living.
“Let the girl child engage in the affairs of their communities and be on equal footing with their male counterparts,” the statement underlined.
“When she has no say in decisions about her education, health, work or even marital status, she may never realise her full potential or become a positive force for transformation in her home community and nation,” he emphasized.
Dr Natalia Kanen, the country representative for UNFPA was of the view that educated and healthy girls stay in school longer, marry later, delay childbearing, have healthier children, develop life skills, and earn higher incomes.
“In fact this helps to lift themselves and their present and future families out of poverty, so investments should make them literate and develop basic skills, critical health care knowledge, obtain access to social services including sexual and reproductive health, gain vocational and employable skills for work, and have access to friends and mentors,” she pointed out.
Results of a current demographic survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show among teenage girls, those from 13 to 19 ages, at least 42 percent of girls who never received formal education have given birth while 26.8 percent of girls in primary schools have delivered babies, she said.
The rate of teenage girls in secondary school that have also given birth stands at 7.5 percent. With all the numbers, the survey discloses that around 27 percent of the country’s teenage girls have already conceived.
“When investments in girls are made, everyone benefits; their families, communities, and most importantly, the girls themselves… When a teen girl conceives, she knows nothing, she can’t face her parents…sometimes the situation forces her to conduct unsafe abortion which in fact is very dangerous to her health,” said Dr Kanen.
“This is why UNFPA works with governments and partners at all levels to foster supportive policies, legislation and dialogue about adolescent girls’ human rights and dignity,” she observed, noting further that UNFPA brings greater attention to their needs and realities, “given the harmful and life-threatening risks they face from child marriage.”
It is said that the UN agency also works with communities by supporting programs that enable elders, parents, faith-based organizations and other influential leaders to identify the dangers of child marriage to girls, promote their rights, and find community-owned solutions to collectively discourage and eventually end the practice.
UNFPA also assists the most marginalized and vulnerable girls in deferring marriage by advocating that girls stay in school, that they build their life skills. It also seeks to provide them safe spaces to learn, play and make friends, providing sexual and reproductive health and HIV information and services, and improving their overall economic and social well-being.
“There is a huge cost for inaction on child marriage. It is time for policy makers, parliamentarians, communities, families and young people to address this issue head on. Let’s deliver a nation where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. Let’s let girls be girls,” she appealed.
The UNFPA’s message is; ‘educate a girl to realise her dreams, protect a girl to realise her dreams, inform a girl to realise her dreams, empower a girl to realise her dream.’ The dreams are better life, good health, have a happy family, good education, decent income, a contributing citizen and making her a parent happy and proud.
On the other hand the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says: “Despite significant gains made in reducing poverty and improving opportunity and well-being for many people around the world, hundreds of millions remain desperate for a chance of better future.”
He adds: “Among those least served by previous development initiatives are girls, particularly those in their formative teenage years. Just when girls should be in school and imagining the possibilities ahead, too many are held back from pursuing their ambitions by social and cultural traps.”
According to Ban, half of all sexual assaults worldwide are committed against girls aged 15 or younger and in developing countries, one in every three girls is married before reaching 18. Teenage girls are less likely that teenage boys to start or finish secondary school.
He therefore urged all governments, business and civil society to support and invest in teenage girls. “Everyone deserves the benefits of economic growth and social progress. Let us work together to ensure a life of security, dignity and opportunity for all,” the world’s top civil servant intoned.