International Day of the Girl Child October 11, 2018
2018 Theme – With Her: A Skilled GirlForce
International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated on Thursday October 11, 2108. “The day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.” (United Nations)
This day was created on December 19, 2011 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.
The International Day of the Girl brings attention to the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.
Every year, 12 million girls are married before their 18th birthday; 21 million girls ages 15 to 19 years will become pregnant in developing regions.
Nearly 7000 adolescent girls aged 15 to 24 are infected with HIV every week
98 million girls who should be in secondary school are not
Of the 1 billion young people – including 600 million adolescent girls – that will enter the workforce in the next decade, more than 90% of those living in developing countries will work for low or no pay – abuse and exploitation are common.
With Her: A Skilled GirlForce, International Day of the Girl marks the beginning of a year-long effort to bring together partners and stakeholders to advocate for, and draw attention and investments to, the most pressing needs and opportunities for girls to attain skills for employability. (United Nations)
UNICEF offers the following recommendations to the global community to develop A Skilled GirlForce:
- Rapidly expand access to inclusive education and training.
- Improve the quality and gender-responsiveness of teaching and learning to enable girls to develop foundational, transferable and job-specific skills for life and work.
- Create inclusive and accessible schools, training and learning opportunities to empower girls with disabilities.
- Change gender stereotypes, social norms and unconscious bias to provide girls with the same learning and career opportunities as boys.
- Increase girls’ participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning.
- Create initiatives to support girls’ school-to-work transition, such as career guidance, apprenticeships, internships and entrepreneurship.
- Deliver large-scale public and private sector programming for girls’ skills and market-adapted training.
- Enable access to finance and enterprise development for female entrepreneurs.
- Form strategic partnerships with governments and private companies which can act as thought leaders and financiers, helping to train girls and bring them into the workforce.
On this day and every day going forward let’s stand with the girls of the world so that every girl can reach her full potential.
