Despite education, Sub-Saharan girls are still repressed – Unicef

Sub-Saharan girls are still under siege and education is no longer enough to sustain the progress made over the past quarter of a century.

This is according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) following the release of a global report on progress made in the lives of girls over the past 25 years.

Despite the fact that more girls are going to school and staying in school longer than before, these gains made little headway in helping shape a more equal, less violent environment for girls, warned Unicef, Plan International and UN Women in the report.

“Access to education is not enough – we must also change people’s behaviours and attitudes towards girls.

“True equality will only come when all girls are safe from violence, free to exercise their rights and are able to enjoy equal opportunities in life,” said Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore in a statement.

According to Unicef SA spokesperson Nadia Samie-Jacobs, sub-Saharan Africa was, for many reasons, home to the most disadvantaged girls in the world.

One of the UN’s millennium goals for sustainable development was to eradicate child marriages by 2030.

“Currently, it is decreasing at a rate of 1.9%, whereas if we were on track to reaching our goal it would have already been at 23%. That means there is a very big gap,” said Samie-Jacobs.

Although sub-Saharan Africa experienced a 22% decline in the adolescent birth rate in the past 25 years, it continued to have the highest rate of any region globally, at 103 births per 1,000 adolescent girls.

Compounding the problem was the HIV infection rate among girls in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Sub-Saharan Africa is home to the largest HIV positive rates among adolescent girls worldwide by far,” said Samie-Jacobs.

Patriarchy and fast-held beliefs about girls and women in some communities was behind many of these challenges.

“There are communities where they believe that it is okay to marry off your young daughter. We know that when girls get access to education, they are more likely to only marry later in life and have children later in life,” she said.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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