YMCA Jos, Nigeria marks International Day of the Girl Child – Innovating for Girls’ Education

On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognise girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world. For its second observance, this year’s Day focused on “Innovating for Girls’ Education”.

The fulfillment of girls’ right to education is first and foremost an obligation and moral imperative. There is also overwhelming evidence that girls’ education, especially at the secondary level, is a powerful transformative force for societies and girls themselves: it is the one consistent positive determinant of practically every desired development outcome, from reductions in mortality and fertility, to poverty reduction and equitable growth, to social norm change and democratisation.

While there has been significant progress in improving girls’ access to education over the last two decades, many girls, particularly the most marginalised, continue to be deprived of this basic right. Girls in many countries are still unable to attend school and complete their education due to safety-related, financial, institutional and cultural barriers. Even when girls are in school, perceived low returns from poor quality of education, low aspirations, or household chores and other responsibilities keep them from attending school or from achieving adequate learning outcomes. The transformative potential for girls and societies promised through girls’ education is yet to be realised.

Innovation will be an important strategy in addressing the nature and scale of barriers girls continue to face and in ensuring they receive an education commensurate with the challenges of the 21st century. As the world evaluates gaps in achieving the global goals for gender equality in education and defines an agenda post-2015, it is critical that innovation is harnessed to improvise solutions that are not only more creative, but also more effective, efficient, sustainable and just in achieving demonstrable results for improving girls’ education.

In recognition of the importance of fresh and creative perspectives to propel girls’ education forward, the YMCA Jos Nigeria, Education & Sustainable Livelihood Youth Initiative (ESLYI) and Voice for the Girl Child foundation (VGCF) deem it important to commemorate this epoch event by organising a three-day event from the 9th to the 11th October 2013 with theme SHOWCASING THE POTENTIALS OF THE GIRL CHILD. 20 Secondary Schools were invited to be part of this event and other young men and ladies around Plateau State”.

Also in attendance where the Commissioner Of Women Affairs, Civil Society groups, Nsrp British Counsel, High Land Crystal Theater, Diamond She Africa, Face Of Unity Northern Nigeria And lots more. The event brought together over 320 people.

Smart and creative use of technology is one route to overcoming gender barriers to girls’ learning and achievement, but innovation in partnerships, policies, resource utilisation, community mobilisation, and most of all, the engagement of young people themselves, can be important catalysing forces. All UN agencies, Member States, civil society organisations, and private sector actors have potential tools to innovate for and with girls to advance their education. The following are just some of many examples:

Improving public and private means of transportation for girls to get to school—from roads, buses, mopeds, bicycles to boats and canoes
Engaging young people in monitoring and holding school systems accountable for ensuring the integrity of school facilities and functions and the safety and learning of girls
Collaboration between school systems and the banking industry to facilitate secure and convenient pay delivery to female teachers and scholarship delivery to girls
Provision of science and technology courses targeted at girls in schools, universities and vocational education programmes
Corporate mentorship programmes to help girls acquire critical work and leadership skills and facilitate their transition from school to work
Revisions of school curricula to integrate positive messages on gender norms related to violence, child marriage, sexual and reproductive health, and male and female family roles
Deploying mobile technology for teaching and learning to reach girls, especially in remote areas
Using traditional and social media, advertising and commercial packaging to publicise data on gender disparities in education, the underlying causes, and actions that can be taken for change

The International Day of the Girl Child 2013 provided a platform to highlight examples such as these – and many more – of ongoing work and achievements, as well as raise awareness of the importance of innovation in advancing girls’ education and promoting learning and empowerment.

God bless the cirl child across Africa and the Globe. We from YMCA Jos, Nigeria respect and value the worth of a Woman and that of the Girl Child; we also believe that if we train a girl child we are training a Nation.

By: Taimanda Shalhona, Secretary, YMCA Jos, Nigeria

The Africa Alliance of YMCAs (AAYMCA) is a leading pan African youth development network on the continent, representing national movements in 20 countries, 16 of which are very active. The first YMCA in Africa was established in Liberia in 1881, and the AAYMCA was founded in 1977 as the umbrella body for all national movements on the continent. www.africaymca.org or https://www.facebook.com/AfricaYMCA

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