By Abra Pollock
WASHINGTON, Feb 1, 2008 (IPS) - Investing in young
women and girls in developing regions must be a top priority for governments,
multilateral agencies and the private sector, say the authors of a report
released here this week.
Titled, "Girls Count: A Global Investment &
Action Agenda," the 89-page report highlighted the systematic
disadvantages faced by girls and women in developing countries in areas
ranging from health, education, and nutrition to workforce participation and
the burden of household tasks.
Countries that do not address these significant
disparities risk perpetuating a "cycle of poverty" within their
populations, the report said -- yet by investing in women and girls,
countries can reap significant benefits in the spheres of political and economic
development.
Among the report's proponents is former U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson.
"This report is a call to action," Robinson
said. "It challenges institutions in all sectors to take a fresh look at
their investments and consider where adolescent girls have been built in. The
truth is they haven't been, and ignoring that will come at a great price to
us all."
Although addressing poverty is already key development
priority, young women and girls in less developed regions are even more
vulnerable to poverty's impact, said the report, which was co-authored by
experts from the Centre for Global Development (CGD), the International
Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), American University, and the Population
Council.
Approximately one-sixth of the world's young people live
on less than two dollars a day, the report said. This level of extreme
poverty determines the lives and possibilities for many young women and
girls, such as the 122 million girls in sub-Saharan Africa who live on less
than one dollar a day.
Without adequate skills and training, and without access
to economic self-sufficiency, many girls in developing countries enter into
child marriages. One in seven girls in developing countries marry by age 15,
and in 15 countries throughout South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, almost half
of all girls are married before age 18, the report said.
Child marriage can have serious effects on girls' health.
While up to one-half of girls in developing countries become mothers before
age 18, adolescent mothers are up to five times more likely to die from
pregnancy complications than women in their twenties, the report said.
"Child marriage shapes the lives of girls and all of
their possibilities," said Margaret Greene, one of the report's authors
and the director of the ICRW's Population and Social Transitions team.
"If people understood what the implications are for early marriage for
girls, they would step away from it."
Educating girls and providing them with skills training
and social services will springboard their potential as young women, while
also contributing to a country's political and economic development, the
report said.
A study examining "investment returns" on
education for young men and women cited by the report found that just a
single additional year of secondary education can boost girls' economic
earnings and workforce participation -- even more so than for boys.
In order to promote education, and economic and civic participation
for girls, authors of the report outlined several key actions for
governments, multilateral agencies, and members of the private sector.
Within the private sector, businesses should not only practice
nondiscrimination in hiring and pay, but can also take proactive steps like
providing on-site savings accounts for young women employees who otherwise
could only open a bank account with permission from a family member, the
report said.
Since household tasks like carrying water and fetching
firewood often bind women to the home, businesses can encourage developing
countries' government to invest in infrastructure -- and thereby build the
electricity and water systems that reduce the burden of work on girls.
Governments of developing countries can invest in young
women and girls as well, according to the report. Key steps include
maintaining "a legal environment that treats girls fairly, delivering
social services equitably, and ensuring that public works and employee
guarantee programmes targeted to the poor benefit young women."
According to the report, although multilateral bodies,
such as the United Nations, currently run various programmes with a focus on
young women, they could better highlight their existing efforts to inspire
others.
"Everybody has a role to play," said Laura
Laski, a coordinator for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Yet experts are somewhat concerned that despite its clear
benefits, not everybody will agree with the "Girls Count" agenda.
Ruth Levine, a co-author of the report and a CGD vice
president, points out that some of the recommendations would fundamentally
shift gender relations within developing countries, which is not likely to
happen overnight.
"When you improve access to education for girls in
places where there are differentials in power between men and women -- [such
as] in many parts of South Asia, much of Africa, and parts of the Middle East
-- you really disturb the existing social order," Levine said. "I
think you have to expect that there's going to be backlash and resistance.
For now, authors and proponents of the report are focusing
on reaching out to leaders and decision makers within the different sectors
to highlight "quick wins" that can dramatically take off from small
steps.
Some progress seems evident so far. After much hard work,
co-sponsoring organisations of the report were able to secure a working
session on "Girls Count" at the 2008 World Economic Forum, which
was held Jan. 23-27 in Davos, Switzerland and which traditionally brings
together the world's most powerful economic actors.
According to ICRW president Geeta Rao Gupta, who was
present at the forum, the "Girls Count" session was so popular that
there was not even enough space for everyone who wanted to attend.
Towards the end of the session, participants were asked to
speak up and explain the commitments they would make in their work towards
investing in women and girls, Gupta explained. Among the participants was
Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
"We need champions in order for [this agenda] to
work, and they need to be nontraditional champions," Rao Gupta said.
"They have to be champions from within these large institutions who make
big decisions regarding the allocation of resources. They're the ones who
have to champion the cause of women."
Like Rao Gupta, Levine agrees that when it comes to
investing in girls, actions must speak louder than words. She and other
report authors hope that this is what their collaborative work will inspire.
"What's unconscionable is that there is so much
rhetoric both in development agencies and in developing country governments
about how, 'We have to respond to our young people,' and… 'We value our
mothers and women,' but there is a huge lack of correspondence between what
people say, and what is being done," Levine said. "At this point,
what we're hoping to do is really provoke some action."