Over the past few months I’ve been producing a debate with Tallboy Communications on behalf of the Unicef Office of Research Innocenti.
It brought together three experts from around the world to look at issues such as early marriage, child labour, access to education and female genital mutilation and ask the question: “Are we failing adolescent girls?”.
By every measure, in much of the world, adolescent girls are disadvantaged.
- Worldwide, quarter of a billion (250 million) girls are married by the age of 15, compared to 33 million boys.
- In Nepal seven percent of girls are married before the age of 10.
- Getting on for half of those married before they are 18 come from south Asia – a third from India – compared to just two per cent from industrialised nations.
- In Tanzania, girls who don’t go to secondary school are nine times more likely to be married by the age of 18 than those who did.
Sajeda Amin from the Population Council in New York, Dakshitha Wickremarathne from Sri Lanka and Jo Boyden from Young Lives unpicked these statistics and sought ways to address the gender imbalance, led by BBC World presenter David Eades.
The debate was recorded and the video is now on Youtube.
Working on this debate has certainly made me think far more deeply about these issues.. Please take a moment to watch and share this video.
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