Globally, the International Day of the Girl Child is observed annually on the 11th of October to recognize the rights of girls and address the challenges they face around the world. This year’s theme – “Invest in Girls’ Rights: Our Leadership, Our Wellbeing” reminds us of the importance of empowering girls in various aspects of life with a focus on their rights, leadership, health, education, and overall well-being.
Nigeria’s demography continues to tilt towards the younger population with the highest proportion and the most vulnerable being girls. The double burden of being young and female is implicative as it intersects challenges and disadvantages for girls. It highlights the unique and compounded social, economic, and cultural difficulties expressed in diverse dimensions, hence, this calls for individuals to invest in the girl child. The girl child faces several health and social challenges that hinder the full realization of their potential. These include challenges related to health, psychosocial, and environmental issues. Common examples include limited access to sexual and reproductive health services dovetailing into high maternal and infant mortality rates. Social problems include early marriage and early sexual debut, poor health literacy and poor access to life-building skills, gender inequality, discrimination, and harmful socio-cultural practices.
Efforts to address this will require making available resources targeted toward the improvement of girls’ rights and development through advocacy, and evidence-based implementation of girl-friendly campaigns/initiatives that employ the whole-of-society and whole-of-government approach.
Towards the realization of these outcomes, UNICEF and its partners have called for a $1 billion increase in the investment in Adolescent girls, and very recently, in Nigeria, the launch of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine against cervical cancer has been rolled out in 16 states of the federation. Other efforts to address these challenges include Primary healthcare revitalization to improve uptake and access to reproductive health services through the Adopt-a-Healthcare-Facility-Program (ADHFP), a flagship project of the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria. This project provides a unique opportunity to complement the efforts of the government through domestic resource mobilization that increases access and uptake of health care services.
Continued, consistent Investment in girls’ rights remains a sustainable way to address and improve health outcomes for girls and economic opportunities in society.
