International Day of the
Girl Child Theme 2013
Innovating
for Girls’ Education
Empowering girls, ensuring their human rights and addressing the
discrimination and violence they face are essential to progress for the
whole human family. One of the best ways to achieve all of these goals
is to provide girls with the education they deserve.
Yet too many girls in too many countries are held back simply
because of their gender. Those whose mother was also deprived of an
education, who live in a poor community, or who have a disability face
an even steeper climb. Among girls who do make it to school, many face
discrimination and violence.
I launched the Global Education First Initiative to accelerate
progress in getting every child into school, especially girls. We are
aiming to teach more than reading and counting; we are striving to
raise global citizens who can rise to the complex challenges of the
21st century.
To achieve meaningful results, we need fresh solutions to girls’
education challenges and we must heed the voices of young people.
I have heard from girls around the world participating in the
consultations for the new Girl Declaration. I resolve to ensure that
Global Education First mobilizes all partners to respond to their
powerful call for empowerment.
More broadly, our campaign to reach the Millennium Development
Goals by 2015 and shape a vision beyond that date must address the
concerns and potential of the world’s girls.
On this International Day of the Girl Child, let us work together
to invest in education so that girls can advance in their personal
development and contribute to our common future.
Ban Ki-moon
UNICEF Draft
17 June 2013
Innovation: a novel
solution to a social problem that is
more
effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions
The
fulfilment 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 democratization.
While
there has been significant progress in improving girls’ access to education
over the last two decades, many girls, particularly the most marginalized,
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 realized.
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.
Smart
and creative use of technology is one route to overcoming gender barriers to
girls’ learning and achievement, but innovation in partnerships, policies,
resource utilization, community mobilization, and most of all, the engagement
of young people themselves, can be important catalyzing forces. All UN agencies, Member States, civil society
organizations, 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 publicize 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 will provide 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.
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