{"id":4758,"date":"2015-12-20T15:36:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T20:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=4758"},"modified":"2020-01-03T05:17:43","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T10:17:43","slug":"4758","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=4758","title":{"rendered":"Eight ways 2015 was a momentous year for girls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY .<\/p>\n

An article from Girl Effect<\/a><\/p>\n

What a year it\u2019s been. From the Sustainable Development Goals and global support for girls\u2019 education to commitments to end harmful practices that hold girls back, 2015 has been momentous. Here are eight developments that show girls are getting the attention they deserve.<\/p>\n

\"girleffect2\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

1. GIRLS GET GLOBAL RECOGNITION<\/p>\n

What started two years ago as the Girl Declaration ended with girls\u2019 needs being put on the global development agenda for the first time ever. The Sustainable Development Goals summit made history by ensuring that girls and women not only got their own dedicated goal, but by also prominently featuring Malala at the opening session they put a teenage girl on equal footing with world leaders. The SDGs will run for 15 years and influence how trillions of dollars of aid money will be spent. It\u2019s a victory for girls and the beginning of a long journey.<\/p>\n

2. HARDSHIP LEADS TO LEADERSHIP<\/p>\n

The refugee crisis proved impossible to ignore any longer this year, with global headlines showing families fleeing conflict and violence. It shone a light on how refugee girls feel the impact harder than others. Their education gets disrupted, they\u2019re more likely to be forced into early marriage, and there\u2019s an increased risk of trafficking and abuse. The hardship, though, has provided an opportunity for leadership. Step up, Muzoon. She\u2019s the 16-year-old living in a refugee camp in Jordan. When she noticed that girls her age stopped going to school because they were getting married, she set about advocating for refugee girls\u2019 education. The world and Malala took notice and helped fund a girls\u2019 school in Muzoon\u2019s camp. Yep. Girls make great leaders.<\/p>\n

3. GIRLS\u2019 EDUCATION BECAME IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE<\/p>\n

When an 18-year-old girl opens a session at the United Nations and takes centre stage at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City\u2019s Central Park a day later, you know girls have got the world\u2019s attention. While Malala has tirelessly campaigned for girls\u2019 education, this year saw other big names picking up the mantle. The United States launched a global girls\u2019 education initiative, Let Girls Learn, with Michelle Obama leading the charge. The UN\u2019s refugee agency dedicated an award to Aqeela Asifi, who made it her mission to convince a community to send their girls to school. And around the world, girls claimed their right to education in their communities. The benefits of educating girls are indisputable, and now that it\u2019s in the spotlight we expect big things. <\/p>\n

4. MORE COMMITMENTS TO END CHILD MARRIAGE<\/p>\n

Every minute, 28 girls get married. But efforts to end child marriage have gained momentum. The African Union held its first Girls\u2019 Summit to End Child Marriage, and world leaders committed to stamping out this harmful practice at the SDGs summit. Girls proved, though, that they are best placed to speak out about child marriage, from the Afghan rapper Sonita to Dieynaba, the graffiti artist in Senegal. If this keeps up, the rate of child marriage will fall, especially if we keep the pressure on heads of state to live up to their promises.<\/p>\n

(Article continued in right column)\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Question for this article<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\n

Prospects for progress in women’s equality, what are the short and long term prospects?<\/a><\/p>\n

Gender equality in education, Is it advancing?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Article continued from left column)<\/p>\n

5. GIRLS BREAK TABOOS AROUND THEIR BODIES<\/p>\n

In 2015, periods stopped being a dirty word. We saw the rise on social media of Menstrual Hygiene Day which was marked around the world. In India, girls demanded freedom from the taboos surrounding their bodies by protesting on the streets and online. The Indian media followed suit, representing girls and women in ways that were never seen before in advertising and film. Meanwhile, young women designers came up with an innovative solution that answered girls\u2019 needs for sanitary products in the developing world. And a British woman, Amy Peake, made it her mission to ensure that girls and women in refugee camps get the sanitary pads they need to maintain their dignity. The natural function of girls\u2019 bodies doesn\u2019t have to be shameful any longer.<\/p>\n

6. CUTTING OUT FGM<\/p>\n

This year saw a record number of people using the #EndFGM hashtag, less than a year after it was first coined. Egypt saw its first conviction and jailing of a doctor over the FGM-related death of a 13-year-old girl. Nigeria and The Gambia banned the practice, and many more countries have developed action plans to tackle FGM or to ensure robust data is collected on the practice. Girls haven\u2019t kept silent themselves. More and more they are demanding a life free from this traditional act of violence. Girls like Naserian, who took part in an alternative rite of passage rather than undergo the cut. And women like Jaha Dukureh, who survived FGM and took her awareness-raising campaigns to a national level. Let\u2019s make sure heads of state don\u2019t forget the pledges they made to enforce bans on FGM.<\/p>\n

7. MORE ROBUST DATA ON GIRLS COLLECTED<\/p>\n

With the SDGs in place, the next step is to ensure that the right kind of data gets collected. This year, the Clinton Foundation launched the No Ceilings report. This ground-breaking piece of research presents hard evidence of how girls and women are still being held back. Another promising development was the launch of the Data2X, a global partnership to make sure girls and women get counted. The next step in the data revolution will be when the UN decides in March how it will measure its progress against the SDGs. We\u2019ll be watching, and so should you.<\/p>\n

8. CONNECTING GIRLS<\/p>\n

The fact that there are more mobile phones than toilets is well known. But, despite the widespread use of mobile technology to do everything from socialising to banking to actually speaking on the phone, there\u2019s shockingly little known about how girls and women use it. When it comes to connectivity, women in developing world cities are 50 per cent less likely to access the internet than men. Education and income are determining factors. This doesn\u2019t look good for girls, who are held back on both counts. Some positive steps have been taken, such as the launch of Facebook\u2019s internet.org, of which Girl Effect is a partner. And we\u2019re seeing more apps targeting issues such as gender-based violence including ones in Cambodia and Turkey. With the push for girls\u2019 education firmly on the global agenda, we expect to see more girls becoming connected, learning to code and filling the gender gap in the tech industry. Once this happens, girls can code for girls. We can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY . An article from Girl Effect What a year it\u2019s been. From the Sustainable Development Goals and global support for girls\u2019 education to commitments to end harmful practices that hold girls back, 2015 has been momentous. Here are eight developments that show girls are getting the attention they deserve. 1. GIRLS GET … Continue reading Eight ways 2015 was a momentous year for girls<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,12],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-4758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global","category-women","tag-global"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}