Int’l Day of Girl Child: UNICEF urges partners to mobilise to unlock potential of young girls.

The release acknowledges that adolescent girls in Cameroon need concrete and immediate support to unlock their potential.

The release was issued in commemoration of the International Day of a Girl Child celebrated every year on October 11. The 2024 edition was observed under the theme: “Girls vision for the future”.

Expressing concerns for girls in Cameroon, the UNICEF Representative in Cameroon, Nadine Perrault, said: “Adolescent girls are drivers of change. Investing in their well-being helps break the intergenerational cycles of poverty and yields significant societal and economic benefits”.

“On this day dedicated to girls, UNICEF is calling on all partners to mobilise to unlock the potential of adolescent girls in Cameroon and to make their voices heard,” said Nadine Perrault.

For UNICEF, providing opportunities for adolescent girls to express themselves is key to ensuring their empowerment and wellbeing. The UN agency detailed that in Cameroon, adolescent girls represent 12% of the country’s 26 million population. 

However, UNICEF said they often are among the most deprived groups with respect to access to basic services and their rights to participation and protection. 

UNICEF in the release disclosed that more than 3 in 5 girls do not reach secondary school and nearly 8 in 10 do not complete upper secondary school.

According to its statistics, 11% of girls were married by the age of 15 and 30% by the age of 18. Nearly 1 in 4 married girls aged 15-19 have experienced intimate partner violence.

The statistics added that the adolescent birth rate for girls aged 15 to 19 is alarmingly high at 122 per 1,000, and girls aged 15 to 24 represented 30% of new HIV infections in 2023 and 42% of girls aged 15-19 are anemic.

With the targeted multisectoral interventions, UNICEF believes the issues are interconnected but also preventable through the most marginalized girls that can make a substantial difference in their wellbeing and development.

Intervention for adolescent girls

Due to the disturbing statistics on young girls, UNICEF has set up an Adolescent Girls Advisory Board, AGAB, a platform where adolescent girls can contribute to UNICEF’s programmes, by engaging in community projects, and help ensure their interventions and respond to girls’ needs and expectations. 

Four of the AGAB platforms have been established in Yaounde, Bertoua, Buea and Maroua. 

In crises-affected areas, UNICEF is implementing a package of interventions to foster positive changes for girls by investing in their skills and providing them with learning opportunities in safe and protective environment.

UNICEF’s interventions also include the prevention of HIV from mother-to-child transmission, the free distribution of antiretroviral drugs and the prevention of iron-deficiency anemia, through the distribution of iron supplementation. 

The UN agency also supports the management of menstrual hygiene with kits to empower girls to stay in school and live with dignity.

UNICEF, it should be said, seeks to promote the rights and well-being of every child. It is present in 190 countries and territories around the world with a special focus on reaching the most vulnerable and marginalised children, for the benefit of all children.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3259 of Monday October 14, 2024