United Nations Population Fund report: Ten year-old girls are the key to achieving development goals

Press release 198/2016
20 October 2016

Forced marriages, child labour, female genital mutilation and other practices harmful to girls’ health and girls’ rights undermine achievement of the world’s goals set out in the United Nations 2030 Agenda, warns the UN Population Fund, UNFPA, in its report The State of the World Population 2016 published today.

Practices that are harmful and infringe human rights deprive girls of the chance to live a full life, and as adults to participate in developing their societies. Without them, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved.

The life of a 10-year-old girl is at a turning point when she is on the verge of adolescence. The possibilities open to her vary in different parts of the world.

In some parts of the world, a 10-year-old has an unlimited number of possibilities. She can make choices about her life, affect her education and career, and take part in building her society. Elsewhere, the life of a 10-year-old is impacted by discriminatory norms and legislation limiting her rights. At the verge of adolescence, she may be treated as property, forced to marry and bear children while still a child herself, unable to take decisions about her own future.

The 2030 Agenda agreed last year defines the world’s goals for the next 15 years. It aims at equal development where no one is left behind. If we are successful in clearing the obstacles that today hold 10-year-old girls back, achievement of the goals is significantly more likely, the report concludes.

The number of policy instruments available to governments has increased over the last ten years. These include the prohibition of harmful practices such as child marriage and economic support for poor families so that it is possible for girls to go to school. Also important are support for girls’ occupational abilities as well as education in sexual and reproductive health.

“Girls should be able to choose the direction of their lives themselves. Yet, every day 47 000 girls marry under the age of 18, some of them only 10 years old. Child marriages explain as much as one third of dropouts among secondary school-age girls. It is now high time to intervene in these figures,” says Laura Londén, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA and UN Assistant Secretary-General, herself a Finn.

The topic is also important to Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen, who attended the publication event for the UNFPA report held in Helsinki.

“Everyone’s know-how and work contribution are needed in order for societies to get on their feet. The position of girls is reflected in achieving many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and we consider it important that Finland’s development policy is geared towards promoting their rights.”

Highlights from the report:

• Nine in ten of the world’s girls live in developing countries and one in five live in the world’s least developed countries.
• Each additional year of education raises a girl’s future earnings by 11.7 per cent (the corresponding figure for men’s earnings is 9.6 per cent). Yet 16 million 6–11 year-old girls cannot attend school at all.
• If all 10-year-old girls currently outside the scope of education would complete secondary school, this would bring an additional 21 billion dollars into the world economy.
• Ten per cent of 5–14 year-old girls do more than 28 hours of housework a week, which is double the amount done by boys.
• Every day, an estimated 47 700 girls around the world are married before the age of 18.

State of the World Population 2016: 10: How Our Future Depends on a Girl at This Decisive Age: http://www.unfpa.org/publications

The report can also be ordered from the Family Federation of Finland: [email protected]

Inquiries:Pernille Fenger, Chief, Nordic Office, UN Population Fund, UNFPA, tel +45 2097 4898, [email protected], Counsellor Ismo Kolehmainen, Unit for UN Development Issues, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 295 351 858, Communications Officer Eija Palosuo, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 295 351 961

The Foreign Ministry's email addresses are of the format [email protected].