UN Population Report: Brighter future for 10-year-old girls means better future for world

The state of the world tomorrow depends on the 10-year-old girls of today, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) annual report said on Thursday, because they will be in the mid-20s when it is hoped the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Agenda 2030, is reached.

"The overall message of this report," released at UN Headquarters in New York, "is that if you build a brighter future for a 10-year-old girl today, you build a brighter future for us all," Richard Kollodge, senior editor of the 112-page State of the World Population 2016 Report, told reporters here. The report is, "10: How our Future Depends on a Girl at this Decisive Age".

"One big reason is that age 10 marks the start of adolescence," he said at the press conference. "Adolescence can be a time of exploration, expanding horizons and possibilities. It's a time when a boy or girl begins making choices about the future. But, adolescence can also be a time of threats and vulnerabilities, a time of shrinking horizons and lost opportunities, a time when decisions about the future are made by others."

Kollodge said this is particularly true for girls and especially as they approach puberty.

Or, as Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UN under-secretary-general and executive director of UNFPA, said in the report's foreward, "A flurry of life-changing events pulls her in many directions. Where she ends up depending on the support she receives and the power she has to shape her own future."

Kollodge said that "in extreme cases," mainly in South Asia and sub-Sahara Africa, a girl reaching puberty stops being seen as a child and starts being seen as "a commodity being sold, traded or even trafficked for marriage, for child rearing, for free labor or even for sex."

"An estimated 47,700 girls, many of them as young as age 10 are at risk of forced marriage, annually," he said.

"Marriage can mean an abrupt end to schooling, permanently undermining a girl's future, and child marriage can be quickly followed by pregnancy, jeopardizing a girl's health," Kollodge said. "All of this is an unforgivable injustice and a violation of girls fundamental rights."

However, "When a girl is able to enjoy her rights, stay in school and stay healthy and when she is protected from child marriage and early pregnancy she has a much better chance of reaching her full potential by the time she reaches adulthood," he said. "She'll be better equipped to find a job, earn a good wage and seize opportunities as they arise."

Osotimehin said, "With support from family, community and nation, and the full realization of her rights, a 10-year-old girl can thrive and help bring about the future we all want. What the world will look like in 15 years will depend on our doing everything in our power to ignite the potential of a 10-year-old girl today." Endit