By
Felice Bakker, JPO, Child Protection
The two-day workshop, held
by UNICEF in partnership with Flamingo Social Purpose and Rumah KitaB, brought
together advocates from 28 Indonesia-based organizations that focus on girls’
issues like child marriage, reproductive health and gender equality. The
Network has been established to enable members to coordinate and implement interventions,
scale them up, and develop synergies to achieve the best outcomes for adolescent
girls.
Chernor Bah, a youth and
girl’s rights advocate and founder of the Sierra Leone Adolescent Girls Network,
introduced participants to principles of what he calls ‘girl-centered programming’,
a philosophy that starts with the belief that “the game is rigged against girls;
they're set to lose—and when girls lose, everyone loses,” he said.
Globally, girls are
generally less healthy, less educated and enjoy fewer rights than their male
counterparts, facing systematic disadvantages because of discriminatory norms.
As puberty begins, girls are more at risk of abuse, are required to take on a
large share of domestic work and may drop out of school, becoming socially
isolated. Even the locations girls are able to access, such as the market,
health centre and library, shrink at puberty, while for boys they expand,
according to a study in South Africa by the Population Council, a development
think tank based in New York. Investing in girls not only promises significant
economic returns, but promises to have far-reaching impacts on almost every
development indicator, ranging from girls’ labour market participation, which
will fuel economic growth, to improved health and education outcomes for future
generations.[1]
Ibu Sinta Nuriyah, former First Lady (1999-2001) and women’s rights activist, encouraging participants to listen to the voices of Indonesia girls and to eliminate child marriage ©UNICEF/Sinta F Vermonte/2016
Girl-centred programming makes
girls the focus of each and every programme decision; this includes determining
which girls to target, when to target them, and how to monitor their progress. Such
progamming can delay marriage, increase reproductive health knowledge, boost
self-confidence and improve financial literacy.
During the workshop, network
members agreed that empowering girls through building financial literacy, expanding
social support networks, and improving their knowledge about health, would be
the unifying mission. Combined, this work will reduce girls’ vulnerability, creating
a bulwark against child marriage, teen pregnancy and school dropouts.
By putting girls at the
centre, Indonesian Adolescent Girls Network members are now equipped to strengthen
their important work. Members will meet monthly to share information on activities,
to coordinate research and joint interventions, and to submit shared proposals
for funding. One such joint initiative for an online platform for girls to
connect with peers and mentors is already in the planning stages.
Participants from 28
organizations across Indonesia attending the two-day workshop. ©UNICEF/Sinta F
Vermonte/2016
[1] Girls
Count: A Global Investment and Action Agenda- ICRW- https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Girls-Count-A-global-Investment-and-Action-Agenda.pdf
