Washington — As Tuesday's major summits here and in London focused global attention on adolescent girls, the United Nations offered new data warning that more than 130 million girls and women have experienced some form of female genital mutilation, while more than 700 million women alive today were forced into marriage as children.
Noting how such issues disproportionately affect women in Africa and the Middle East, the new report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) surveyed 29 countries and discussed the long-term consequences of both female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage.
"What we're really missing is a coordinated global effort that is commensurate with the scale and the size of the issue." -- Ann Warner
While the report links the former practice with "prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and death," it mentions how the latter can predispose women to domestic violence and dropping out of school.
"The numbers tell us we must accelerate our efforts. And let's not forget that these numbers represent real lives," UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement. "While these are problems of a global scale, the solutions must be local, driven by communities, families and girls themselves to change mindsets and break the cycles that perpetuate [FGM] and child marriage."
Despite these ongoing problems, Tuesday's internationally recognised Girl Summit comes as the profile of adolescent girls - and, particularly, FGM - has risen to the top of certain agendas. On Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced a legislative change that will now make it a legally enforceable parental responsibility to prevent FGM.
"We've reached an all-time high for both political awareness and political will to change the lives of women around the world," Ann Warner, a senior gender and youth specialist at the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), a research institute here, told IPS.
Warner recently co-authored a policy brief recommending that girls be given access to high-quality education, support networks, and practical preventative skills, and that communities provide economic incentives, launch informational campaigns, and establish a legal minimum age for marriage.
Source: Africa: Focus On Child Marriage, Genital Mutilation At All-Time High
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