SDG: Shakira, Angélique Kidjo, Malala add voices to Pope Francis in support of children

NaijaAgroNet:

The Grammy Award-winning singers, Shakira and Angélique Kidjo both UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors, Friday’s celebrated adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals with powerful performances before an audience at the United Nations General Assembly that included over 130 heads of state and government, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This follows an address from His Holiness Pope Francis, with Shakira taking to the stage to sing “Imagine”, John Lennon’s iconic anthem of love and peace.

“We live in a world in which many who are born poor will die poor. It is up to us to be the first society to eradicate poverty and bring justice and equality to the most disenfranchised people on earth,” Shakira, a passionate advocate of children’s rights, told the assembled world leaders before her performance. “Our children have the right to equal opportunities; to thrive, to be happy, healthy, and safe.”

Angélique Kidjo, who has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002, sang a moving version of ‘Afirika’ – her hymn to the continent she calls home.

“Africa and its children have the most to gain from the Sustainable Development Goals, but they also have the most to lose if our leaders do not fully commit to this new agenda for peace and prosperity,” Kidjo said. “As an artist I want to use my voice to make sure that people around the world understand the new global goals and why they matter, so that they can hold their leaders accountable for their success or failure.”

Flanked by a group of young people from across the world, Malala Yousafzai then delivered a message of hope for today’s children before the SDGs were ratified by world leaders.

The Sustainable Development Goals represent an ambitious plan of action that aims to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, provide quality lifelong education for all, protect the planet and promote peaceful and inclusive societies.

These new global goals offer a historic opportunity to provide children with the fair start in life they deserve, UNICEF said, cautioning that this opportunity will be wasted if the world does not focus efforts and investments on the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children.

Video and photos are available for download

here.
 

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Serena Williams, Kolo Touré, Neymar partner UNICEF on World’s Largest Lesson

NaijaAgroNet:

The Global Goals campaign and UNICEF have launched the world’s largest lesson to teach children from over 100 countries about the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in collaboration with celebrities including Serena Williams, Kolo Toure, Neymar among others in preparation to be adopted by the UN General Assembly later this month. 

NaijaAgroNet gathered that as part of the campaign to tell everyone about the Global Goals, the World’s Largest Lesson will engage children and young people in the global effort to build a more sustainable future for every citizen. 

The initiative, NaijaAgroNet also gathered, has already attracted support from influential leaders and public figures including Eminent Advocate for UNICEF Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan; UNICEF ambassadors Nancy Ajram and Serena Williams; PLAN International global ambassador Freida Pinto; and Dani Alves, Hrithik Roshan, Kolo Touré, and Neymar and the Neymar Jr. Institute.  

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said that the World’s Largest Lesson will do more than teach children about the global goals. Stressing that it will engage them in the effort to achieve those goals – educating them about the challenges that are shaping their futures and encouraging them to drive change in their own communities.

“Young people can help achieve the global goals by holding their leaders accountable for the promises they are making – and by holding themselves accountable for building a better future for everyone,” he said.  

The World’s Largest Lesson, UNICEF official said, will be held in classrooms on every continent during the week of 28 September. 

“A potential 500 million girls and boys between the ages of 8 and 14 will have the chance to learn about the Global Goals, which range from ending extreme poverty for all people everywhere, to tackling climate change, and giving all children the opportunity to gain a quality primary and secondary education. Government leaders and ministers from a number of countries will be teaching and participating in lessons,” UNICEF said.
Specifically created lesson materials, NaijaAgroNet gathered include an animated film by Aardman and author and education expert Sir Ken Robinson that introduces the Global Goals, and a downloadable comic book by Josh Elder, Karl Kesel and Grace Allison. Some of the public figures backing the campaign have recorded their own introductions to the World’s Largest Lesson, including Serena Williams, Kolo Touré, Neymar and Dani Alves. Additional lesson plans and information are available for teachers to select based on the themes most relevant for their pupils.

“The World’s Largest Lesson is a fantastic opportunity to tell all children, everywhere what the Global Goals are and how they can play their part to make sure they are achieved,” said Richard Curtis, founder of the Global Goals campaign. “It would be wonderful if all teachers could make sure the World’s Largest Lesson is taught at their school. By making the Global Goals famous we can give them the best chance of working around the world – and help make us the first generation to end extreme poverty, the most determined generation in history to end injustice and inequality, and the last generation to be threatened by climate change.”

The World’s Largest Lesson provides a unique opportunity to foster global citizenship in schools across the world. It supports student learning across a range of subject areas such as science, geography, citizenship and technology and helps teachers explore important global issues such as human rights, poverty and climate change. 

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Investing in girls’ education, impacts child marriage - UNICEF

ITRealms:

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has identified investing in girls education as a step capable of impacting on child marriage, even as they are partnering with some other international agencies to ensure that 1 million more girls are in school by 2020, reports ITRealms. 

UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Jean Gough made this disclosure at the 2015 commemoration Day of the African Child with the theme “25 Years after the Adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating our Collective Efforts to End Child Marriage in Africa,” describing the theme as timely.

According to Gough, UNICEF is helping the government to address the challenge of ensuring all children especially girls have access to quality education, especially in Nigeria.

Lamenting that child marriage has increased in Nigeria, UNICEF noted that the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS 4) 2011, showed that there is a five per cent increase in the number of girls married before age 15.

“It was 13 per cent in 2007 and MICS 2011 indicates it is now 18 per cent,” UNICEF said. 

Child marriage, as said by UNICEF official, denies children the attainment of their human rights as children. 

“It erodes the child’s rights to life, good health, education and dignity.  Studies link child marriage to maternal mortality, school drop-out, Virginal fistula (VVF) condition and malnutrition among others,” a press statement endorsed by Geoffrey Njoku of UNICEF Nigeria read.

Equally, UNICEF, he said, believes that investments in girls education and getting more girls into school delays marriage and impacts the incidence of child marriage. 

ITRealms that the Girls’ Education Project, funded by the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) and implemented by UNICEF, aims to get 1 million more girls into school by 2020, while at the same improving the quality of education. 

The project, UNICEF pointed is helping to train female teachers through the female teachers’ service scheme and deploying them to rural areas, where the predominance of male teachers deters many parents from sending their girls to school. 

“Another intervention under this project is the conditional cash transfer scheme provides cash to girls to help defray some school-related costs like textbooks, uniforms and others.  The project, aims to encourage parents to send their daughters to school. It is expected to reach more than 50, 000 girls this year in Sokoto and Niger States. 

“Getting girls into schooling, and remain in school is particularly important in a country where 10.5 million children are out of school, and more than 60 per cent of them are  girls. It is a win for everybody and has an impact on child marriage,’ Gough said.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

 

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2.5m Nigerians now have access to safe water in rural areas

NaijaAgroNet:

Estimated 2.3 billion Nigerians now have access to enhanced drinking water since 1990, according to the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) reports NaijaAgroNet. 

Also UNICEF said is coming as a result of the Millennium Development Goal (MGD) target of halving the percentage of the global population without access which is met in 2010. 

In the case of sanitation, nearly 2.5 billion people worldwide still do not have adequate toilets and among them, 1 billion defecate in the open. While some 70 million people without access to safe water and over 110 million people without access to improved sanitation, Nigeria is currently not on-track with regard to its attainment of Water and Sanitation targets. 

The poor bear the greatest brunt of this lack of access to water and sanitation. For women and girls, collecting water cuts into time they can spend caring for families and studying. In insecure areas, it also puts them at risk of violence and attack. UNICEF estimates that in Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking to collect water.  For children, lack of access to safe water can be tragic. On average, nearly 1,000 of them die globally every day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, or poor hygiene. 

This year’s theme on World Water Day, which falls on 22^nd March, is “Water and Sustainable Development”. The theme aptly encapsulates the overarching role of water in our lives, be it for human consumption, food production, for health, for power generation, for industry and for the sustenance of nature as a whole, without which life would not exist.

This year’s theme highlights the importance of water to our existence and emphasizes the need to look at the holistic development of the water sector, reduce water wastage and prevent contamination of this increasingly scarce resources. “Everyone, be it the government, the civil society, international development partners and the citizens including children have a critical role to play in ensuring that water is sustainably used and is available for generations to come” said Kannan Nadar, Chief, Water and Sanitation, UNICEF.

UNICEF has been working with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources as well as the state governments to promote use of sustainable approaches and technologies for water abstraction and use. In the last two years nearly 2.5 million people gained access to safe water in rural areas through UNICEF support that also included funding from EU and UKAid. UNICEF-supported ‘WASH in Schools’ programming has also brought safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities to thousands of school children in Nigeria.

Isaac Oyima/GEE
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16,600 children lost parents to Ebola in West Africa - UNICEF

+Naija AgroNet:

The United Nations United Nations Children's Fund has revealed that no fewer than 16,600 children have been registered as having lost one or both parents or primary healthcare-givers to Ebola in three countries within the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), reports NaijaAgroNet.

The affected countries, UNICEF confirmed to NaijaAgroNet include Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

According to the UNICEF’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Mr Manuel Fontaine in New York penultimate Friday, said less than three per cent of this population has had to be placed outside family or community care.

“Since overcoming their initial fears and misconceptions about Ebola virus, families have been showing incredible support, providing care and protection for children whose parents have died. This shows the strength of kinship ties and the extraordinary resilience of communities at a time of great hardship,’’ he said.

UNICEF said as of mid-January, nearly 3,600 children had lost both parents to Ebola virus in the three countries, while 16,600 were registered as having lost one or both parents.

NaijaAgroNet also gathered from the regional director that the disease affected primary healthcare-givers.

He pointed out that UNICEF was helping to identify children without parents or caregivers with the view to providing immediate care and protection to them.

In Guinea, he said for example that UNICEF gathered that all 773 children who lost both parents have been placed with their extended families.

@IsaacOyimah with additional report byNews Agency of Nigeria   +Naija AgroNet @unicef

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Over 130m girls experience FGM in Africa, Middle East

NaijaAgronet:

More than 130 million girls and women have experienced some form of Female Genital Mutilation, FGM in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the harmful practice is most common, the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has said.

NaijaAgroNet reports that this is coming as UNICEF raised alarm that over 700 million women alive today were married as children.

The world body made the disclosure in a statement released today in United Kingdom as the UK government and UNICEF played host to a first-ever Girl Summit to rally support for much faster progress to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage – two practices that affect millions of girls across the globe.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake stressed that FGM and child marriage profoundly and permanently harm girls, denying them their right to make their own decisions and to reach their full potential. In his words, they (FGM and child marriage) are detriments to the girls themselves, their families, and their societies. “Girls are not property; they have the right to determine their destiny. When they do so, everyone benefits”, he said.

 According to UNICEF, more than 1 in 3 – or some 250 million – were married before 15. The body believes that  girls who marry before they turn 18 are less likely to remain in school and more likely to experience domestic violence.

In the report titled: No time to lose: New UNICEF data show need for urgent action on female genital mutilation and child marriage , young teenage girls are more likely to die due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth than women in their 20s; their infants are more likely to be stillborn or die in the first month of life.

The report discloses that beyond extreme physical and psychological pain, girls who undergo FGM are at risk of prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and death and adds that child marriage is even more widespread and can lead to a lifetime of disadvantage and deprivation.

“Overall, an adolescent girl today is about a third less likely to be cut than 30 years ago. Kenya and Tanzania have seen rates drop to a third of their levels three decades ago through a combination of community activism and legislation. In the Central African Republic, Iraq, Liberia and Nigeria, prevalence has dropped by as much as half. Attitudes are also changing: recent data show that the majority of people in the countries where FGM is practiced believe it should end, but continue to compel their daughters to undergo the procedure because of strong social pressure.

But without far more intensive and sustained action now from all parts of society, hundreds of millions more girls will suffer profound, permanent, and utterly unnecessary harm”, the statement said.

The report maintains that if rates of decline seen in the past three decades are sustained, the impact of population growth means the number of women married as children (more than 700 million) will remain flat through 2050; and up to 63 million more girls could be cut by 2050.

The report also argues that doubling the rate of decline would bring the number of women married as children down to 570 million by 2030 and 450 million by 2050.

“The numbers tell us we must accelerate our efforts. And let’s not forget that these numbers represent real lives. 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/C and child marriage. We can’t let the staggering numbers numb us – they must compel us to act”, Lake said.

Chukwudi Obi 

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