By Kolawole Kayode
Over 12 million girls across the world, have their education truncated annually, due to early marriage, a report by the World Bank has disclosed.
The report, titled “Deliver the future: Catalyzing opportunities for women, children and adolescents,” was written by Mamta Murthi, the Bank’s Vice President for Human Development and published on its blog.
The Bank noted that in order to stem the tide, it set up the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents, GFF.
“Today’s intertwined crises have brought new challenges for the health of women, children, and adolescents, particularly those in the hardest to reach communities. The tepid post COVID-19 recovery in developing countries, along with shocks such as climate change, fragility, debt distress, food shortages and energy price increases, are constraining fiscal space and burdening already stretched health systems. This has meant stalled or even the reversal of progress.
“Right now, 250 million women and girls in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not using contraceptives, whether due to lack of access or lack of support. Today, 800 women will die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. And every year, 12 million girls across the world are married before the age of 18—reducing their education! opportunities.
“This is not only impacting rights and lives today. Lack of access to sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) jeopardizes future growth and efforts to build more resilience and prosperity.
“Last month, at the Paris summit, we heard the growing focus from countries and global leaders to find innovative financing models that reflect global solidarity, create sustainable futures, and close remaining gaps in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. Country leadership, prioritization and crowding in more investment will be critical and this is why the model and mandate of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), a partnership housed at the World Bank, is more relevant than ever.”
The Bank called for putting women, children, and adolescents at the centre of development
Enumerating some of the gains recorded so far through GFF, it said about $32 billion from domestic, external and private sector resources across 36 countries were committed and aligned in support of women’s, children’s and adolescent health plans.
“Further, the share of World Bank financing in GFF-supported countries allocated to this agenda has increased by 12 percent compared to pre-GFF engagement.
“While change takes time and requires sustainable, long-term financing, the GFF’s direct link to World Bank country operations and the successful IDA20 replenishment create a unique opportunity to pair GFF grants with the largest available global source of concessional financing to advance the rights and opportunities of women, children and adolescents.
“The governments of Germany and The Netherlands, Côte d’Ivoire and the World Bank, are calling to invest at least US$800 million in the GFF: with this investment, we have an opportunity to deepen and expand the GFF partnership to unlock better health and opportunities for more than 250 million women, children and adolescents. The time to act in concert and deliver the future is now.”
It also stressed the need for sustainable financing and reaching scale for women, children and adolescent health.