World Population Day Highlights Educating Girls

A quick note from Maria: the Nike Foundation's Managing Director, Lisa MacCallum suggested we take a moment to comment on World Population Day. Following is her take on things.

Today, Saturday, July 11, is the 20th annual World Population Day. Its whole goal is to raise awareness of global population issues. It's a big deal.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that the global population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050. That's 36 percent more than today's population, and scientists tell us the potential impact on food, climate, poverty and health will be massive. (The UNFPA website has great information on this for those who want to know more.)

So this year, the UNFPA chose a theme that can reverse the tide: educating girls to end poverty.

The ending poverty might seem obvious, but how, you might ask, can educating girls reduce the global population?

One person who's already onboard with this idea is former President Bill Clinton. At last year's Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting he said, "The only thing that has been done - that seems to find warm embrace across all religious faiths and all regions of the world - that slows population growth, is to put every single girl in the world in school and give every young woman adequate, equal access to the labor markets of the world."

There are over 600 million girls in the developing world and approximately one-quarter of them are not enrolled in school - and the ones that do enroll, rarely make it through secondary levels.

Desperately poor families make short-term decisions when it comes to investments in their daughters. In many rural environments, her value is seen in a dowry, for example. Instead of keeping her in school, she's married young to an older man and is often expected to become pregnant early. In an urban environment, she's forced to rely on sugar daddies to pay for school fees and other things; HIV and early pregnancy risk is high.

One girl in seven in developing countries marries before age 15 and as many as half become mothers before age 18.

But what does education have to do with population? Just about everything.

Before I make my case, I want to back it up with a scholar's argument. Professor Joel Cohen at Rockefeller University recently wrote (in the journal Nature) that a decrease in fertility of one child per woman between now and 2050 alters the 9.1 billion estimate by 1.3 billion.

So how can this happen? Research shows that with seven or more years of education, girls in developing countries marry four years later than their uneducated peers and have 2.2 fewer children. Take Kenya's 1.6 million out of school girls, multiply that by 2.2 and you've got 3.5 million and some change. Do that for all countries with low girls' education retainment rates and you'll reach Professor Cohen's pretty quickly. (By that way, that's my thumbnail math).

When we educate girls there is a ripple effect that positively impacts a girl's family, community, country and the entire world. The more education girls receive the fewer children they are likely to have throughout their lives and the better outcomes their children will have. Aside from lowering fertility rates, girls with secondary level education also have healthier children, lower mortality rates and are able to contribute more to their family and community through increased earning power.

An extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages 10-20 percent and an extra year of secondary school boosts wages even more to a 15-25 percent increase. That's critical to families living on a dollar or two a day.

Keeping girls in school is more complicated than providing scholarships or building schools, but its time we figure it out and commit to achieving it. Take a look at Maria's earlier posts to learn more about the role economic empowerment plays in encouraging families and communities to invest in girls' education. This is the girl effect in action. It's simple, it works and it's going to matter an awful lot to your children, so pay attention.

 

Comments

[34MillionFriends]

Good for Maria Eitel. Family Planning Takes Center Stage by Jane Roberts of
www.34mill­ionfriends­.org
July 11, 2009 is World Population Day. Family planning has finally come to the forefront of worldwide discussions on population, development, poverty, the environment, and peace. Women’s intimate link to all of these questions has also taken center stage.

On the home page of the United Nations Population Fund we find 3 articles all touting family planning.
Thoraya Obaid Executive Director of UNFPA: “Providing voluntary family planning services is a cost effective intervention that must be prioritized. Family planning alone can reduce maternal mortality by 25-40 percent and result in government savings in the long run. Each additional dollar invested in contraceptive services will save up to $4 in cost on maternal and newborn health and up to $31 in social spending such as housing, sanitation, education.”

The year 2009 is the fifteenth anniversary of the ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development) where universal access to reproductive health including family planning were enshrined as human rights. The ability to choose whether and when to have children is at the very core of women’s full participation in the life of their communities, countries, and world.
On this World Population Day let us rejoice that FAMILY PLANNING is taking center stage in the conversation. Let us renew out commitment to promises made. When the world takes care of women, women take care of the world.

[3cheers4Humanity]

More human lives are never a problem. Environmental doom-mongering and sustainable orthodoxies across Western institutions and public life have succeeded in turning a cause for celebration into a horror story. Thankfully there are humanists who are not prepared to let the UN World Population Day remain unchallenged. Don't let the UN exploit the issues of girl child education, family planning and women's health to support the notion that there are too many people on this planet. Check out this video at www.worldbytes.org , made by young volunteers at the feisty UK charity WORLDwrite, for some sober discussion of why celebrating more human life on the planet is an essential demand for humanists today. Three Cheers for 7 billion

[msladydeborah]

First of all, the link does not work.

I find your response to be a rather narrow view of reality. The United Nations is not the only voice speaking out on behalf of educating girls. This is a movement that has its roots in the developing nations. Excuse me if I am skeptical of this organizations intentions. Why? Because the developing nations are populations that are people of color. We could write volumes on how the lack of education and mis-education has already affected generations and our lives. As you well know many of our countries have had less than a favorable relationship with the UK.

You are benifiting from your education. Yet, you do not see the need for others to have access to those same opportunities? If life is that precious and important-isn't quality a matter of importance also?

Ignorance is not bliss. It is a tool that keeps people impoverished.