The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported, with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), that in 2020, 160 million children were subjected to child labour globally. Child labour remains a critical...
girl child
The gender economics of education
Even before Covid-19, sub-Saharan Africa was the region of the world with the most children not in education – with 37 million school-age children out of school before the pandemic. The lockdown measures across the...
The curse of sexual terrorism
UN Women estimates that 15 million adolescent girls worldwide have experienced forced sex. In Nigeria alone a 2014 national survey found that one in four girls experience sexual violence, defined as “all forms of...
South Africa: when a blessing is a curse
Statutory rape has swept South Africa over the past five years as evidenced by the number of girls aged 10 to 14 years giving birth at public health facilities, which has soared by almost 50%. It is a healthcare crisis...
The high cost of having a period
For most rural African girls, menstruation presents a dilemma: either attend lessons and face embarrassment, coupled with self-discrimination, or remain at home to nurse their monthly periods. The Primary School...
Pregnant and in uniform
Education re-entry or continuation policies for pregnant schoolgirls, while still perceived as controversial in some contexts, have gone a long way in protecting their right to education. Re-entry laws, policies, and...
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