Poverty stricken adolescent girls can become a force for change

Un-planned parenthood, leading to early marriage or single motherdom, followed by multiple partnerships is endemic in Panama.A dispatch from the UN says the cycle needs to be broken.

By Kathy Bushkin Calvin and Maria Eitel
We believe that an adolescent girl living in poverty is the most powerful person in the world. If we reach her early enough, she can accelerate economies, arrest major global health issues and break cycles of poverty.
When a girl gets a chance to stay in school, remain healthy, gain skills, she will marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and earn an income that she’ll invest back into her family. When she can grow into a woman and become an educated mother, an economic actor, an ambitious entrepreneur, or a prepared employee, she breaks the cycle of poverty. She and everyone around her benefits. That’s the girl effect – the powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate.
Child marriage is one of the barriers preventing the 600 million adolescent girls in developing countries from unleashing their full potential. The numbers speak clearly: one girl in seven in developing countries marries before age 15, and nearly half of all girls are expected to marry by age 20
Child marriage is not only a violation of human rights, but it also has serious consequences for national development, ultimately stunting educational and vocational opportunities for a large sector of the population and for the future generations.
Considerable evidence points to the negative impact of child marriage on girls, their children and their communities: It often results in heightened vulnerability of girls to physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse; increased rates of school dropout; early childbirth, which many times leads to poor health outcomes for both mother and child or even death, with pregnancy-related complications representing the leading cause of death among girls 15-19; increased risk of HIV transmission to married girls.
Consequently, interventions designed to specifically address child marriage actually impact a broader number of outcomes – health, education and economic empowerment. At the same time, programs focusing on providing safe spaces and putting assets in girls’ hands have shown to have a strong impact on delaying child marriage as well. When a girl has assets to tap into, simple things like a social network, specific skills, some knowledge, self-esteem, personal security… to tap into, she has a much greater chance of staying on course and not only delaying marriage but also positively impacting her overall future and the futures of her siblings. She becomes a hugely powerful agent of change.
Investing in adolescent girls and placing them at the center of international and national action is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing to do. The truth is, adolescent girls will either accelerate growth or perpetuate poverty.
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