Actions That Can Be Taken To Reduce The Vulnerability of The Girl Child

Actions that can be taken to reduce the vulnerability of the girl child

To reduce vulnerabilities of children, in particular of the girl-child, and increase protection, the following actions are recommended: 

1. Development agencies should integrate concerns about children’s rights, protection of the girl child from gender-specific discrimination, child labor, and other forms of gender-specific exploitation of children into the design and implementation of projects and programs.

2. The incidence of child labor, including in its worst forms, and low school attendance by girls is an indicator of poverty and a factor of risk. It should be included in all poverty analyses and vulnerability assessments.

 3. Households at risk of involving children in hazardous work (including slavery, bonded labor, and trafficking) should be singled out as a special target, in line with what has been done for households and children affected by HIV/AIDS or foster families of HIV/AIDS orphans.

 4. Greater attention should be given to improving living conditions in particular health and education of girls; school enrolment and attendance of girls should be included in monitoring systems for program performance and impact assessment of development interventions.

5. Given the importance of skills training and the creation of employment on and off-farm for adolescents and young people, more collaboration is needed for establishing successful gender-specific training programs.

 6. Efforts should be undertaken to develop and disseminate pro-poor labor-saving technologies that can ease children’s labor burden (for example in fetching water), with particular focus on the girl-child.