By Hilda Mhagama
AS the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child yesterday, child advocates have highlighted the need to commit to listening and lifting up a girl's voice.
Too often, their voices are silenced, in households, in schools and in the public sphere through Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child marriage and other harmful practices.
Speaking at the event to mark the day in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, a Lawyer from Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA), Ms Josephine Arnold said as adolescent girls traverse the path from childhood to womanhood, their sexual and reproductive health and rights become even more consequential.
"With a newfound ability and desire to make decisions about their bodies, their lives, and their world, they are speaking up about their needs and their dreams, it is time for us to listen," she said.
Ms Arnold further said with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda as a society needs to do better, to ensure that girls are not left behind, "We should not allow anything to derail the future of an entire generation, it's time we redouble our efforts towards a gender-equal world, where every girl has the power to make informed choices about her body and her life,"
In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution, adopting 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child, recognizing girls' rights and the unique challenges girls around the world face realising them.
UNFPA Executive Director, Dr Natalia Kanem, said every girl has the right to speak up and be heard, now, more than ever.
"As we celebrate the International Day of the Girl, we have an unprecedented opportunity to uplift the adolescent girl, to drive progress in our world. As we seek to build back better, and greener and bluer, from the Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot allow a girl's dreams and aspirations to be curtailed, her lost potential costs us all," she said
The Ministry's Information Officer in charge of children's affairs in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Mr Prudence Costantine, said Tanzania acknowledges the day because every girl child has a voice that can contribute to sustainable development.
He said this year's theme 'My Voice, Our Equal Future' recognises the importance of lifting up adolescent girls' voices, listening to their hopes and visions for a more equal and inclusive world and the need to put them at the centre of development efforts for a more equitable future.
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