International Day of the Girl Child is a very important event where we celebrate the progress made for girls over the years and highlight the challenges they continue to face that prevent them from realizing their dreams and potential.
The theme for this year’s International Day of Girl Child is ‘Digital generation’. Our generation’.
Digital products, solutions and content are often generically designed for mostly male users, with women infrequently involved in development. The internet is often perceived as a risk to the traditional social order or seen as unsafe for women and girls. (GSMA, 2020)
Without increased digital adoption and use, girls will have fewer employment opportunities and will face additional barriers to workforce participation. (Plan, 2020) (USAID, 2020)
Women and girls who live in remote areas are particularly affected, due to significant gaps in infrastructure and network coverage in rural areas. (GSMA, 2020)
Digital access can empower women and girls, help expand their sense of self in the world, increase civic engagement, and raise awareness of their rights. (OECD, 2018)
What actions can we take today?
- Protect and prioritise domestic and international financing for girls’ education post-COVID-19 to safeguard progress, particularly in the underserved communities
- Ensure girls have equal access to the technology and resources they need to learn effectively, and ensure safe, empowering spaces for learning – including online
- Build digital skills through gender bias-free curricula and teacher capacity to engage all learners equally, addressing unconscious bias in teaching practices
With all that the pandemic has brought upon, we are seeing an increasing need for girls’ empowerment through access to resources that will set them up for a successful future.
More so, research shows that learning negotiation, decision-making and critical life skills can help girls navigate challenges that keep them out of school like early marriage, child labour and teenage pregnancies!
Ubongo uses the power of storytelling, the reach of mass media technologies and rigorous research to create and distribute edutainment that helps girls learn and develop critical knowledge and life skills, including: gender rights, consent, digital literacy, growth mindset, financial literacy, negotiation skills, creativity, grit and emotional intelligence. Our edutainment programs reach 24.6 millions families across 41 countries with 12% higher learning outcomes. We create gender transformative content that helps girls feel inspired, capable, and confident in themselves. The social behaviour change messages embedded in our cartoons specifically:
- Empower girls to participate in STEM, learning, and navigate challenging circumstances
- Challenge gender stereotypes by depicting female characters doing stereotypically male actions
- Encourage gender equality by modelling male and female characters equally participating in chores, learning, sports, and child-rearing
Through our shows Akili and Me and Ubongo Kids, girls are reminded every day that they can do anything they set their minds to.
International Day of the Girl highlights what we already teach and learn from girls, but seeing these values being celebrated and recognized on a global scale gives them hope. It instills a sense of resilience that reminds them to never give up on themselves.
More than ever before, girls need to develop the resilience, digital and life skills that will enable them to overcome difficult times.
Did you know that there are three main ways you can empower girls through Ubongo Edutainment?
- As we mark this year’s #DayoftheGirl, we would be honoured to have you as a partner to help create the future girls deserve today: partnerships@ubongo.org
- Help us continue to create meaningful and life-changing content for girls and grow our reach by donating to Ubongo: www.ubongo.org/donate
- You can also download our educational resources for free and distribute the content to reach more girls: https://toolkits.ubongo.org/
https://plan-international.org/education/bridging-the-digital-divide
https://plan-international.org/publications/digital-empowerment-of-girls
https://plan-international.org/ publications/freetobeonline
