Teenage girls will be the focus of the World Population Day celebration that will be marked at the BERKARAR Trade Entertainment Center at 18:30, Friday, 15 July 2016. Bring family and friends! Don't miss it!
1 July 2016, Ashgabat - UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund will organize the public event together with the economic society “Berkarar Hyzmat.”
Each year, World Population Day focuses attention on the urgency and importance of population and reproductive health issues. This year, the theme of the World Population Day is “Investing in teenage girls”.
The event at BERKARAR will feature a one-act play of the 15-year old girl and her own 30-year old self from the future, as the importance of smart investments in teenage girls within the framework of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda will be portrayed through musical and art performances. The programme will also include quiz sessions, flashmob and lots of prizes.
A group of small businesses have joined the cause of investing in teenage girls and supported the organization of the public outreach event, namely Berkarar Trade Entertainment Center, TPS company, Berkarar Cinema, Seyran Sport, TM Mobile, Turkmen Gollery, Globus and Beauty Shop Korea.
The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an unprecedented opportunity for teenage girls to claim their rights, realize their aspirations and transform our world.
When countries invest in the health and education of their youth, especially teenage girls, and create opportunities for them to realize their full potential, they are also better positioned to realize a demographic dividend, which can propel economic growth and social progress.
“A teenage girl whose rights are respected and who is able to realize her full potential is a girl who is more likely to contribute to the economic and social progress of her community and nation,” said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNFPA Executive Director, in his message for World Population Day 2016.
UNFPA supports countries’ efforts to empower teenage girls by protecting human rights and universal access to information and services, including sexual and reproductive health care.
In 2015, UNFPA programmes helped 11.2 million girls between the ages of 10 and 19 gain access to sexual and reproductive health services and information. As of last year, 73 countries had developed or implemented comprehensive sexuality education programmes, which are accessible to teenage girls and boys in and out of school. Also, as of 2015, UNFPA had helped 89 countries develop or implement laws and policies to enable teenage girls to get sexual and reproductive health services, regardless of marital status.
“The new development agenda calls on us to leave no one behind,” stated Dr. Osotimehin. “The success of the new sustainable development agenda depends on how well we support and invest in teenage girls.”
Here's what the data show:
· An extra year of secondary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 15 to 25%
· Girls and women spend 90% of their earned income on their families, while men spend only 30-40%
· Eliminating barriers to employment for girls and women could raise labour productivity by 25% in some countries
· When 10% more girls go to school, a country’s GDP increases by at least 3%
· The proportion of women graduating in the fields of science (1 in 14, compared to 1 in 9 men graduates) and engineering (1 in 20, compared to 1 in 5 men) remain low in poor and rich countries alike
· Only 19.25% of parliamentarians in the world are women
· When girls and young women over the age of 16 earn an income, they reinvest 90% of it in their families
· As educated mothers, they will invest in the next generation.
· When we invest in the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women, there is a ripple effect and everybody wins!
UNFPA: Delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
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For additional information, please contact:
Ene Tuyliyeva, Advocacy Communication Associate
Tel: 425250
Web: unfpa.org.tm, www.untuk.org
