2007: The Year Ahead for Women and Girls

Jan. 4, 2007—More than 100 girls were born in the first minute of 2007, according to population growth estimates.

Each of these girls will face a very different future depending on where she lives. If she is born in North America, she can expect to live longer than 80 years. But if she is born in Botswana, she may only reach 32 years of age.

These girls also will face wide disparities in health, employment and future opportunities depending on where they are born.

If a girl is born in some countries of Africa and the Caribbean, she will be up to six times more likely to be infected with HIV than a young man in her country, for example. If she is born in South Asia, her future paid earnings are expected to be only 40 percent of a man’s.

The good news is that much can be done to improve the chances that girls born in 2007 will have better health and prosperity.

Among the most effective solutions? Ensure she goes to school, and improve the health of her mother. This is true whether she is born in the United States or Uganda.

Study after study has shown that education is one of the most critical investments a country can make in a child’s future and its own development. Just yesterday the New York Times reported that education is the “one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country.” It points out that “as a country improves its education level, its life expectancy almost always rises. This occurs worldwide, in countries both large and small.”

Despite these benefits, many countries are not doing enough to ensure that girls go to school and stay in school.

Girls are the majority of school-aged children not in primary school worldwide. About 1 out of 5 girls does not finish her primary education in developing countries. And, only 43 percent of girls in the developing world attend secondary school.

More needs to be done to ensure that mothers are healthy and educated to ensure that when a girl is born, she will survive and thrive.

One of the greatest health risks for women alive today, especially in the developing world, is pregnancy and childbirth. Estimates are that more than half a million women will die in 2007 from complications in pregnancy and childbearing—one woman each minute. Most of these deaths will occur in Africa and Asia.

And, when a mother dies from childbirth, it means almost certain death for her newborn and increases the risk of death for her other young children, according to Save the Children.

Yet, many of these women’s lives could be saved through simple health interventions. Increased access to reproductive and maternal health services, skills attendants at births and emergency obstetric care could save many of these lives.

With effective solutions close at hand, improving the health and well-being of women and girls will depend on increased commitment, action and investment of families, communities and nations worldwide.

The girls born in the first few minutes of 2007 deserve nothing less.

Read more about CEDPA’s approach to increasing girls’ education, improving reproductive health and HIV/AIDS services, and increasing women’s leadership in their nations.

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