COL celebrated International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October 2018 with a presentation from its Senior Adviser: Women and Girls, Ms Frances J. Ferreira, highlighting recent results from the GIRLS Inspire project. This project directly addresses the theme of this year’s Girl Child Day, ‘With Her: A Skilled GirlForce.’ “Through GIRLS Inspire, over 8000 women and girls have gained new sources of income generation and over 2000 girls affected by child, early and forced marriage were successfully reintegrated into schooling through open, distance and technology-based education and training,” said Ms Ferreira.

COL’s President and CEO, Professor Asha Kanwar, stressed that the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) which aspires to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong opportunities for all by 2030, is still far from being achieved, especially for marginalised girls. She noted that the GIRLS Inspire project has made significant strides to skill and train girls for employment and entrepreneurship in five countries. She called for a collective political will to foster government engagement and stakeholder collaboration to achieve SDG4.

Professor Kanwar’s video message on this year’s theme for the Day of the Girl Child is available here.