WASHINGTON — Adolescent girls are a marginalized untapped market that makes economic sense to educate and empower, according to officials at the World Bank’s Adolescent Girls Initiative meeting.
“It costs Kenya $3.2 billion per year,” said Maria Eitel, president and CEO of Nike Foundation. “India loses $56 billion per year.” These are the figures when joblessness, adolescent pregnancy and marriage are factored in.
Nike Foundation partnered with the World Bank for the AGI program along with several governments to successfully shift girls from school into productive employment. This includes basic education, job training, and business and finance opportunities.
“Evidence strongly suggests this is the way to break intergenerational barriers in poverty,” said Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group. He said it is necessary to focus training and job opportunities to young girls because it “helps disadvantaged girls to transition to a productive adulthood. It’s the smart thing to do.”
Statistics from UNICEF indicate nearly 40 percent of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa and half of those in South Asia are married or in union before the age of 18.
“A girl has one asset she starts with and that is her body,” said Eitel. “We need to give them more assets.”
Started in Liberia in 2008, AIO is implemented in seven countries in South Asia, Middle East and Africa. Next year it will include Haiti and Yemen.