The sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women is presently taking place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and will run till March 24, 2016. It has in attendance representatives of member States, UN entities and ECOSOC- accredited non-governmental organizations (NGO) from all regions of the World.

Wellbeing Foundation Africa, an NGO in consultative status with the United Nation Economic and Social council presented a statement to the Secretary General and the council keying into the Sustainable Development goal 3 ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages’ and Goal 5 ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and  girls’.

According to the statement, Wellbeing foundation clamors for adequate attention to checkmate the alarming indicators of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in Africa as a prerequisite for achieving Goal 3 of the SDGs. It went further to make a case for the protection of the rights of adolescent girls by ensuring that they are not denied access to education and livelihood of their choice, as a key component of achieving gender equality (Goal 5).

Some of the statistics quoted in the statement includes, ‘1 in 5 Nigerian girls’ is married by age 15 and very few married girls between the ages 15-19 are in school’.  ‘Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die during childbirth than women in their 20s’. ‘The children of child brides are 60 per cent more likely to die before their first birthday than the children of mothers who are over 19’.

Click here for the full statement.