[ti:UN Report: Young Girls Still Face Gender Inequality]
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[00:01.16]A new United Nations report says
[00:03.51]a lack of education for girls in developing countries
[00:08.56]may be partly to blame for a rise in poverty worldwide.
[00:15.00]The U.N. released its 2016 State of the World Population Report
[00:20.52]last week in Jordan's capital, Amman.
[00:25.36]The writers examine the well-being of 10-year-old girls
[00:29.88]as signs of success or failure of a country's development.
[00:35.44]The report says most of the world's 10-year-old children
[00:40.60]live in developing countries.
[00:43.40]In many areas, girls face barriers to good education, healthcare and safety.
[00:51.92]The report points to problems with continued gender inequality
[00:57.88]among half of the world's young population.
[01:02.36]On the day of the report's release,
[01:05.08]a group of students sang about gender equality at a press conference in Amman.
[01:12.24]The students take classes at the city's Princess Alia School for Girls.
[01:19.40]The report says 89 percent of the world's 125 million 10-year-olds live in developing countries.
[01:28.56]It also says 35 million 10-year-old girls
[01:33.48]live in countries said to be very unequal on issues of gender.
[01:39.32]Princess Basma Bint Talal is a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. Population Fund.
[01:48.76]She told reporters, "In some parts of the world,
[01:52.80]a 10-year-old girl looks forward to her horizons opening up" so she can reach her goals.
[01:59.80]But in other places, "she is up against closed doors."
[02:05.92]Princess Basma said that girls' chances for success
[02:10.32]are limited when their futures are decided by other people or their environment.
[02:18.24]Some barriers can threaten their safety and social or economic growth.
[02:25.40]Ten-year-old girls in many poor countries face the risk of being married off.
[02:32.60]More than 60 million girls are not in school.
[02:37.08]They do twice as much work around the home as boys their age,
[02:42.16]and they serve as unpaid laborers more than boys do.
[02:47.56]Every 10 minutes, an adolescent girl dies of violence.
[02:52.48]Many of them are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, as a result of rape.
[03:01.52]Suicide is the second largest cause of death for young girls.
[03:07.00]Jordan's Princess Basma said, "Let us remember that we are all responsible.
[03:14.80]Let us remember that our every word and deed, positive or negative,
[03:20.36]can affect the road a girl travels" from this turning point in her life.
[03:26.64]She continued, "This is what will shape her role in society,
[03:31.28]which is to say our society, and our world."
[03:35.52]The U.N. report says that investment in the health, education
[03:41.16]and empowerment of 10-year-old girls can triple a girl's lifetime earnings.
[03:49.40]Daniel Baker is the humanitarian coordinator
[03:53.33]for the U.N. Population Fund's office in Amman.
[03:57.57]"Failing to invest in girls is nothing less than planned poverty.
[04:04.18]Unless we invest in girls, we're planning to have a poorer future."
[04:10.20]This is a point that cannot be noted enough, he said.
[04:15.04]The report closes with the message that doing damage to girls
[04:20.72]is harmful not only to their communities, but to humanity as a whole.
[04:27.20]I'm Alice Bryant.
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