International Day of the Girl, 2021, "Digital generation, Our generation" - What Parents and Government Can Do.

Every girl needs to be given a chance to develop digital skills. So, in this year's International Day of the Girl, themed, "Digital generation, Our generation,” Saving Hand Development Initiative (SHADE-IN) joins the world to advocate for the girl to be equipped with digital skills, following the global statistics of exclusion of the girl.

In this part of the world, Nigeria, we often see the girl child learning more of skills like hair dressing and fashion. While these skills are good, introducing them to how they can scale these skills through digital technology would make their skills more sellable.

"Charity begins at home," they say. In SHADE-IN, one of our strategic objectives is to incorporate parents into the transformation agenda of the young, which includes the girl. Hence, we call on parents to expose their girls to digital education and skills and not only the boys. Girls can learn content creation, coding, digital marketing, cyber security, social media marketing, website development, report writing and documentation and any other skill using digital technology. They can learn how to use digital campaigns to make their voices heard, and the list goes on. 

Rather than girls using digital technology to make themselves more vulnerable by posting suggestive contents of themselves, girls should be taught to utilise these skills to promote decent contents that will position them for the future of work, which includes "Decent Work and Economic Growth," - Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 8).

As an education-focused organisation, we will not fail to call on the Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria to equip our schools with facilities and personnel to aid digital learning. While it is a good start to sensitise girls on the need for going digital, it is more imperative to provide them with the enabling environment to learn these skills as part of their coursework. In our research carried out in 2018 in some secondary schools within one of the states in Nigeria (name withheld), the revelations we got on the state of such schools, especially public schools were appalling. Working with schools over the years, not much is being done to improve the quality of education especially in public secondary schools. 

The funny part is that not all heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are willing to partner with well meaning grassroot, community-based organisations or NGOs who work directly in the communities where these schools are to achieve success, even when these NGOs would be funding the interventions. They have not learnt the power of collaboration, they would rather want to hijack the idea, attempt to run with it and fail. This should not be so at all for a forward-thinking government. This should change and there will be more development, digital inclusion in our schools and educational system which will bring about nation building, economic growth, reduced crime and empowerment of the young, especially girls.

Empower a girl, empower a nation! We advocate for the girl child today because of the global equality bias against women and girls. But the narrative is changing. Girls all over the world are creating great digital solutions, including Nigerian girls. We celebrate such girls everywhere. UN Women listed a number of them on their website: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/girl-child

However, regrettably, the percentage is small. More can be done. Parents, let's do our work. Let's join other advocates to advocate for the best education for our children. "It is our right, it is their right, it is her right" - quote by Bliss Ojeruse. Charity begins at home.

To get copies of our findings from our surveys and research works, kindly fill this form: https://SHADE-IN_Resources

International Day of the Girl, 2021,

"Digital generation, Our generation" - What Parents and Government Can Do.

(C) October 11, 2021

Saving Hand Development Initiative (SHADE-IN)