[child-rights] UNICEF: Early childhood care key to gender equality

CAIRO, 13 November 2006 -- UNICEF today called on governments and others
committed to universal education and gender equality to remember that the
earliest years are the most critical for children's development. If many
of the Millennium Development Goals are to be reached, the children's
agency warned, the cycle of negative gender stereotypes must be broken
earlier in a child's life rather than later.

"Gender equality must be addressed right from the beginning of life," said
Dr. Rima Salah, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director. "Huge steps can be made
to empower girls if we begin the movement for gender equality in those
first years of a child's life."

Dr. Salah's comments came at the closing of the United Nations Girls'
Education Initiative (UNGEI) partnership meeting in Cairo. Members of
UNGEI include representatives from several UN agencies, donor governments
and non-governmental organizations that have come together to work toward
gender equality in education.

The majority of the estimated 115 million children not attending school
around the world are girls, a startling statistic that will have negative
repercussions on an entire generation.

Girls who are kept out of schools are not only denied their own right to
education, but if they later become mothers, they are more likely to raise
children who remain uneducated, unvaccinated and more likely to contract
HIV/AIDS, the children’s agency emphasized at a meeting here.

Universal primary education for all boys and girls is one of eight
time-bound Millennium Development Goals endorsed by the international
community. It is closely linked to the goal to promote gender equality and
the empowerment of women. Interconnected with the six other goals,
empowering girls and women, in and out of school, is clearly linked to
global development and achieving the MDG targets by 2015.

The theme of the UNGEI meeting, "Gender and Early Childhood Care and
Education," placed particular emphasis on supporting families and
gender-focused policies and scaling up of quality early childhood care
programmes. Quality programmes focus on well-trained teachers,
well-informed parents, and child-centered community care.

Furthermore, by covering pre-school and parenting techniques to school
nutrition and breastfeeding advice, these programmes are particularly
beneficial to the children who need them the most: girls living in
poverty. Girl children may be required to care for younger siblings
– a responsibility that prevents them from getting an education of
their own. Early childhood care programmes are key in closing this
discrimination gap. When younger siblings are in pre-school programmes,
their older sisters are free to pursue their own studies. And by setting
children out early on the road to learning, early childhood education can
be instrumental in breaking the cycle of poverty and preparing children
for success in school.

It is particularly fitting that the UNGEI meeting should take place in
Egypt, which -- with the leadership of First Lady H.E. Suzanne Mubarak,
has been an early advocate for ensuring quality education to girls. Egypt
unveiled a Girls' Education Initiative in 2000 under Mrs. Mubarak's
guidance. Girls' education was designated as Egypt's top development
priority in 2000; by 2007, the government has pledged to close the gender
gap Egypt's schools.

"What young children learn now and what happens to them now will influence
them for the rest of their life," said Erma Manoncourt, UNICEF's
Representative in Egypt. "The earliest years are the most determinant of
the child's psychosocial and cognitive development."

UNICEF Press release