We are more than halfway to the 2030 deadline for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, but most African countries are struggling to make sufficient progress. Africa has a chance to meet them by investing in its greatest resource: its young people.
Schools have a responsibility to empower students to prevent school-related gender-based violence.
It is not enough for children to attend school. We must also ensure they are safe doing so. Violence prevention and response should be integrated into education policy and programming to ensure safe schools for all students.
School-related gender-based violence is a particularly egregious form of gender-based violence because it happens to children who sometimes do not even recognise it as violence.
Investing in ending childhood sexual violence is the right thing to do, and we must protect kids and support those who have experienced this horrible trauma. Globally, policy and decision makers can save billions investing in preventing child sexual abuse. The returns on investment would cut across physical and mental health, labor, judicial, and other sectors.
Every child deserves to be safe at home, in their communities, and at school. However, findings from the VACS show that many children experience school-related gender-based violence. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Every child around the world deserves the opportunity to learn. Education is a basic human right and a necessary pathway to ending extreme poverty. We know that equitable, quality education has an immense power to transform the lives of individuals, communities, and nations.