Girls’ Rights

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about girls’ rights.

Women and girls around the world are held back by systematic and entrenched inequality and discrimination. As you raised, girls living in countries affected by conflict or humanitarian crisis are disproportionately affected, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to UNESCO, nearly 743 million girls are out of education due to COVID-19 school closures and it is predicted that many girls may never return to education. We are seeing an increase in Gender Based Violence (GBV) and the UN has warned that the pandemic could lead to an additional 13 million child marriages by 2030.

I share your concern that amid the global pandemic, the Prime Minister decided to scrap an independent Department for International Development (DfID). I firmly oppose this decision, which will have a life-threatening impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

This decision has been coupled with a cut of almost £3 billion to the aid budget, and with little detail released and given that the Prime Minister has said he wants to use the aid budget more for security, I am worried about what this means for other important areas, like supporting girls living in conflict areas. Analysis shows that DfID committed 61% of its Official Development Assistance (ODA) to supporting gender equality in 2018, yet the Foreign Office has not disclosed how much of its ODA went towards promoting gender equality.

To overcome these symptoms of gender inequality, we need to tackle the root causes. I believe the UK Government should tackle the structural causes of gender inequality, including by supporting women’s rights organisations in the global south as effective, sustainable ways of reducing gendered violence and discrimination.

Thank you once again for contacting me and sharing your views about this important issue. I can assure you I will continue to press the Government to ensure that gender equality remains a core priority of its international work.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP