Every year, twelve million girls are married before the age of eighteen, according to UNICEF. That is twelve million satchels put down, and diplomas never taken. In 2011 the General Assembly made 11 October the International Day of the Girl Child. President Macky Sall places girls' schooling among the commitments of his candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General.
Staying to the end. Girls leave school mostly at secondary level: distance, fees, no separate latrines, pregnancies, marriages. A safe journey, a scholarship and latrines are sometimes enough to keep a pupil in class, and these measures cost little.
The price of a year. According to the World Bank, one more year of schooling raises a woman's future earnings by about ten per cent. Families that know this return invest more in their daughters' schooling.
The law, then its enforcement. Setting eighteen as the minimum age of marriage, with no exception, is the first step. The African Union launched a campaign against child marriage in 2014. What remains is to have the texts respected in the villages, with religious and customary leaders as allies.
What the Secretary-General can do. He can ask that every programme funded by the Organization report, with figures, on the girls' schooling it reaches. A published indicator often changes more practice than a speech.
A generation to keep. Africa has the youngest population on the planet. The vision statement filed with the United Nations links development and peace: a girl who finishes secondary school raises her children differently, and keeps them in school longer.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
General Assembly resolution 66/170 (2011), UNICEF data on child marriage and the African Union campaign (2014) are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net