The ‘Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda’ and UNFPA-Brussels invite you for the presentation of UNFPA’s State of the World Population 2020, “Against her will”, in a webinar format on Tuesday November 17th, 12:30-14:00.

Every day hundreds of thousands of girls worldwide are subjected to practices that harm them physically and/or psychologically. 40% of girls in developing countries marry before their 18th birthday. 200 million girls and women living today have been subject to a type of female genital mutilation (FGM). In some countries son preference leads to sex selection during pregnancy or makes families only sending their sons to school.

These practices violate the human rights of girls and women and limit their possiblities to participate in society and develop themselves. The corona pandemic increases their vulnerability and threatens to undo progress in the fight against harmful practices: the safety of schools is lacking, economic crisis increases the chances of early marriages and projects and programmes on harmful practices are under pressure.

UNFPA will present its SWOP-report on these challenges. The Nigerien partner of Plan International Belgium, Plan Niger, will testify about the prevention of child marriages in the field. GAMS will consequently share its experiences in the uptake and prevention of FGM, including in Belgium.

The new Minister of Development Cooperation Meryame Kitir has been invited to participate in the exchange.

DG-D will inform us about Belgium’s development cooperation’s contributions to the uptake of harmful practices.

If you would like to join this event, please send an e-mail to Marlies Casier at Sensoa to receive an agenda invite with the link to the webinar.

The presentations will be in English and French (Plan Niger). Spoken languages will be French, Dutch and English.