ISLAMABAD: UN Women, which works for gender equality and the empowerment of women, and Unicef hosted a cricket match at the Pakistan Sweet Homes for more than 70 girls from four schools in connection with the UN International Day of the Girl Child, which is observed on October 11.

Young girls from the Mashal Model School, Millennium Roots School, National Special Education Centre and Pakistan Sweet Homes played a number of cricket matches in the all day tournament, with some 350 members of the audience cheering them on.

The UN International Day of the Girl Child promotes girls’ rights, highlights gender inequalities and addresses various forms of discrimination and abuse suffered by young girls around the world.

“Only through explicit focus on collecting and analysing girl-focused, girl-relevant and sex-disaggregated data and using this data to inform key policy and programme decisions, can we adequately measure and understand the opportunities and challenges faced by girls and identify and track progress towards solutions to their most pressing problems,” an UN official said.

With this in mind, the theme for this years’ International Day of the Girl Child was ‘Girls’ Progress = Goals’ Progress: What Counts for Girls’.

“While we applaud the ambition and potential of the Sustainable Development Goals to contribute meaningfully to the advancement of girls and recognise how girls’ progress is positive for the girls and their families and society at large, we must also take this opportunity to consider how existing gaps in data on girls and young women, a lack of systematic analysis and the limited use of existing data may significantly limit our ability to monitor and communicate the well being and progress of half of humanity,” the UN official said.

The official said that much more can and needs to be done in order to harness the information required to ensure that programmes, policies and services effectively respond to the specific needs of girls.

When we invest in girls’ health, safety and education, including a means to protect and promote their rights, we empower them to reach for their dreams and build better lives for themselves and their communities, she said.

UN Women Deputy Country Representative Sangeeta Thapa congratulated participants of the cricket match and said cricket is an excellent way to promote girl empowerment.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2016