Since 2013, Girls Voices Initiative has celebrated the International Day of the Girl on the 11th of October which also marks the anniversary of the organisation. Girl Summit 2020 was no exception as the International Day of the Girl was celebrated amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Although a physical convening was not feasible, the 2020 Girl Summit was held virtually on the Zoom platform. The summit had 120 delegates comprising adolescent girls, development partners, and the media. The 2020 Girl Summit created an opportunity for development practitioners and government officials to listen to the challenges that girls continue to face before and during the novel pandemic and to create solutions to the problems confronting girls to better keep girls safe. The summit was a confirmation that the challenges girls face cuts across different geo-political zones in the country. The current pandemic has caused widespread school closures, which has also contributed to a surge in harmful practices ranging from rape, domestic violence, child labor, murder, female genital mutilation, depraved childhood, sexual exploitation, early and forced child marriage, defilement, and other types of gender-based violence. The girl experts shared their research findings of alarming incidences of rape cases which worsened during the lockdown; the Nigeria police recorded 717 rape cases between the months of January and May 2020. And Anambra State recorded 82 cases of fathers raping their daughters during the lockdown. Statistics shows that the numbers of unreported cases are usually five times higher than the reported cases.
The Girl Summit 2020 presented Nigerian girls with the opportunity to engage with Development Partners, Civil Society, Education authorities, participants, and the media to support the causes of the girl child and to celebrate the initiative of Girls Voices to facilitate such an important convening. The resolutions of the Girl Summit 2020 serve as a tool of engagement by Nigerian girls and girl champions in the development sector and other leadership positions in Nigeria. The Girl Summit 2020 appraised the courage and commitment of Nigeria’s girls to make their voices count in Nigeria and around the world. The celebration of the International Day of the Girl 2020 was a huge success with an engaging virtual Girl Summit convened. Girls anxiously await the Girl Summit 2022.
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