Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their very interesting presentations. It is valuable for the committee to hear of the work being done. I join others in commending the great work being done, particularly in tackling low levels of school completion among girls in developing countries. It is very useful to have a spotlight on the importance of promoting girls' education and challenging gender stereotypes.

I have three points. First, I am struck by the huge number of obstacles to ensuring girls' equality of access to education in countries with enormous structural barriers such as a lack of a clean water supply, teachers or infrastructure, on which previous speakers focused. We talked earlier about the SDGs and SDG4. We were told that huge progress was made toward meeting SDG4, but that has levelled off since 2015. Progress was made in the early years of this century and the numbers and percentages of children not in school were dropping, but since 2015 there has been a levelling off. Can any of the witnesses explain why that progress has apparently stalled? I presume the reasons are multifaceted, including increasing conflicts in some areas keeping children out of school, which was touched on. Political decision-making at a macro level has also contributed to this issue. Can anyone say why that is and what we can do about it?

Second, the lack of access to reproductive and sexual health affects women and girls' education completion, which we have touched on. Mr. O'Brien mentioned access to contraception, which is hugely important, as is access to abortion, which can be vital in ensuring girls can finish their education. That is lacking in so many countries, including Ireland until recently. Our women's caucus is currently focused on period poverty, which has also been raised in many of the submissions. Some 10% of girls in certain African countries are out of school during their periods, which means missing a quarter of their education straight away. These are girls who are actually enrolled in school. We clearly need to do more on this issue. Do the witnesses have any comments on that, or are they working on any good models for it?

Finally, no one has mentioned female genital mutilation, FGM, which is another health issue for girls. I will be speaking at an event on FGM next week which is being run by Akina Dada wa Africa, AkiDwA, together with the national steering committee on FGM. Can we do more to tackle this issue through our Irish Aid programmes? It has had huge health consequences for girls and women and even raised mortality rates in some cases. What can we do in Ireland to ensure we are tackling this specific gendered issue of women's health, which is preventing so many girls from reaching their full potential?