An International Day for Girls Gets People Talking, But Then What? Linda Poon - NPR.org
go to original October 10, 2014

International Day of the Girl 2014 (Girl Rising)

Saturday marks the third International Day of the Girl Child, designated by the U.N. to highlight the need to create a better world for adolescent girls.

It's a day when activists ramp up efforts to make the public aware of issues like child marriage, violence against girls and the lack of access to education. It's also a time for activists to push world leaders to make commitments — financial or policy-wise — to end those problems.

But these days, it seems like every other day is the International Day of this, that or the other thing. In October alone, the U.N. has designated 13 days to celebrate teachers, the eradication of poverty, even the U.N. itself.

It makes you wonder: How effective are these commemorative days? Goats and Soda asked a few scholars who specialize in global issues. Their answers were decidedly mixed.

Commemorative days have their defenders. Activists single out an issue for the public, government and private donors to focus on. "It forces a lot of governments and agencies to comment on a certain issue," says Casey Dunning, a policy analyst at the D.C.-based think tank Center for Global Development.

And it's more than just comments.

Read the rest at NPR.org

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