By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lead a high-level Bangladesh delegation in the Girl Summit 2014 to be held in London on Tuesday.
Bangladesh is set to highlight its firm commitment to eliminate child marriage by incorporating its various steps as the country is taking part in the summit.
With Unicef as a co-host, the UK government is organising the first-ever Girl Summit aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) within a generation.
Hasina is scheduled to attend the high-level session of the summit and interact with first lady of Burkina Faso Chantal Compaore and Pakistan’s education activist Malala Yousafzai at Walworth Academy.
The session would be moderated by Unicef executive director Anthony Lake.
Before joining the summit, the Bangladesh premier will meet her British counterpart David Cameron at 10 Downing Street and is expected to discuss issues of bilateral interest.
This will be Hasina’s first visit to any European country after the January 5 elections in Bangladesh.
Before departing for home on Wednesday, the prime minister will attend a community programme of Bangladeshi expatriates living in the UK.
She is expected to return home on Thursday morning.
Officials said the delegation members will highlight the government steps taken or to be taken to address the issue of child marriage for taking the country forward.
During the summit, Bangladesh is expected to make a new pledge to eradicate child marriage in Bangladesh and for this efforts need to be intensified to accelerate the rate of decline and eventually eliminate child marriage in Bangladesh.
Official sources said that elimination of child marriage in Bangladesh is correct in principle and in practice and it will make an important contribution to the attainment of its Vision for the year 2021, the year which marks the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence.
The government is looking forward to ensuring that, by 2021, no girl under 15 will be getting married as well as eradicating all child marriage within a generation - by 2035.
In order to achieve this target, lessons could be learnt from Bangladesh’s success in transforming social norms in critical areas such as family planning, girl education and sanitation as well as Bangladesh’s reputation for innovation, as exemplified by the tremendous success achieved in reducing child mortality through the promotion of oral rehydration therapy.
By the end of this year, with the support of development partners, the government is likely to finalise the country’s evidence-based National Action Plan on Child Marriage.
As an immediate priority in taking forward the plan, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is also planning to implement the revised Child Marriage Restraint Act within 1 year of this Summit - by July 2015.
In Bangladesh, advancing the rights of women and girls is a priority of the government as the country is making good progress towards improving maternal health. The number of women dying at childbirth between 1990 and 2013 fell by 70% with an opportunity to achieve the MDG target.
