* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Plan International is an international children's charity that spearheaded the campaign for an International Day of the Girl, which was this week assigned to Oct 11.
Many people will ask if we really need another international day to slot in the calendar. We have plenty of U.N. observance days, numerous religious holidays and a greeting-card holiday for almost every date.
So why give the International Day of the Girl any more thought than the other days?
The answer is simple. We simply don’t pay enough attention to the difficulties and specific problems faced by girls, especially girls born in developing countries. We need to face up to these difficulties and find solutions, real solutions, which ensure girls have the same chance in life as boys.
In many countries where sex selection is common and bearing a son is preferred, girls are denied their very basic right, that of being born. When girls are toddlers and young children they are three times more likely to be malnourished than boys.
Around the world there are 75 million girls out of primary and lower secondary school. Girls are far less likely than boys to go to secondary school and can often find themselves married and running a household by the time they are 14.
They experience more violence and sexual harassment just because they are girls and are more likely to be trafficked and forced into sex work.
And these same girls are more likely to stay poor and pass on the legacy of poverty to their children and future generations.
Simply put, if we ensure girls are given the same opportunities as boys from the moment they are born we are helping them and their families break the cycle of poverty, giving them a chance to become empowered women, mothers, workers and leaders.
Investing in girls delivers a higher return than any other investment made in a country's development. Research has shown overwhelmingly that girls are the key to reducing poverty for children, families, communities and nations.
For each year that a girl stays in school, her income will rise by 10 to 20 percent. With the opportunity to earn a living, she will pull herself out of poverty and bring her children along with her. She will invest what she earns in them – in their health, education and futures.
An educated girl will be more likely to marry later in life and have fewer, healthier children. She also has a greater chance of remaining healthy and alive, and, if she does, her children will be three to ten times more likely to survive.
These are but a few of the reasons why the International Day of the Girl deserves more than a bookmark in your diary.
