A new United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report underlines that Sustainable Development Goals will be achieved only if everyone’s potential is realized. That includes 10-year-old girls, whose futures are often undermined by child marriage, early pregnancy and other harmful practices.

According to UNFPA, 10-year-old adolescent girls represent the demographic that is left behind in most places in the world. There are approximately 60 million of them today. About 35 million live in countries with high levels of gender inequality.

UNFPA’s Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin said “the 10-year-old girl is one we need to protect so that we stop people from making choices for them and we allow them the free space to grow.”

He added “we decided to select the 10-year-old as the index of development, because for the sustainable goals that we all agreed to in 2015, she would be 25 when we would have done everything we need to do implementing those goals. So she would actually be our index of success.”

He also urged the international community to protect the rights of girls and make sure they get quality education.

According to UNFPA, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence every 10 minutes.10-year-old girls are subjected to countless abuses linked to gender inequality, like child marriage, female genital mutilation, forced or coerced sex, unintended pregnancy, or the denial of education.