28 Boshoff/Protecting the African child in a changing climate of these responsibilities are more likely to fall on girl children than boy children.17 This kind of trend has the effect of ‘perpetuating the cycle of disempowerment’ experienced by girl children, who are then less likely to complete their education and find better employment opportunities.18 Moreover, even if girls are able to balance the duties of searching for resources further from home with education, they ‘become more vulnerable to injuries from carrying heavy loads long distances, and also face increased risk of sexual harassment and assault’ on the way to and from remote resource locations.19 Secondly, children of both sexes are impacted by lack of nutrition because of food insecurity, which leads to stunting in growth and impacts on the mental development of children, particularly where undernutrition takes place within the first two years of the child’s life, in which case the consequences may be ‘irreversible, with life-long implications for physical, cognitive and reproductive health’.20 UNICEF presents data which indicates that ‘[m]alnutrition represents a major danger to children’s lives, contributing to nearly half of all deaths in children under five’.21 Also in this regard girl children are often worse affected, with female health declining more during food shortages as compared to male health.22 Thirdly, children are more vulnerable to the hardships associated with forced migration, which include not only physical strain and deprivation of socio-economic rights but also emotional suffering and the possibility of being separated from their family, all of which may have repercussions for their development and future well-being. Displaced children and their families lose much more than shelter when forced out of an area. They lose access to health care, education, livelihoods, social services and networks, religious services, political autonomy, and the security and identity associated with a sense of home. Children that become separated from their parents and other family members are more likely to experience violence, exploitation or abuse. Long-term implications of psychological and physical childhood trauma can extend to impacts on their health, education and economic well-being over their lifetime.23 Migration or forced displacement as a result of climate change can take various forms. Children and particularly adolescents may migrate from rural areas into the cities, looking for better opportunities, parents may 17 Children in a changing climate & Plan International ‘Weathering the Storm: Girls and Climate change” 1; UN Women Watch (n 8 above) 2. 18 UN Women Watch (n 8 above) 2. 19 As above. 20 KL Ebi ‘Childhood health risks of climate change’ in UNICEF (ed) The challenge of climate change: Children on the front line (2014) 8; JJ Romm ‘Present and future climate realities for children’ in UNICEF (ed) The challenge of climate change: Children on the front line (2014) 6; UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) ‘Children and Climate Change: The impacts of climate change on nutrition and migration affecting children in Indonesia’ (2011). 21 Unicef Data ‘Malnutrition’ http://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/malnutrition/ (accessed 7 October 2017). 22 UN Women Watch (n 8 above) 2. 23 UNICEF (n 11 above) 4.