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Why Girls?

The studies have been done, reports have been written and all point to the education of girls as one of the most significant factors to improve the health, economy, communities and basic human rights all over the world. Even without all of the research, it is just common sense. Education is not a luxury, but a basic human right.

Here’s what the experts say:

The World Bank: “There is no investment more effective for achieving development goals than educating girls.”

The Economist magazine: “Forget China, India and the internet: economic growth is driven by women.”

“The lives of women are inextricably linked to the well-being of children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “If they are not educated, if they are not healthy, if they are not empowered, the children are the ones who suffer.” Ref

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Challenges to Girls' Education

Poverty's Grip Keeps Children out of school -

from MDG 2

MDG3

Girls still wait for equal primary school access in some regions http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2008/MDG_Report_2008_En.pdf#page=18

Gender parity in education means that the same proportion of boys and girls enter and complete school.

Targeted action is needed to help girls from poor, rural areas stay in school

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Gender Equality

"Eliminating gender discrimination and empowering women are among the paramount challenges facing women today. When women are healthy, educated and free to take the opportunities life affords them, children thrive, countries flourish, reaping the double dividend for women and children." - Kofe A. Annan Secretary General of the United Nations (1997 - 2007) - forward to the 2006 report on Gender Equality

‘The State of the World’s Children 2007’, this year’s edition of UNICEF’s flagship publication, examines the status of women around the world. It concludes that an end to gender discrimination produces the ‘double dividend’ of benefiting women and children – which, in turn, has a positive impact on the health and development of societies everywhere. Rachel Bonham-Carter

Promoting gender equality is the focus of Millennium Development Goal 3. If this goal is achieved, UNICEF believes, benefits will be felt not just amongst women and children but in many other spheres – from poverty and hunger reduction to global health and environmental sustainability. Ref

What is Gender Equality?

Gender equality is not just a problem for females, it is a problem for all. At times men may feel threatened, but promoting gender equality shouldn't be seen as privileging women and disempowering men. Gender inequality and rigid gender stereotypes can often prevent a household or community from freeing itself from poverty. It is not about separating men outEnsuring equality and justice, and unlocking women's potential, is to the benefit of everyone.

What are the facts about Gender Equality?

You'r more likely to be poor if you're a woman.

According to research, you're more likely to be doing most of the work. Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, and produce half of the world's food, yet earn only ten percent of the world's income and own less than one percent of the world's property.

Discrimination and injustice are major causes of poverty worldwide. Ensuring women and men benefit equally work is a vital. Poverty is about lacking opportunities power and being able to make a decent living. Traditional attitudes limit women's say over what happens in their lives and communities.

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Benefits to Health

Disparities persist in all regions: mortality rates are higher for children from rural and poor families and whose mothers lack basic education. MDG Goal # 4 Fact Sheet.

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Benefits to the Economy

Job opportunities open up, but women often remain trapped in insecure, low-paid positions Poverty

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Benefits to the Community

Decision Makers

Women hold only 14 per cent of parliamentary seats worldwide and only eight per cent of the world's cabinet ministers are women. Only eleven countries have met the UN target of 30 per cent female decision-makers. (UNIFEM, Progress of the World's Women).

The fact is that in many countries, women have not had the education to allow them to know that they have rights, the right to state their opinion, exercise their franchise let alone run for parliament.

Recently, Rwanda conducted elections for the Presidency and the parliament had a referendum on a new constitution. For the first time in Rwanda's history, free and fair elections were held. The new constitution guarantees a minimum of 30 percent of parliamentary seats and other leadership positions to women...more >>>

Women slowly gain ground in political decision-making, but progress is erratic and marked by regional differences

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Millennium Development Goals

1. End Poverty and Hunger

2. Universal Education: Achieve universal primary education.

Achieving universal primary education means more than full enrolment. It also encompasses quality education, meaning that all children who attend school regularly learn basic literacy and numeracy.

QUICK FACTS -WHERE DO WE STAND?

Globally, 570 million children are enrolled in school. The number of children of primary school age who were out of school fell from 103 million in 1999 to 73 million in 2006. In that year, primary school enrolment in developing countries reached 88 per cent on average, up from 83 per cent in 2000.
In all regions, inequalities in access to education continue to pose major barriers to fully attaining the MDG 2 target of ensuring that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, can complete a full course of primary schooling. (See also Goal 3 for more information on girls’ schooling.)
Projections suggest that without further acceleration, 58 out of the 86 countries that have not yet reached universal primary education will not achieve it by 2015. In all regions, inequalities in access to education are a major barrier to reaching Goal 2.
The children most likely to drop out of school or to not attend at all are often girls and those from poorer households or living in rural areas. For example, recent estimations show that 25 per cent of children of primary school age in rural areas of the developing world are out of school, compared with 16 per cent of children in the same age group living in cities.
In sub Saharan Africa, the net primary school enrolment ratio has only recently reached 71 per cent, even after a significant jump in enrolment that began in 2000. Around 38 million children of primary school age in this region are still out of school. In Southern Asia, the enrolment ratio has climbed above 90 per cent, yet more than 18 million children of primary school age are not enrolled.

3. Gender Equality by 2010

Target 1:
Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015

Gender Parity in education means that the same proportion of boys and girls enter and complete school.

Of the 113 countries that failed to achieve gender parity in primary and secondary school enrolment by the target date of 2005, only 18 are likely to achieve the goal by 2015.
Girls account for 55 per cent of the out-of-school population.
Since 2000, the proportion of seats for women in parliaments only increased from 13.5 to 17.9 per cent.
Women occupy at least 30 per cent of parliamentary seats in 20 countries, although none of these countries are in Asia.
Girls still wait for equal primary school access in some regions
Women slowly gain ground in political decision-making, but progress is erratic and marked by regional differences
Targeted action is needed to help girls from poor, rural areas stay in school
Job opportunities open up, but women often remain trapped in insecure, low-paid positions

4. Child Health

A child born in a developing country is over 13 times more likely to die within the first five years of life than a child born in an industrialized country. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about half the deaths of children under five in the developing world.
Between 1990 and 2006, about 27 countries – the large majority in sub-Saharan Africa – made no progress in reducing childhood deaths.

Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Worldwide, deaths of children under five years of age declined from 93 to 72 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2006.

Disparities persist in all regions: mortality rates are higher for children from rural and poor families and whose mothers lack basic education. - fact sheet millennium development goal #4

5. Improving Maternal Health

Facts:

Estimates for 2005 show that, every minute, a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.
This adds up to more than 500,000 women annually and 10 million over a generation. Almost all of these women – 99 per cent – live and die in developing countries.
Maternal mortality shows the greatest disparity among countries: in sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s risk of dying from treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth over the course of her lifetime is 1 in 22, compared to 1 in 7,300 in developed regions. The risk of a woman dying from pregnancy-related causes during her lifetime is about 1 in 7 in Niger compared to 1 in 17,400 in Sweden.
Every year, more than 1 million children are left »» motherless and vulnerable because of maternal death. Children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those who have not.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS

Facts:

Every day, nearly 7,500 people are infected with HIV and »» 5,500 die from AIDS. Globally, an estimated 33 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2007.
The number of people living with HIV rose from an estimated 29.5 million in 2001 to 33 million in 2007. The vast majority of those living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, where about 60 per cent of adults living with HIV in 2007 were women.
Malaria kills over 1 million people annually, 80 per cent of whom are children under five in sub-Saharan Africa. There continue to be between 350 million and 500 million cases of malaria worldwide each year.

Target 6.A:Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

6.1 HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 years
6.2 Condom use at last high-risk sex
6.3 Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
6.4 Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years

Target 6.B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

6.5 Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs

Target 6.C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

7. Environmental Sustainability

8. Global

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Statistics

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References

The references listed below are not extensive, but are some of the main reliable URLs for information regarding educating girls and the impact of the lack of education. Certain sites change their structure and related URL addresses on a regular basis. GGAC attempts to keep this list current but would appreciate you informing them if a URL is not longer valid. Also if you find a relevant site not listed here please submit it for consideration. Help us keep these references current. All of the topics listed in the tabs above are inextricably linked, so a reference for one category will usually contain information about others.

Gender Equality:

United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWAG) : http://www.un.org/womenwatch/

EU Report on Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity (2005) : http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2005/feb/gender_equ_rep_2005_en.html

Oxfam - Gender Equality: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/issues/gender/introduction.html

Practicing Gender Equality in Education. 2007. Sheila Aikman, Elaine Unterhalter. Link is to both a .pdf of the book to read online. Book link.

Benefits to Health:

http://www.fafia-afai.org/en/unicef_flagship_report_says_gender_equality_benefits_both_women_and_children

The State of the World's Children - UICEF Report December 2006. This is a unicef endorsed summary by London journalist Rachel Bonham-Carter http://www.unicef.org/sowc/index_37436.html

UNCEF Reports on the World's Children. A report is produced each year with a different focus:2009 Maternal and Newborn Health/2008 Child Survival/2007 The Double Dividend of Gender Equality/2006 Excluded and Invisible (children)/2005 Childhood Under Threat/2004 Girls' Education and Development/2003Child Participation/2002 Leadership/2001 Early Childhood/2000 The State of the World's Children/1999 Education/1998 Nutrition/1997 Child Labour/1996 Children at War. Education is one of the main solutions to the situations described in all of these reports.

This link connects to all of these reports: http://www.unicef.org/sowc/index_sowc.html