Adopted at NCWGB AGM 2024

In the lead up to the Commission on the Status of Women 2024 on the theme of poverty, NCW urges the UK government and international community to make accessible education a key policy aim. According to UN estimates, around the world, 129 million girls are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age, and 97 million of secondary school age.ⁱ 132million boys are also out of school.ⁱⁱ Sixteen million girls, between the ages six and 11, will never start school compared to eight million boys if current trends continue.ⁱⁱⁱ Only two thirds of countries have reached gender parity in primary school enrolment and in low-income countries girls tend to leave school before boys.^iv Girls continue to lag substantially behind boys in secondary completion rates.

In terms of girls’ education, better educated women tend to be more informed about nutrition and healthcare, have fewer children and marry at a later age. Their children are usually healthier, should they choose to become mothers.^v Financing girls’ education is not an alternative to, but is complementary to tackling climate change, because it reduces overpopulation.

“˜Girls’ education is also about ensuring that girls feel safe and learn while in school, complete all levels of education with the skills and competencies to secure jobs, make decisions about their own lives, and contribute to their communities and the world’. World Bank.^vi Girls’ attendance can be undermined by long journeys to school, by sexual harassment at school and lack of provision for their periods.

Across the world, women are in the lowest-paid work.  Globally, they earn 24% less than men and at the current rate of progress, it will take 170 years to close the gap.^vii

Women and girls’ education can help lift households, communities, and countries out of poverty.  A recent World Bank study estimates that the “limited educational opportunities for girls, and barriers to completing 12 years of education, cost countries between US$15 trillion1 and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings.”^viii

Unicef says that global crises continue to disrupt women’s access to nutritious food. In 2021, there were 126 million more food insecure women than men, compared to 49 million more in 2019, more than doubling the gender gap of food insecurity.^ix Women are twice as likely as men to be malnourished.

Countries with higher levels of gender equality tend to have higher income levels, and evidence from a number of regions and countries shows closing the gap leads to a reduction in poverty. In Latin America for instance, an increase in the number of women in paid work between 2000 and 2010 accounted for around 30% of the overall reduction in poverty and income inequality.^x

Thanks to UK aid, there are more girls in school, fewer early marriages and more grassroots women’s organisations. But the fact that the UK aid budget has been cut limits these benefits at a time of particular need.

Proposer Speech: Ann Davison

Last year we passed a resolution stressing the importance of girls and women’s education to tackle poverty. We used this resolution in our representations at the UN Commission on the Status of women which meets each March – to review what we might hope would be progress. We’d like to raise similar issues this year but developing what we have to say about women’s literacy, about the designation of overseas aid and about female genital mutilation.

Because of past discrimination in education, there’s a need for many women in developing countries to catch up on literacy and numeracy skills. Only about half of women and girls over 15 are literate in low-income countries and 72% in lower middle-income countries ““ considerably fewer than men.^xi Innovative UK funded overseas aid projects have provided education for women enslaved in domestic work to help overcome illiteracy and we’d hope to see more like this.

Being literate means that women can seek and use information for the health, nutrition and education of their households. Literate women are also empowered to play a meaningful role in society. As last year’s resolution pointed out, women and girls’ education helps lift households, communities, and countries out of poverty. 

Whilst primary school enrolment for girls has improved in many countries, Afghanistan has taken denial of women’s and girls’ rights to an extreme. On top of the denial of education and jobs, our sisters there are now required to cover up completely and not to speak, sing or recite anything aloud in public. I think we would agree with UN experts that this is gender apartheid. There is no internationally recognised crime that can explain the intensity of it.

Another shocking issue is female genital mutilation. It came up at the last CSW that getting girls into education would help to end child marriage. Education in the affected countries is vital also to end FGM, and I’m pleased that the UK government helped run a session on this topic.

More than 12,000 girls a day are at risk, and rising. At the discussion on FGM, we heard that there are over 230 million survivors of this scourge which deprives them of the human right to be free from torture and cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment. Most are in Africa, then Asia, then the Middle East. The resulting physical and psychological damage costs the health sector $1.4billion in just under 10 countries. 

The good news is that 2 in 3 people in affected regions think it should stop. The bad news is that though rates have declined, population growth is outgrowing efforts to prevent it, aggravated by conflict and social instability. If trends continue the number of girls attacked will increase significantly. 

What will help? A key need is to empower girls, which education can help with and to educate communities – busting the myths that support the practice. Education can help to change norms and unequal power structures. Governments need to prioritise girls’ rights in laws and policies, involve survivors in policy development and amplify their voices.

Support is needed for trailblazing grassroots initiatives. For example, at the preparatory meeting for next year’s CSW, in Geneva, we heard about a project that trained widows – who then educated health professionals in their locality and stamped FGM out in that area.

Increased budgets Sustainable development goal 5.3 is to end FGM. Only 4% of bilateral aid prioritises gender equality ““ much more of a focus is needed. For example, 27 times as much aid is needed to stamp out FGM.

i Girls’ education | UNICEF
ii UNESCO
iii Twice as many girls as boys will never start school ““ UNESCO report | UN News
iv World Bank: girls’ education
v Girls’ Education Overview (worldbank.org)
vi Girls’ Education Overview: Development news, research, data | World Bank
vii Why the majority of the world’s poor are women | Oxfam International
viii Missed Opportunities: The High Cost of Not Educating Girls (worldbank.org)
ix Malnutrition in mothers soars by 25 per cent in crisis-hit countries, putting women and newborn babies at risk ““ UNICEF
x Oxfam op cit
xi Education | World Bank Gender Data Portal

Seconder Speech: Abby Hunt re overseas aid budgets

Under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak government a policy paper exploring the UK government support for girls’ education worldwide was published in February 2024, which stated that the UK government was working to provide quality education for all children guided by the global objectives on access and learning in low- and lower-middle income countries by 2026, which were agreed to during G7. These objectives importantly included the introduction of 40 million girls in school and 20 million more girls reading by age 10.¹

The FCDO promisingly also has an Education, Gender and Inclusion Research Team which supports through bilaterial, multilateral and research spend more than 100 countries. The project Titled: Girls’ Education Challenge Phase II, is the world’s largest fund (£500 million) dedicated to girls’ education aims to reach over 1.6 million marginalised girls with quality education and learning opportunities.²

However, despite this work it is clear that the impact of the pandemic has been catastrophic. Since the pandemic, which resulted in school closures and disruptions the learning poverty rate has been driven much higher, with reports suggesting that global learning poverty in low or middle-income countries has surged to an estimated 70%.³
Indeed, challenges persist, to reiterate the stark figures that Ann presented, the current figure estimates 129 million girls remain out of school around the world.⁴

The OECD reported also reported in in 2021-22, gender equality was a policy objective in 43% of the programmes funded by the bilateral allocable Official Development Assistance provided by Development Assistance Committee members: those programmes amounted to USD 64.1 billion out of the USD 147.9 billion screened against the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development gender marker.

That is an increase from the USD 60 billion allocated in 2019-20, but a decrease from the 45% share over that period. This relative drop ““the first after a decade of regular growth”“ raises concern about the policy intentions of donors. Out of those 43% of total bilateral aid programmes aiming to promote gender equality, the latter was the principal objective for only 4%, and one significant policy objective, amongst others, for the remaining 39%.
This is a clear issue which needs to be addressed with Gender-responsive public expenditure management, a tool which should be harnessed effectively to ensure that countries are able to better align spending with gender equality objectives within wider education plans. Moreover, the report “˜Spending Better for Gender Equality in Education’ published in January 2021, presents analysis from a joint research project by the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative and Malala Fund regarding the need for a “strategy for donors seeking to advance girls’ education”¦needs to be nested within a political economy analysis.”⁵

Overall, the UK government’s commitment to improving girls’ education is commendable but must be matched by effective strategies that address the ongoing challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. Implementing Gender-responsive public expenditure management (GRPEM) and ensuring robust funding mechanisms are critical steps toward achieving gender equality in education and empowering millions of marginalized girls worldwide.

1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-government-support-for-girls-education- worldwide/9c3bc3e6-1023-4bb7-ad60-535644aa93bc
2 https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/programme/GB-1-204766/documents
3 https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/turning-tide-global-learning-poverty
4 https://www.ungei.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/Spending-Better-for-Gender-Equality-In-Education-Research-Report-2021-eng.pdf
5 https://www.ungei.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/Spending-Better-for-Gender-Equality-In-Education-Research-Report-2021-eng.pdf