Hilary Benn: Educating girls is investment in better future
for all
Intro | Education Strategy |
Towards
2015 | Case studies | Other
links | Related: Hilary Benn on education in-depth
 I
am convinced that educating women in the developing world
can help unlock progress towards all other Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), including: child mortality, maternal health, and HIV and AIDS.
Which
is why the UK is investing
£1.4 billion on education over the next three
years as part of our strategy, Girls'
education: Towards a better future for all (516
KB) Or see our summary
version of the paper(242
KB)
This strategy sets out how we - together
with partners like UNICEF and the Global Campaign for Education (see
links) - will work to make it more affordable for girls in
developing countries to attend school by helping governments to remove school
tuition fees and provide better school facilities for females.
 Back to top
What does the education strategy contain?
 The strategy contains more than just good intentions.
It sets out the action DFID will take and the leadership it will provide -
with others in the international community - to ensure equality of education
between men and women, boys and girls.
Specifically, we are committing to:
- Increasing our support for education over the next
three years and challenge our partners to do likewise, particularly during
the UK's Presidencies of G8 and the
EU Current estimates suggest an annual shortfall of $5.6 billion to achieve the
education Millennium Development Goal
- Ensuring that there is effective international leadership to
accelerate progress on girls' education.
- Supporting governments to develop sound education plans, which ensure
that the needs and rights of girls to all levels of education are met.
- Helping make school more affordable for young girls by working with
Governments to remove school fees and reduce other costs that families bear
in educating their children.
- Working to increase UK development awareness of girls' education in
partnership with civil society and the
 UK's
Department for Education and Skills
It is clear that we need to do more in accelerating progress on girls'
education. Our actions will send a crucial signal to the international
communities and our partners about the urgency to make progress given that we
will not reach the 2005 target.
Back to top
Towards 2015: Progress on MDG 2
 Progress to date has not been good enough.
There are still over 100m children out of school - 60m of which are girls. A
girl growing up in a low-income family in rural Africa today has less than a
one in ten chance of getting a primary education.
The first MDG 3 target - getting
equal numbers of boys and girls into primary education by 2005 - is going to be missed.
And as a result, all the MDGs are at risk of not being met in 2015.
In missing the targets we will be judged to have failed the promise we made
at the World Education Forum in Dakar to provide support to any country that has made a serious commitment to
education.
There is, however, reason for hope. For the first time in a decade all the
ingredients for success are in place. Political commitment is growing in both
the developed and developing world.
There is a strong understanding of what
actions can make a meaningful difference. Donors are increasingly supporting
governments to develop the education strategies that that will help girls the
most.
We cannot afford to fail, and that is why the UK is going to step up its
efforts
Back to top
Case studies
Image: Ami Vitale/Panos
Although much needs to be done, progress has been made (see the education factsheet(497
KB). In Africa, millions of
children are in school in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia, thanks to
money provided by debt relief and aid.
Gordon
Brown on progress made in Africa (14 Jan, 2005)
Examples:
- In Malawi, DFID helped increase school enrolment when the Minister for
Education announced free education for all. An extra million children have
enrolled since the abolition of school fees. UNESCO:
Malawi girls education project a resounding success and Ivy's
story
- DFID India’s support
and intervention in West Bengal is today helping to bring down the
teacher/pupil ratio from 1 teacher for every 250 children to 1 for every 50
- Gareth Thomas announced funding of £32 million for rural education
to support BRAC, a large Bangladeshi NGO in their work with 40,000 schools
and their 1.5 million pupils.
More
on BRAC's work
- In Kenya, a DFID-funded project with the Forum for African Women
Educationalists is increasing
the numbers of girls in education in a Maasai community and is running programmes to raise awareness
of HIV, AIDS and reproductive health. See also
E-learning
from Nairobi (Developments Magazine)
- In Pakistan, the Northern Areas government, with DFID funding, has doubled
the number of schools and increased girls' enrolment by 73% through the Northern
Areas Education Project.
Back to top
Other links
Back to top
| 
Directgov |
