Educating girls

130 million girls did not go to school today.
2/3 of the world’s 758 million illiterate are women.
They would not be able to read this.

These are just some of the statistics gathered in Friends of Europe’s backstory on Educating Girls, offering insights on the challenges and also illustrating the lasting impact that education has on girls, families, communities and nations around the world. Whilst access to education should not be determined by a child’s gender, girls from around the world continue to face discrimination just for being born a daughter and not a son. They experience barriers to education that boys do not and, in several parts of the world, a girl’s education is less likely to be valued.

Ahead of International Women’s Day, this publication demonstrates how women’s education increases their workforce participation, directly affecting their cities’ and countries economic growth and productivity. Educating girls can break cycles of poverty in just one generation.

“Implementing the internationally-agreed list of 17 sustainable development goals – demands the active involvement of empowered women. And that means getting the millions of out-of-school girls into classrooms. Right now. Agenda 2030 provides an opportunity to increase pressure on governments everywhere to pay more attention to the education of girls. Let’s use it”, says Shada Islam, Director of Europe and Geopolitics at Friends of Europe.

This publication is linked to our event on “Educating Girls” in February 2019.