Just over a year on from the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its associated 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Brookings Center for Universal Education, the Global Campaign for Education-US and the Global Education Monitoring Report team hosted the launch of the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) and Gender Review. The GEM report – hosted and published by UNESCO – provides an analysis of SDG 4 targets and respective indicators (inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities) as well as a consideration of the interaction of SDG 4 with all other SDGs on the sustainable development agenda.
There have been countless of studies about the importance of youth employment and entrepreneurship programs to educate and provide opportunity to youth in communities that really need it. There has also been studies that shows the importance of girls education and their involvement in such youth employment and entrepreneurship programs.
A recent campaign in Nepal put cameras in the hands of girls and young women to document, up close and personal, all of the quotidian actions that they are prohibited from while having their menstrual periods. The resulting photos provide a stunning and troubling catalog of menstruation-related discrimination.
In 2012 Mfariji Africa began as a small project distributing sanitary towels to girls in villages and marginalized areas in Kenya to reduce class absenteeism during menstruation. Over time the vision has expanded to improving the lives of Kenyan girls by helping them to stay in school and complete their education though different programs.
I wasn’t a huge video game player as a kid but I definitely appreciated a good game of Mario Brothers or Duck Hunt (I am clearly showing my age here). When I was really doing well, I would get a bonus--a "power up" --something extra that would help me immediately or later in the game. Supporting women and girls in reaching their dreams is like one big power up for the world.
By Carol Ann Emquies, Nina Hogan, and Jane Oppenheimer,
In 2014, President Jakaya Kikwete visited our first project, Ntulya Primary School, deeming it “a model school that should be copied throughout Tanzania." As we break ground on Milembe Girls Secondary School in nearby Iteja Village, the concept of an efficient, repeatable school drives our plans and execution. What makes a school model-worthy? After 8 years and a variety of building projects in rural Tanzania, we have come to learn there are varying essential elements that define what makes a school successful.
Every year children throughout the world miss 443 million days of school because of water-borne illness. We know that access to school is absolutely essential to a country’s sustainable development, and yet water insecurity and lack of sanitation places so many hurdles in the way that it becomes difficult to make headway toward educational goals.
Next up, math classes! The women of the two villages of Djangoula, in rural southwestern Mali, made the same request. Separately. Perhaps they had discussed the issue together. Perhaps their conclusions were reached independently.
They’d like to learn basic arithmetic, and sharpen their skill at accounting.
When I think of girls’ education in Africa, I dream of a continent where women and men are treated equally. I long for a continent where women are equal contributors to society; a continent where girls receive the same opportunities as their male counterparts so they can tap into their inherent potential. I would love to see every single girl have access to a free, quality education in Africa.
