Education 
'Investment in girls' education key against poverty'

- Investment in girls' education makes simple economic sense, said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. "No country has ever emerged from poverty without giving priority to education. And if education is the escape door from poverty, then girls' education is the key to that door." 

This coincides with an important meeting in London, convened by the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and International Development Secretary Clare Short, to develop an agenda for battling child poverty. Attendees include finance ministers from developing and industrialised countries, heads of UN agencies, NGOs and leading child rights advocates. 

- Bolstering girls' education is not a question of charity, but of laying the foundation for a thriving economy and a just society, said Ms. Bellamy, who will participate in the meeting. "Countries that have focused on gender equality, especially in education, have significantly strengthened their economies, including Costa Rica, Mauritius, Botswana, Malaysia and Sri Lanka." 

An estimated 120 million school age children, two-thirds of them girls, do not attend school. Education does more than help girls build skills. Compelling evidence shows that a child's wellbeing is strongly associated with the mother's level of education. 

Some facts: 

• Babies born to mothers without formal education are twice as likely to die before age five. 
• The same babies are four times more likely to be malnourished. 
• The fertility rate of women without education is, on average, 60 per cent higher than the rate of those who attended secondary school. 
• Uneducated women are more vulnerable to HIV.

While each country will need to adapt its programmes differently, UNICEF believes there are broad prescriptions for both developing and developed countries to follow. "The bottom line is that the donor countries must help insure that poor countries have adequate, predictable and sustained resources with which to build their educational base," said Ms. Bellamy. "And developing countries must spend these resources wisely."

Most poverty-stricken nations will not be able to meet these education goals without significant help from donor countries. An increase in official development assistance is vital. Debt relief, already underway in many countries, needs to be accelerated. And markets should be opened to goods from poorer countries so they can enjoy export-led growth. 

Developing countries must ensure that the increased resources are spent wisely by reformulating their budgets toward education. That means better pay, training and materials for teachers, investment in infrastructure and, crucially, the elimination of school fees. Creative programmes, like multi-grade classrooms, which make schooling possible in remote areas, are needed to bring more girls into school.

The total funding needed is manageable. Moreover, some of it can come from budget reallocation instead of additional resources. Achieving universal primary education in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, will require a sustained expansion of funding of 4.5 per cent per year over the next 15 years. South Asia requires an annual increase of 3 per cent. The total additional cost for universal education is US$ 10 billion, or less than 0.03 per cent of world GNP and less than 0.14 per cent of the combined GNP of developing countries.

UNICEF has long advocated that a vital component for reaching development targets is to increase the proportion of national budgets and international aid allotted to integrated basic social services. Currently developing countries devote only 12-14 per cent of their budgets to basic social services, while about 10 per cent of international aid goes to these same services. 

While poverty reduction may begin with children, UNICEF recognizes that it takes much more. Creating jobs, battling disease, building roads and bridges, providing access to credit, increasing exports - all are needed to build a solid base for development. But investing in children, and especially girls' education, is a pre-requisite for breaking the poverty cycle. 

Source: UNICEF

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