If the world's wealthy nations were serious about encouraging development in poor countries, they could achieve an excellent return on their investment by prioritising the education of girls and women. Nothing offers a greater guarantee of transforming the lives of individuals involved, their families, the economy of their countries and their society.
The UK Department for International Development recently released its 2010-15 education strategy, and it contained the following important statistics:
1) Every additional year of education for girls can cut infant mortality by 5-10%
2) Every additonal year of education can raise lifetime earnings in poor countries by 10%.
Taken with UN research on the impact of education on girls, it is clear that educated girls are more likely to have healthier children, too.
Put simply, education is the way to break the cycle of poverty into which poor families become trapped. This is hardly rocket science, but it seems we all need to be reminded that more complicated and expensive 'fixes' don't always achieve as much.
There is now extensive evidence from countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua and Cambodia that programmes that offer cash to parents who keep their children in school reaps massive benefits. This is especially helpful to girls, who are the ifrst to be kept home from school to do domestic and agricultural work or to care for unwell family members. (World Bank, "Conditional Cash Transfers: Reducing Present and Future Poverty")
Network for Africa is a registered charity working with communities in the aftermath of conflict and genocide. We especially focus on helping vulnerable women and children. Here we tell their stories.
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