The cost of education to households is widely recognized as one of the major barriers to equitable access to education. In the present context of the global economic and financial crisis, increased vigilance should be given to supporting poor households in keeping their children in school and governments in enhancing poverty reduction strategies. School fee abolition lies at the core of these efforts. The School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI) was launched in 2005 by UNICEF and the World Bank (a more...

It focuses on how quality education may respond to the impact of HIV and AIDS on quality education provision and how to enhance the capacity of education systems to deal with the challenge HIV and AIDS poses. It advocates for education policy makers to commit to the global effort to curb the epidemic. The emphasis is on offering learning opportunities for all to develop the knowledge, skills, competencies, values and attitudes necessary to reduce the risk of transmission, to minimize the impact more...

'Every 10 seconds, somewhere in the world, a little girl is a victim of genital mutilation. Three million girls are excised every year. To mark the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM on 6 February 2008, more than 100 representatives of international organizations, civil society, media, diplomatic missions and the local authorities in Geneva gathered at The House of Parliaments to discuss ways of putting an end to this harmful practice. The IPU, the Département des Institutions de l’Et more...

Few women in Africa work in regular, formal sector jobs, and even those generally earn too little to escape from poverty.

'Because of deep-rooted gender inequalities, and because of the large population of South Asia, the region has the highest number of out-of-school girls in the world. This paper outlines some of the issues confronting practitioners, policy makers, and researchers in girls’ education in South Asia, and explores what they can do to move towards high-quality and gender-equitable education for all.'

Source: Oxfam

'Sub-Saharan Africa has some huge problems to resolve if it is to achieve gender equality in education, and fulfil the Millennium Development Goals related to education and gender. Conversely, the region also has some of the most innovative and enterprising examples of initiatives that promote gender equality in education. This paper focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and considers some of the most significant obstacles that African girls face in achieving the education that is their right. The paper more...

'In the mid-1980s, the Australian government embarked on the first initiative to analyse government budgets from a gender perspective. In 1995, South Africa and the Philippines became the second and third countries to attempt gender-responsive budget exercises. By 2003, there had been similar initiatives in more than sixty countries, spanning every continent. This paper uses the gender-responsive budgeting approach to explain how governments and donors can promote gender equality in education th more...

'Why do some countries succeed in promoting gender parity and equality in education while others do not? The answer often given is ‘political will’. All too often, however, no further explanation is offered. There has been little effort to understand why governments are unwilling or unable to change their policies and priorities to achieve equal access to education for girls and boys, as expressed in the third Millennium Development Goal. This paper considers the concept of political will an more...

'This paper illustrates the challenges involved in providing good-quality gender-equitable education for children who are beyond the reach of mainstream, formal education. It focuses on children of nomadic and pastoralist households, identifying specific issues in providing schooling for them, and drawing on lessons from approaches and initiatives by various agencies (government and non-government). The paper explores specific forms of discrimination that nomadic and pastoralist girls experience more...

'This paper highlights the fact that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) do not directly address the issue of adult basic education and literacy, in spite of these being essential for achieving the Millennium targets. It explores the potential of adult basic education with gender equality to be transformatory for individuals, and for groups working to address key issues, such as gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS. The role of governments and other key agencies in relation to gender equality more...